Prison the only place that suits pedophiles

Two left-behind children in Southwest China's Guizhou province, May 3, 2014. [Photo/IC]

A WEBSITE promoting pedophilia and inviting paid "members" has been shut down and its operators detained in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan province. Police in some cities have launched a crackdown on such websites after a video of a man groping under a teenage girl's dress at a railway station in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, went viral online. Beijing News commented on Thursday:

There is widespread public anger against pedophiles after the video of an 18-year-old molester "fondling" his stepsister, reportedly adopted by his parents, went viral after being posted online on Aug 12. Nanjing police have found the suspect after a court ordered his arrest, and further investigations are on.

The string of online reports, under real and adopted names, since the incident have forced the closure of the website and led to the busting of a pedophile ring with "membership" of people from almost all walks of life. Those running websites promoting pedophilia are known to coerce unattended children to pose for lewd photographs or make offensive videos, and sell them to the "paid members".

Finding these behind-the-scene players should not be very difficult for police, as enthusiastic netizens have exposed some pedophilia website operators, as well their cellphone numbers and transaction records. The suspects should be held accountable, and police should collect solid evidence against them to make sure they get due punishments.

A bigger question is: How to completely shut down this shady business?

Netizens' tips can be useful to find pedophiles, but more targeted, systematic efforts are needed identify such website operators. Law enforcers at all levels need the help of big data and other internet-driven technologies to trace the transaction records of websites promoting pedophilia and their "members". The fight against pedophiles must continue until all of them are brought to book.