Tag: child abuse

FBI opens probe into over 350 suspected members of sadistic ‘764’ group accused of targeting children online

The FBI has announced the launch of a probe into “764,” an online group of nihilistic violent extremists who carry out sadistic criminal conduct, including child exploitation and sexual extortion.

According to a recent press release from the Department of Justice (DOJ), members of the 764 group “use known online social media communications platforms as mediums to support the possession, production, and sharing of extreme gore media and child sex abuse material with vulnerable, juvenile populations.”

“These individuals often conduct coordinated extortions of teenagers, blackmailing the victims to comply with the group’s demands,” the DOJ’s release added.

Members often target unsuspecting children online, utilizing blackmail and extortion to coerce them into sending sexually explicit images or harming themselves or others.

“For nearly 20 hours, they attacked, threatened, terrorized, dismantled my child. Every time he tried to fight back and ask why are you doing this to me, please leave me alone, they escalated,” stated Ohio resident Tamia Woods, a mother whose 17-year-old son committed suicide after having an encounter with the group in 2022.

“James was the victim of financial sextortion, and though he died by suicide, let’s be clear: he was murdered,” she stated. “In those last moments, my son, who had everything to live for, felt like he had no other choice.”

The FBI revealed that the bureau is currently investigating over 350 subjects in connection with the group, after two alleged leaders were arrested and charged in April.

21-year-old Leonidas “War” Varagiannis, a United States citizen residing in Thessaloniki, Greece, and 20-year-old Prasan “Trippy” Nepal of High Point, North Carolina, were the individuals arrested in the April sting.

Varagiannis and Nepal “directed, participated in, and otherwise caused the production and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and the defendants facilitated the grooming, manipulation, and extortion of minors,” according to a DOJ release at the time.

“Varagiannis and Nepal allegedly ordered their victims to commit acts of self-harm and engaged in psychological torment and extreme violence against minors. The affidavit alleges that the group targeted vulnerable children online, coercing them into producing degrading and explicit content under threat and manipulation. This content includes ‘cut signs’ and blood signs’ through which young minors would cut symbols into their bodies.”

If convicted, both Nepal and Varagiannis face life in prison.

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SHOCK: Ohio Democrat Sworn into City Council Seat Hours After Arrest on Sex Abuse Charges Involving Children

Ohio Democrat Gerald Dixon was sworn into office for a second term on the Whitehall City Council on Tuesday, just hours after he was released from custody on his own recognizance following his arrest on child sex abuse charges. Dixon denies the charges.

The 64-year-old Dixon, who said this year he has been a Democrat since 1980, overwhelmingly won a second term to the nonpartisan Whitehall City Council Ward 1 seat in November with nearly 70 percent of the vote. Whitehall is a suburb of Columbus.

WBNS-TV showed dueling video images of Dixon at his bond hearing Tuesday and being sworn in just hours after his release:

Excerpt from the Columbus Dispatch report on Dixon:

A Whitehall City Council member charged with sexually abusing several boys since the 1990s is denying the charges and has taken his oath of office for another term in council chambers.

Gerald Dixon was arrested and charged Dec. 8 by Whitehall police, accused of sexually abusing at least eight boys since 1996. On Dec. 9, a Franklin County Municipal Court judge released Dixon from the Franklin County jail on his own recognizance as he was deemed not a threat to flee.

Hours later, Dixon appeared in Whitehall City Council chambers as scheduled to take his oath of office, having been reelected to another four-year term in the Nov. 4 election to represent the city’s 1st Ward.

Dixon has been charged with felony counts of gross sexual imposition and compelling prostitution. Whitehall police said Dixon’s arrest was part of a larger investigation and that he had been under investigation since 2020, before he was elected to City Council. Whitehall police were assisted by the FBI, police said Dec. 9 during a press conference the day after Dixon’s arrest.

WCMH-TV reported the case could go back decades (excerpt):

Police say they have evidence that a Whitehall city councilman spent years and perhaps decades grooming underage victims, leading to his arrest Monday night on felony charges.

Allegations that Gerald Dixon was grooming boys were brought to police’s attention in late 2020, with an investigation beginning in mid 2023, Chief Mike Crispen said Tuesday morning.

“The evidence is pretty overwhelming. And this started long before he was on council,” Crispen said. “I’m not sure if he was aware that we were looking at him, but certainly we were before he ever became a councilmember.”

At least eight victims have come forward, and police said they often exhibited signs of sexual victimization, both mentally and physically, which halted some to share their full experiences with Dixon. Dixon, 64, who has served since 2021, is facing felony charges of gross sexual imposition and compelling prostitution.

…Dixon is being accused of requesting victims to perform sexually explicit acts and of paying an underage, cognitively impaired individual to perform sexual acts. The investigation into Dixon stretched past Ohio into New York and Michigan, prompting Whitehall police to reach out to the FBI.

