Teenagers arrested for creating secret groups to sell child porn clips

Cyber police arrest teenagers who created a secret group to sell child porn clips, found evidence of hundreds of thousands of files, making over 30,000 baht per month. Following the investigation by the Anti-Child Sexual Abuse on the Internet Group of the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TICAC), which discovered that someone had posted an advertisement inviting the general public to join a secret group used for distributing online pornographic media, an undercover agent was asked to try joining the group by transferring money into the bank account of the group administrator. The administrator then pulled them into 6 closed LINE groups. Within the groups, a large amount of child pornography was found. Later, Pol. Lt. Gen. Worawat Watnakornbancha, Commander of the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD), ordered officers to investigate the case. Evidence was later collected to request a search warrant from the court to search the target, which was believed to be the house of the group's owner. Un til August 16, 2024, Pol. Col. Runglert Khanchan, Director of the Anti-Child Sexual Abuse on the Internet Group, TOT, led a team of officers under his command to jointly bring a search warrant from the Phichit Provincial Court to search a house in the Pak Thang area, Nai Mueang Subdistrict, Mueang Phichit District, Phichit Province. They found Mr. Pongkun, aged 20, living in the house. They were able to seize evidence of 1 iPhone mobile phone and 1 desktop computer inside the house. From the examination of the information in the device, two LINE application accounts were found to be used as admins for secret groups, which were secret groups used to distribute both Thai and foreign pornographic media, consisting of both adults and children, totaling 90 groups. In addition, more than 100,000 folders containing video clips and pornographic images were found in the computer. The police therefore arrested Mr. Pongkun on charges of 'introducing into the computer system and forwarding any computer data that is obsc ene in nature and such computer data may be accessible to the general public', 'possessing and forwarding child pornography for the purpose of sexually exploiting oneself or others', and 'for the purpose of trade or by trading or distributing in any manner child pornography'. Initially, the suspect admitted that he was the owner of the secret group, having been doing it for about 2 years. The service fee was charged based on how many groups members wanted to join. For example, if they wanted to join all 6 groups, they had to pay a membership fee of 900 baht. If they wanted to join only some groups, he would reduce the price, with a minimum rate of 100 baht per group. This allowed him to earn 20,000-30,000 baht per month. It is estimated that he has earned a total of 800,000 baht over the past 2 years. The police officers therefore took him to the investigation officer for legal proceedings. Source: Thai News Agency