A CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER has been arrested for sharing up to 100,000 indecent images of children through the social networking site Facebook.

Ian Green, a 45-year-old from West Sussex in the United Kingdom, admitted 24 charges of making, possessing and distributing indecent images of children.

Green was the ringleader of an international group who shared images online.

Chichester Crown Court heard that Green had set up 11 different Facebook accounts to distribute images, 724 of which were classed as “level five”, the most extreme.

Australian Federal Police

An Australian police operation began in March 2010 to investigate the ring. It traced a link to Green the UK. Investigators found that Green was enabling selected contacts to access the private groups where images were shared.

Green would allow access to the next group to users who demonstrated they were genuine – usually by adding their own images. The different groups displayed images and videos of escalating severity.

The investigation involved the FBI and police in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa and Australia.

Ian Green had already been jailed for 12 months in 2005 for distributing indecent images of children and committing acts of gross indecency with children.

Facebook

Facebook said that convicted sex offenders were not permitted access to the website, but that it was the responsibility of the authorities to inform them of people on the sex offenders register.

Some unconfirmed Australian reports have suggested that Facebook had been aware that image-sharing rings had been using the site, and had deleted users’ accounts, but had failed to inform the police.

However, Australian police have suggested the site was simply unable to monitor the sophisticated operation closely enough.

Neil Gaughan, the director of the Australian Federal Police High Tech Crime Centre, said in a statement:

We are aware that Facebook knew of the existence of these pages and even went so far as to remove the profiles… Facebook deactivated the online accounts of the initial suspects but there were indications that, within hours, the groups were re-forming again.

Gaughan added:

It is important that content service providers including Facebook constantly scan for child exploitation material, and then inform law enforcement of their findings