Dixon was arrested Monday about 6 p.m. without incident. During a search, electronic devices were found with explicit material and writings as well as drawings of young boys. Detectives described it as a “hoarder house,” Crispen said.

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Wizz, the ‘Tinder for kids’ app, exposes kids to predators. Congress must act.

An app called “Wizz” has been making headlines lately for connecting minors with sexual predators. Many have described this app as a “Tinder for kids.” It’s the same iconic swipe right-swipe left functionality, and the same purpose of meeting up with strangers — only this time, targeted at both teens and adults.  

What’s the result of this app design? A12-year-old girl meeting up with a supposed 14-year-old boy that Wizz connected her with … only to discover the “boy” was an adult male, who sexually assaulted her. 

An 8th grader being sexually abused by a 27-year-old man, then finding out she was only one of several underage girls he had groomed through Wizz.

An 11-year-old girl being sexually assaulted by a U.S. Marine she met on Wizz. 

All this in the last year alone. And there are many more cases.  

As reports of Wizz facilitating child sexual abuse continue to pile up, something must change with the app itself and more broadly when it comes to online child safety.   

Just a few years back, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation urged app stores to remove Wizz on account of the rampant sexual exploitation occurring on the platform. Within 36 hours, both Google Play and the Apple App Store agreed. Later on, Wizz was reinstated, with what appeared to be a number of new safety tools.  

As time went by, however, it became abundantly clear that Wizz was not as safe as it seemed. If the continued reports of sexual exploitation weren’t convincing enough, the New York Post reported on what happened when the company’s safety tools were directly pressure tested. 

Although Wizz claims to have robust age verification, a 52-year-old man said he was able to create an account as a 15-year-old. How? Because even though the age verification tech flagged this man’s profile for review, he said that Wizz moderators went ahead and approved it within minutes.

This is even worse than not having any age verification to begin with.

Wizz made claims of safety by boasting about tools like age verification — but behind the scenes, they actually directly overrode the concerns flagged by these tools.

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Governor candidate James Fishback faces allegations over relationship, began when partner was a minor

Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback is facing allegations from a former partner regarding a relationship that began when she was a minor, according to documents filed in a 2025 Leon County court case. The woman, now an adult, made the claims while recounting events that took place years earlier.

The allegations were outlined in a Petition for Injunction for Protection Against Stalking filed by Keniah Fort in January 2025. Fort stated that she joined Fishback’s organization in 2021 at age 16, while Fishback was 26, and that he initiated a romantic relationship with her while she was still a minor. She said he explicitly instructed her to keep the relationship secret, a tactic some experts might describe as grooming.

Documents show Fort alleged her relationship with Fishback escalated over time. In Spring of 2023, she said she and Fishback began to live together, during which she was financially dependent on him due to irregular pay from her work in his organization.

The petition describes repeated conflicts and aggressive behavior, including Fishback throwing objects, screaming, and on one occasion grabbing Fort’s arm, leaving visible marks. Fort alleged Fishback tried to gaslight her and threatened self-harm to manipulate her.

By March of 2024, the couple became engaged, but the engagement ended in September of that year. Fort said that after the breakup, Fishback’s behavior worsened. She made claims of cyberbullying and stalking, including threatening to turn off utilities in their shared home and posting about the breakup on social media,

The petition also included references to text messages and other communications, alleging that Fishback sent hundreds of messages over several days, repeatedly contacting her after she asked him not to, and contacted her family. According to documents, Fishback acknowledged in some messages that he had been “tough” on her but denied threatening her.

The court ultimately denied Fort’s petition for protection in June 2025, noting that Fishback may have been “a little obsessive-compulsive” but did not initiate contact “directly or indirectly with no legitimate purpose.”

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Satanic child sex abuse ring is busted by police in Australia – as four men are charged over their involvement

A Sydney-based satanic child sex abuse material ring has been busted by police, who have charged four men over their alleged involvement. 

Among those charged is Landon Ashton Versace Germanotta-Mills, 26, who was arrested at an apartment in Waterloo in the city of Sydney on Thursday 

Police allege Germanotta-Mills played a leading role in the paedophile network, which traded shocking abuse material.

Detectives from the sex crimes squad established Strike Force Constantine to investigate the online distribution of child sexual abuse material involving ritualistic or satanic themes. 

During the investigation, police uncovered the Sydney-based network which was actively involved in possessing, distributing and facilitating the material via a ‘website administered internationally’. 

Detectives, along with the riot squad, executed six search warrants on Thursday in Waterloo, Ultimo and Malabar. 

Germanotta-Mills, a self-appointed independent investigative journalist, was arrested in a zebra-print outfit, covering his face with a blue beanie. 

