SAN DIEGO — Prosecutors in the United States and Europe announced Friday that they have arrested 20 people suspected of being part of a child pornography ring that involves parents swapping photos on the Internet of their children being sexually molested.
"This is the evil underbelly of child pornography that we hoped didn't exist," said San Diego Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Dort, a member of the local Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
In 80 percent of the pornographic images, the children were being molested by their own parents, officials said.
While there have been arrests in recent years involving large-scale rings that sell child pornography, the swapping of pictures for personal enjoyment is new, Dort and other investigators said.
The phenomenon also presents new challenges to law enforcement because, unlike the commercial rings, the parents are not prone to taking chances and use sophisticated encryption techniques to trade pictures with others.
Thirty-eight children in the United States and eight in Europe — ranging from two to 14 years — are believed to have been molested while their parents and others were making videos and taking still photographs, officials said. One video included the sound of the child crying.
Some of those receiving the pornography had requested that specific sex acts be performed, said U.S. Attorney John K. Vincent in Fresno, where the first U.S. case was uncovered.
In some cases, parents arranged for their children to have sex with other adults, according to the indictments.
"These crimes are beyond the pale," said U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Robert C. Bonner at a Washington news conference. "They are despicable and repugnant."
Nine U.S. citizens are charged: two in San Diego County, one in Fresno, and one each in Idaho, Texas, Florida, Washington, Kansas and South Carolina. The 10th, in Reno, Nev., committed suicide after being arrested. The 10 European arrests were made in Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, England and Germany.
More arrests are expected.
"We need to rescue children who are out there being molested," said Mike Unzueta, acting special agent in charge of the San Diego office of the Customs Service.
Although law enforcement officials believe they have greatly decreased the availability of over-the-counter child pornography in recent years, the amount of child pornography on the Internet has increased because of the possibility of anonymity and the difficulty of tracing buyers and sellers.
In 1998, the Customs Service established the Cyber Smuggling Center and has received more than 82,000 cyber tips of Internet "kiddie porn" trafficking. One such tip led to Danish, U.S. and Interpol forces cracking the swapping-ring that called itself The Club.
In November, the Danish National Police received information about photographs that "Save the Children," a watchdog group, had found on the Internet purportedly depicting a man sexually abusing a young girl.
Danish investigators arrested the man and his wife after learning the child was their 9-year-old daughter. The wife is the only woman among those charged. Danish police examined the man's computer and determined that images on its hard drive had been sent via Internet from other countries, including the United States.
Dubbed "Operation Hamlet" because of the Danish connection, the investigation led to the arrest in Fresno County of Lloyd Alan Emmerson, 45, a chiropractor with an office in Clovis, Calif. He has pleaded not guilty.
In San Diego, charges were filed against Paul Whitmore, 43, a licensed marriage and family counselor, and Brooke Rowland, 41, a salesman for a neon sign company. Both have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges and are set for trial in November.
They remain in jail on a bail set at $2 million each because of the possibility they might flee, prosecutor Dort said. The two are accused of molesting 12 children.
A defendant in Killeen, Texas, was convicted in July and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
In numerous cases, children have been taken into protective custody by child welfare officials or given to relatives, officials said.