Police in Germany have uncovered and shut down one of the world's largest networks dedicated to child pornography and arrested four in connection with the platform.

The website called "Boystown" was only accessible through the Darknet and was created at least in June 2019, said the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office and the BKA Federal Police.

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On the illegal platform, more than 40,000 users across the globe shared child pornography content.

"Among the images and video recordings shared were also recordings of the most severe sexual abuse of young children," prosecutors said.

German police arrested four suspects between the age of 40 and 64, all German men, including a German citizen now detained in Paraguay by request of the German authorities and soon to be extradited to the European country.

Three are accused of operating and maintaining the platform, while one was identified by police as "one of the platform's most active users," with more than 3,500 contributions on the site.

The raids by the police that led to the arrests were the result of a months-long investigation led by a German task force working with Europol and authorities from the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, the U.S. and Canada.

"Boystown" has now been taken down, together with other related chat platforms.

_{Cover image: Reuters}