A two-month investigation into child exploitation on the internet has led to seven arrests and a total of 34 charges in Windsor, Essex and Chatham in southwestern Ontario.
At a news conference Thursday morning, police said these southwestern, Ont., men were facing charges:
The charges include child luring, accessing and making child pornography available, and possession of child pornography. Police allege one man possessed about 500,000 images of children, of which 200,000 will likely be deemed child pornography.
More than 20 computers, 500 DVDs, various external drives and a variety of flash media were seized, police said.
"This is yet another indication of how pervasive and widespread the issue of child exploitation is in the province of Ontario and the rest of the world," said Frank Goldsmith, OPP co-ordinator for the child sexual exploitation section in Orillia.
Two members of the OPP's Orillia child exploitation unit were in Windsor to help with the sting.
Police said the men don't know each other and their alleged crimes were "unrelated."
Windsor Insp. Randy Gould said they haven't identified any local children who might be victims of exploitation, but that may change once investigators go through all the evidence seized Thursday. In one case, police found a man inviting a child to have sex via text messages.
"To stop the exploitation of the further distribution of the images is very important, but obviously if we can save a child that's in immediate danger, that's our top priority," said Gould.
The operation is part of a five-year-old provincial initiative to crack down on those who prey on children and circulate images of sexual abuse and child pornography over the internet. A joint task force involving the Windsor and Chatham-Kent Police forces as well as Ontario Provincial Police was set up when police uncovered the alleged online crimes.
The OPP-coordinated initiative helps regional police forces get training and equipment to help track down predators. Goldsmith said police have arrested 1,352 people and laid 4,016 charges related to child sexual exploitation since the program first began in 2006.
Windsor police Det. Jason Belanger said children are at significant risk of sexual exploitation on the internet, with the victims getting younger and younger, and the sexual abuse more violent.
"I think the provincial strategy co-ordinator a couple years ago reported 55,000 people trading child pornography online at once in the province of Ontario," Belanger said.
He called this week's seven arrests "the easy part" — now he and other investigators have to sift through the digital evidence, and as storage devices get bigger, so does his job.
Police say the images they come across are traded internationally, and parents need to teach kids how to protect themselves online.
"With two clicks of a mouse, children can be on a website or on a social network or on some form of chatline where they're talking to someone that they don't know," said OPP Insp. Scott Naylor.
Naylor said the anonymous nature of the internet means many predators are posing as school-aged children, and he recommended that parents be familiar with their children's online activity, keep computers in an open area of the house, and make sure kids don't reveal their identities online.
"If you wouldn't allow this person into your home then you shouldn't allow your children to be talking to them online," he said.
Police were reminding the public to continue to report cases of suspected child abuse, saying a report may lead to the rescue of a victim.
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