British authorities have arrested dozens of people who organized and paid to watch the sexual abuse of children while it was live-streamed in the Philippines.
In partnership with the U.S. and Australia, Britain's National Crime Agency arrested 11 people in the Philippines who organized the online viewings and another 18 people across 12 countries who paid to watch the abuse, the NCA said in a Wednesday statement.
Some of the live-streaming was organized by the family of the abused children, USA Today reported. Fifteen children ranging from ages 6 to 15 were saved.
"This investigation has identified some extremely dangerous child sexual offenders who believed paying for children to be abused to order was something they could get away with," the said Andy Baker, deputy director of the NCA's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Unit, USA Today reported.
"Being thousands of miles away makes no difference to their guilt. In my mind they are just as responsible for the abuse of these children as the contact abusers overseas," Baker said.
The investigation began in 2012 after a standard visit to the house of a registered sex offender in England's Northhamptonshire county, USA Today reported. Authorities found "indecent videos" on computers inside the home, CNN reported. The investigation led to the Philippines, where the abuse was filmed in front of web cams.
The "use of web cams to stream live abuse, particularly from the developing world, is a significant and emerging threat," the NCA statement said, USA Today reported.
According to the NCA, it is difficult to apprehend international perpetrators who use computers to carry out sex crimes because of the anonymous nature of the Internet, CNN reported. This is especially true for the Philippines, which has high rates of poverty and citizens who know how to use technology.
"A vast and comparatively wealthy overseas customer base has led to organized crime groups exploiting children for financial gain," the NCA said, CNN reported.
Other ongoing NCA investigations have uncovered 733 more suspects around the world involved in live-streaming sexual abuse, CNN reported.
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