Germany shuts down darknet child porn site, makes arrests

BERLIN – German authorities say they have shut down an online child porn site that had more than 87,000 members and arrested the man suspected of running it.

The Federal Criminal Police Office said Thursday the so-called darknet platform called ELYSIUM had been active since the end of 2016. It says the site was used to share pornography and to make arrangements for sexually abusing children.

Investigators identified a 39-year-old man from the central German state of Hesse, whose name wasn’t given, as the site’s administrator. He was arrested June 12 after his apartment was searched and the server seized.

The police office says an unspecified number of further suspects were arrested, largely in Germany and Austria.

Darknet sites can be visited only by using special software and aren’t visible to regular web users.