A man who federal prosecutors said was the creator and lead administrator of what’s thought to be the world’s largest child-pornography website has been sentenced to 30 years in prison, the FBI announced Friday.
Steven W. Chase, 58, of Naples, Florida, was sentenced this week in a federal courtroom in North Carolina on multiple child- pornography and child-exploitation charges.
Chase created a website called Playpen in August 2014 on Tor, an open network on the internet where users can communicate anonymously through ‘hidden service’ websites, the FBI said.
Nearly 900 suspected pedophiles have been arrested and almost 300 children identified or rescued from their abusers following the investigation that led to the Playpen’s takedown, according to the FBI and Europol.
Chase’s arrest in December 2014 set off a sweeping global probe into the users of the members-only forum.
Playpen was buried deep online in what is known as the ‘darknet,’ where Tor anonymity software and encryption hide often illegal activities.
The service had more than 150,000 users around the world, the FBI said. Members uploaded and viewed tens of thousands of postings of young victims, categorized by age, sex and the type of sexual activity involved.
The nearly 900 arrests included dozens of abusers and child pornography creators.