Suffolk Police joins investigation into child sex abuse site Kidflix as 30 people in UK arrested

Suffolk Police has played a role in an investigation into a German child sex abuse site, where users were encouraged to upload their own footage.

A total of 63 UK-based users of the dark web-based Kidflix were identified following the multi-national Operation Stream.

Kidflix, designed to resemble a well-known streaming service, contained an estimated 72,000 videos of child sexual abuse at the time it was taken down.

Police in Germany, where the investigation started, uncovered 1,275 users from around the world who had either paid for access using cryptocurrency or gained access by uploading their own material.

Those who provided abuse footage would earn site-specific credits, allowing them to access further material.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) was alerted by German authorities in February of the dozens of UK users, with 28 police forces across the country spurred into action.

To date, 30 UK residents have been arrested and Kidflix was taken down by German authorities.

Essex and Norfolk Police also joined the operation.

Neil Keeping, senior manager at the NCA, thanked law enforcement partners in Germany and Europol – the law enforcement agency of the European Union – for busting the site.

"NCA intelligence officers worked quickly to identify the UK users of the site, providing a package of intelligence to forces across the country so arrests could be made and children could be safeguarded,” he said.

"Providing this global to local response is paramount in our role to protect children from child sexual abuse and criminals who seek out this content.

"We will continue to work with international law enforcement partners to disrupt the online platforms that operate on the dark web, purely for the sexual gratification of offenders, and ensure children are safeguarded from abuse."

The investigation against Kidflix was led by the State Criminal Police of Bavaria (Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt) and the Bavarian Central Office for the Prosecution of Cybercrime (ZCB).

According to Europol, 1.8 million users worldwide logged on to the platform between April 2022 and March 2025 – and it marked the largest operation its experts had handled.

The authority said some of the 79 users arrested worldwide not only provided content but abused children themselves.

Nearly 1,400 users have now been identified, 3,000 devices seized and 39 children protected, it continued.

Europol said the site was created in 2021 and became popular among paedophiles, with an average of 3.5 videos uploaded per hour.

Unlike other platforms, Kidflix allowed users to both download and stream abuse material.