German authorities bust child porn ring

Five of Germany's leading internet providers agreed today to block access to sites identified by national criminal investigators as hosting child pornography, as authorities reported the breakup of an international ring.

As part of the agreement, the Federal Criminal Office will send the internet providers a list of sites known to be sources for photographic material involving minors.

The providers then have six months to block the websites, with a red stop sign shown when anyone tries to access them.

Security officials in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said yesterday they had broken up an international child porn ring involving alleged users in some 91 nations, including Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United States.

German authorities also confiscated more than 500 computers and another 800 storage devices whose users authorities had been monitoring since last year.