Elysium (website)

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Elysium
child pornographic website
languages English
user over 111,000 user accounts
Registration mandatory
On-line Beginning of 2017 to June 2017 (currently offline)

Elysium was a website in the darknet ( hidden service ) on which child pornography was distributed in the form of image and video material and which offered chats and a forum . The name refers to Elysion , paradise in Greek mythology . The website had an international focus, had 111,000 user accounts and was one of the largest of its kind in the world. In June 2017, it was shut down by the German investigative authorities.

Investigations

At the beginning of 2017, the Australian police took over the account of the moderator of the website The Giftbox Exchange on the Darknet and came across a German who was already planning Elysium. The Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) in Gießen, a special unit of the Public Prosecutor's Office in Frankfurt am Main - Department VI - took over the investigation. In June 2017, the Elysium website was shut down by the authorities. So far, 14 suspects and 29 victims have been identified and images have been found that point to perpetrators in Germany. A difficulty for the authorities was that there was no automatic comparison with the child porn database of the child protection organization NCMEC in Germany, as this was prohibited by German postal secrecy.

Trial and verdict

In May 2018, the Public Prosecutor's Office in Frankfurt am Main brought charges against the operators. In August 2018 began in Limburg an der Lahn , the trial of the four main parties involved men held in Germany who are in custody were. From then on it was assumed that those involved in Germany played an important role for the platform. In October 2018, the lawyers failed with an application for a ban on the use of evidence .

The perpetrators should be sentenced to several years ' imprisonment and a reduction in sentences because they have shown themselves to be cooperative with the authorities. For the administrator of the website one should preventive detention are placed. On March 7, 2019, the verdict was announced. Although the defense pleaded for lighter sentences and sometimes acquittals, the prison terms for the four perpetrators ranged from three years to ten months and nine years and nine months. Preventive detention was approved.

Perpetrators and statements

The four main participants were:

Only 41-year-old Frank M. admitted pedophile tendencies. He stated that he was a secret hacker in the fight against child pornography websites, but was conspicuous because of his lack of IT knowledge and his perpetrator behavior. Another stated that he was only interested in the technology behind the platform, but not in child pornography itself. Frank M. chatted several times with the perpetrator Christian L., who was identified in the Staufen abuse case, in order to prevent worse things from happening.

Victims and website content

As of July 2017: 13 of the at least 29 victims identified so far were from Austria , an unknown number from Germany. Some of the victims were younger than 4 years and were abused by the users of the platform themselves. Material was offered by male and female babies up to 12 year old children. The offer ranged from nude pictures, cam recordings, softcore and hardcore recordings to fetishes and violence.

Consequences and aftermath

The Hessian Justice Minister Eva Kühne-Hörmann ( CDU ) said that Germany is a large market for child pornography on the Internet. The minister stated that computer-generated child pornography could be used for investigation in the future. Meanwhile, the number of victims is increasing who agree that their material in circulation may be used for investigation. The debate on data retention was also re-initiated by Internet providers who are supposed to store user data for up to 10 weeks. However, this has also triggered a lot of criticism in the past and violates European law .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Ansgar Siemens: Fight against child pornography: What investigators are allowed to do - and what not . In: Spiegel Online . August 4, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).
  2. ↑ hessenschau de, Frankfurt Germany: Further days of negotiation in the child pornography process "Elysium". November 18, 2018, accessed on March 3, 2019 (German).
  3. ^ Arno Frank: Limburg: Four men in court for child porn platform "Elysium". In: Spiegel Online . August 2, 2018, accessed April 26, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b c 15 9 p.m., July 7, 2017: Child pornography: Operation Elysium : 14 suspects, 29 victims. July 7, 2017, accessed March 3, 2019 .
  5. ↑ heise online: Child porn platform "Elysium": charges against four men. Retrieved March 3, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Ernst Götti: The Gothic verbs of movement . DE GRUYTER, Berlin, Boston 1974, ISBN 978-3-11-084518-1 ( hessenschau.de [accessed on March 3, 2019]).
  7. ↑ heise online: "Elysium": Imprisonment in the process for child porn platform required. Retrieved March 3, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Child porn platform: Prosecution calls for imprisonment for alleged "Elysium" operators . In: Spiegel Online . February 28, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).
  9. ^ WORLD: The court speaks rulings on the child porn platform "Elysium" . March 3, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).
  10. ^ Child porn platform: defendants in the "Elysium" trial sentenced to imprisonment . In: Spiegel Online . March 7, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 7, 2019]).
  11. ↑ ZEIT ONLINE: Elysium: Long prison sentences in the process of child porn platform . In: The time . March 7, 2019, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed March 7, 2019]).
  12. ↑ hessenschau de, Frankfurt Germany: imprisonment in child porno trial required. February 28, 2019, accessed March 3, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Passauer Neue Presse: Court speaks rulings on child porn platform "Elysium". Retrieved March 3, 2019 .
  14. ^ Constantin van Lijnden , Limburg: Child pornography platform: The fathers of Elysium . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed March 3, 2019]).
  15. ↑ Arno Frank: "Elysium" process: How the administrator explains his involvement. In: Spiegel Online . August 22, 2018, accessed April 26, 2020 .
  16. ↑ hessenschau de, Frankfurt Germany: Operator of the child porn platform "Elysium" accused. May 15, 2018, accessed on March 3, 2019 (German).
  17. ↑ WORLD: The child pornography platform "Elysium" offered each perversion its own forum . August 2, 2018 ( welt.de [accessed March 3, 2019]).