Two men in New Taipei City were indicted yesterday on charges of possession of child pornography amid a joint investigation with US authorities.
Prosecutors said that the suspects, surnamed Ho (何), 37, and Wen (溫), 30, had breached provisions of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例).
Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) officials said that they were contacted in August last year by US authorities regarding Operation Centurion Plus, which monitors large-volume child pornography activity online, including file-sharing activities.
FBI officials, who compiled a list of 100 cases, said that Nos. 30 and 33 were based in Taiwan and asked the CIB to investigate further.
After months of monitoring, CIB cybercrime officers said they identified Ho and Wen as suspects operating in residences in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang (新莊) and Banciao (板橋) districts respectively.
CIB and New Taipei City police obtained search warrants and raided the two residences in February, during which they discovered about 20 terabytes of allegedly objectionable videos and files on two computers and six hard drives, CIB officials said.
Most of the files depicted sex acts between children and adults, with the majority appearing to originate from the US, Europe or Southeast Asia, while others were of young boys and girls having sex, CIB officials said.
Ho and Wen admitted downloading the videos using peer-to-peer software, but claimed to not be pedophiles, only acting out of curiosity, CIB officials said.
They claimed the material was for their own use and denied abusing any children — creating child pornography or selling the material, the officials said.
People who distribute or broadcast photographs or videos depicting a child or youth engaging in sexual intercourse or obscene acts face a maximum prison term of three years and a fine of up to NT$5 million (US$161,415), prosecutors said.
End Children Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes handled 1,646 cases of online child pornography last year and the organization said that was triple the number in 2016.
There were more than 1,000 reported attempts by adults on social media or chat apps to obtain nude or explicit images of children, a fivefold increase from 2016, the organization said.
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