The Associated Press: Australia arrests 70 in child porn case

The investigation was triggered after a hacker posted 99 child porn images on a European Web site, which attracted 12 million hits in just 76 hours, including 2,800 from Australian computers, police said.

That's amazing.

Are people like that hacker really bored with his life? Geepers.

Here's a bit more detail on that 12 million hits...
The surfing habits that will bring a visit from the cops
The latest high-profile pedophile bust began when a hacker infiltrated a respectable European website and placed 99 degrading and explicit images of young girls from eastern Europe, the US and Paraguay. The site got 12 million hits worldwide in the few days that followed. Almost 150,000 different computer users from 170 countries accessed the obscure site, including Australians using 2883 computer IP addresses. Australian authorities have since seized more than 1 million child exploitation images and uncovered 90 alleged local offenders.

Wow! That's crazy!

I figured someone else here would know the significance of those figures. A web site getting that many unsolicited and unadvertised visitors in 3 days is insane.

12 million hits on a child porn site really makes you think about all the pedophiles out there who have so far managed to escape justice.

Here's hoping those Aussie ones will be castrated and incarcerated for the rest of their miserable lives.

That's just it, it wasn't a specific child porn site. It was a hack. That through their underground network managed to spread to that many people in less than 3 days.

It's not illegal to be a pedophile...yet.

And I doubt Australia castrates people for possession of child porn.

Possession of child pornography carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Most people convicted of having child porn get a suspended sentence.

And no, it isn't illegal to be a pedophile. What is illegal is the action. Once a pedophile harms a child, then it becomes illegal.

Our wonderful country has already given a convicted child molester the right to appeal his sentence. Gotta love Australia, huh?

I agree with you that child molestation is a heinous horrible act. But in this case, they said it included pictures of "children" up to age 18. If pictures of kids that age is to be considered prosecutable child porn, you have f'd up situations like this one.
Teen Nabbed For Naked MySpace Photos - May 21, 2008
While he may be a young asshole. "Child porn"?

I'm all for protecting the "innocent", but just as you can charge "children" as young as 13 and 14 as "adults", not ALL "children" have innocent mentalities. And sexuality is a much stronger urge than crime. And easier to do.

My question is why are they referring to this guy as a hacker? What did he hack? How much skill is involved with posting pictures? I mean, seriously...

It is ridiculous how the American media continues to develop the term hacker in a negative way, when it is not at all a negative thing.

One more reason to not trust the news media.