Ensnaring children in the dark web
Girls as young as nine to 15 are first targeted on different social media, especially Instagram, and then they are provoked by different sexual content.
Once the child responds, she is then blackmailed for nude videos and photographs that could be sold on the dark web in exchange for bitcoins.
This is how people involved in child pornography usually get their dirty job done.
Upon receiving a complaint on Facebook from a victim in the United States against such child pornographers, the digital forensic team of cybercrime unit of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) arrested three Bangladeshi men.
The arrestees are Borhan Uddin, 26, his cousin Abdullah Al Mahmud, 25, and Ovi Hossain, 25.
Speaking to The Daily Star, Ishtiaq Ahmed, assistant commissioner of the CTTC forensic team unit, said they arrested the three from the capital's Sabujbagh, Rampura and Pallabi areas during a special drive.
The arrestees then gave their confessional statements under section 164 before a Dhaka court on Sunday, he said.
Police also recovered around 3,316 photos and videos of 45 juvenile girls, sex toys and a "manual" about how to convince a girl to provide nude content, he said.
Of the victims, 3 are Bangladeshis and 42 others are from the US, the United Kingdom and Australia.
According to officials, a 15-year-old US girl first filed a complaint against Ovi on November 20 last year through the Facebook page of the CTTC's cybercrime unit.
Two months later, on February 2 of this year, another 14-year-old US girl filed a complaint on Facebook against Borhan.
In the complaint, the girl mentioned that Borhan had been using her as a victim of child pornography for the past five years.
The unit also received five other complaints from local and international law enforcement agencies, said officials.
In the confessional statement, Borhan told the court that he started using social media site Instagram using a fake female ID in 2015, through which he was connected to a secret group for watching pornographic photos and videos.
After noticing Borhan's activities in the group, the admin included him into another secret group called, which provided the manual with a 13-point task list about how to trick girls into providing nude content, court sources quoted Borhan as saying.
Borhan was then advised to open an account in the dark web using a separate browser at the cost of around 0.002 bitcoin -- a crypto currency. The present value of 1 bitcoin is around Tk 9.72 lakh.
Borhan's task was to send private messages to different minor girls and if anyone responded, then to apply the 13-point task list to convince them to send small nude video clips and photos, Borhan told the court.
Once the victims sent videos and photos, he would upload them on secret Instagram groups and on the dark web for trade.
Borhan later included his cousin Mahmud one and half years ago.
If any victim sent content once or twice and then refused to send more, the accused used to threaten them of releasing the photos or videos on different websites, court sources said.
Similarly, Ovi also used to instigate children and teenagers after connecting with them through different dating sites and social media profiles.
AC Ishtiaq Ahmed said that the ultimate goal of these syndicate members were to collect bitcoins through the dark web by selling pornography.
"We are now trying to get details of the arrestees' associates by analysing their data and cellphones. We may be able to give a clear statement after we get the forensic reports of the arrestees' cell phones," he said.
Ishtiaq further suggested that guardian check what their children are doing on social media sites and remain alert regarding whether they are becoming victims of child pornography.
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