wired collaborated with Der Spiegel, recorder and washington post About this report. Each wrote separate articles and agreed to be published in parallel by news organizations. This story contains depictions of abuse, self-harm, murder, and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.
It sounds like a cheesy true crime conspiracy. An international network of satanic predators lures children from seemingly innocuous online platforms like Discord, Minecraft, and Roblox and coerces them into sexual exploitation and serious harm. Some victims are even driven to suicide.
Except it’s true.
Reporting consortium including der spiegel,recorder, of washington post, and WIRED unearthed a vast ecosystem that used some of the internet’s biggest platforms to target thousands of people and victimize dozens, if not hundreds, of children. Did. Law enforcement agencies say this “com” network has thousands of people, including hundreds of hardcore members who victimize children through organized online campaigns such as extortion, identity harvesting, swatting, and harassment. We believe that it contains a set of interlocking groups in which users participate.
The reporting consortium captured and analyzed more than 3 million messages from more than 50 chat groups on Discord and Telegram. This message exposes multiple com subgroups and thousands of users in nearly 12 countries on 3 continents. Our investigation found ample evidence of predatory behavior and a persistent presence across apps including Telegram and Discord. WIRED also discovered his com activity on Instagram, SoundCloud, and Roblox. The platform is aware of these groups but has not yet been able to eradicate them.
com The abuse by group members is extreme. They force children to sexually abuse and self-harm, inflicting deep lacerations on their bodies and carving “cut signs” of their abusers’ online aliases into their skin. Victims may flush their heads in the toilet, attack siblings, kill pets, and in extreme cases attempt or commit suicide. Participants in the network have also been charged with robbery, interpersonal sexual abuse of minors, kidnapping, weapons violations, physical assault, and murder, according to court records in the United States and European countries.
Some members of the network blackmail children for sexual pleasure, while others coerce them for purposes of power and control. Some people do it just for the stimulation they get from the operation. Extortion Some merchants sell explicit content produced by CSAM on the dark web.
“Their main goal is to traumatize you,” says Anna, a young woman who was groomed and victimized by 764, one of the most notorious groups under the Com umbrella. “They want to make you suffer. And take your own life. They are really very sadistic people.”
The nonprofit National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received hundreds of reports of minors being blackmailed into self-harm in 2023, said Fallon McNulty, director of NCMEC’s CyberTipline. This is a sharp increase compared to the previous year. The organization, which forwards tips from social media companies and the public to law enforcement, continues to receive dozens of calls each month.
“The scale of the damage appears to have continued to grow, especially from 2022 to last year,” McNulty said, adding that NCMEC had confirmed only “a handful” of such extortion reports in 2022.
She says these online groups are responsible for “some of the most egregious reports of online seduction we’re seeing in terms of children being coerced.”
