Shocking revelations of pedophiles’ actions on the internet were made by head of Electronic Crime Unit Manolis Sfakianakis in Parliament.
Speaking before the Parliamentary Committee of Cultural Affairs he stated that “there are ten cases of children, in Athens alone, who were seduced by a pedophile through the “Dress Up Doll” web game and were found by their parents taking nude selfies in the toilet.
Furthermore, Mr. Sfakianakis said that during 2011 and 2014 there were 271 people discovered and accused of child pornography. He also added that in eight years alone, his Unit prevented 1,060 suicides, out of which only 36 led to the ER.
He recounted that: “I was in New York. They tell me something is going on in my country with a girl who is hurting herself in real-time. I enter the channel and I see her. I notify the Unit immediately, they locate her and pass it on to DIAS (rapid response police unit) and EKAV (ambulance service), who were able to save the girl at the last minute. The FBI gave us an award for that alone”.
He also said that “we simulated cyber attacks during elections and while the ministry and the Police was under cyber-attack, we were on top of it”. He added that “there is a TLO program which scans all of the Hellenic internet and anything that is flagged as child pornography or something of note pops up on our screens. We have the stamp and approval of the Supreme Court for this and we are assured it does not violate privacy”.
His report, however, that he has the ability to track down people who are threatening others’ lives, but he is not allowed to do so, is cause for concern.