He was charged with child abuse offences including seven counts of using a carriage service to make child abuse available, use carriage service to access child abuse material, three counts of possessing child abuse data-use carriage service, two counts of disseminating bestiality material and possessing bestiality material. 

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Rosie O’Donnell Admits She Has Given Her Autistic Son TDS — Says He Slams the Table in Anger at Trump’s Name

Rosie O’Donnell’s far-left politics appear to be rubbing off on her son.

In an interview with former CNN host Jim Acosta, the exiled comedienne admitted her 12-year-old Clay, who is both autistic and transgender, would often bang his hands on the table in frustration when talking about President Trump.

“My daughter is now saying, ‘D*mn him, d*mn Trump,’” O’Donnell remarked, referring to her son as a girl. “And smashing her hand on the table.”

“And I said, ‘Wow, honey, what are you thinking?’ And she said, ‘He made us move in order for our own safety! And it’s now he’s destroying the country!’”

“She lives here, she hears what I’m saying to you. Not that I go around speaking like this every day if it is not an interview. But I think to myself, ‘You don’t want to give this to her.’”

”Whatever this thing is, of me thinking that I somehow have to stand in defiance of him,” she continued. “I don’t, somebody can tap me out. I did 22 years, I don’t really need to do anymore.”

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Colombia says 17 minors rescued from Jewish cult Lev Tahor amid abuse allegations

Colombian authorities said Sunday they had rescued 17 minors from Lev Tahor, an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect under investigation for alleged child sex abuse.

“We have rescued 17 boys, girls and teens,” the country’s immigration service said on X, posting pictures of some of the children with their faces blurred or shielded from view.

Five of the minors rescued were identified as missing persons whom Interpol had issued “yellow notices” to find, authorities said.

Founded in Jerusalem in the 1980s, Lev Tahor — literally, “pure heart” in Hebrew — has been dogged by allegations of child abuse for years, and Israel and others have called it a cult. Its leader is in prison for kidnapping children.

A group called Lev Tahor Survivors has estimated the sect’s membership at several hundred people and says it is led by a core cohort, with the rest being held mostly against their will.

The group adheres to an extreme, idiosyncratic interpretation of Judaism and kosher dietary laws that largely shields members from the outside world.

Women and girls above the age of 3 are required to dress in black robes that completely cover their bodies, leading some to call the group the “Jewish Taliban.” The men spend most of their days in prayer and studying specific portions of the Torah.

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Court Filings Allege Meta Downplayed Risks to Children and Misled the Public

Sex trafficking on Meta platforms was both difficult to report and widely tolerated, according to a court filing unsealed Friday. In a plaintiffs’ brief filed as part of a major lawsuit against four social media companies, Instagram’s former head of safety and well-being Vaishnavi Jayakumar testified that when she joined Meta in 2020 she was shocked to learn that the company had a “17x” strike policy for accounts that reportedly engaged in the “trafficking of humans for sex.” 

“You could incur 16 violations for prostitution and sexual solicitation, and upon the 17th violation, your account would be suspended,” Jayakumar reportedly testified, adding that “by any measure across the industry, [it was] a very, very high strike threshold.” The plaintiffs claim that this testimony is corroborated by internal company documentation.

The brief, filed by plaintiffs in the Northern District of California, alleges that Meta was aware of serious harms on its platform and engaged in a broad pattern of deceit to downplay risks to young users. According to the brief, Meta was aware that millions of adult strangers were contacting minors on its sites; that its products exacerbated mental health issues in teens; and that content related to eating disorders, suicide, and child sexual abuse was frequently detected, yet rarely removed. According to the brief, the company failed to disclose these harms to the public or to Congress, and refused to implement safety fixes that could have protected young users.  

“Meta has designed social media products and platforms that it is aware are addictive to kids, and they’re aware that those addictions lead to a whole host of serious mental health issues,” says Previn Warren, the co-lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the case. “Like tobacco, this is a situation where there are dangerous products that were marketed to kids,” Warren adds. “They did it anyway, because more usage meant more profits for the company.” 

The following allegations against Meta come from the brief filed in an unprecedented multidistrict litigation. More than 1,800 plaintiffs—including children and parents, school districts, and state attorneys general—have joined together in a suit alleging that the parent companies behind Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube “relentlessly pursued a strategy of growth at all costs, recklessly ignoring the impact of their products on children’s mental and physical health,” according to their master complaint. The newly unsealed allegations about Meta are just one small part of the sprawling suit. 

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FBI Targets ‘764’ Network That Preys on Victims as Young as 9

FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on Nov. 20 that taking down the “764” network—which grooms and coerces minors on gaming and social media platforms—has become one of the bureau’s highest priorities, with hundreds of active investigations into the criminal acts of the “heinous” group.

Patel said in a Nov. 20 statement that the FBI is fully committed to cracking down on the criminal network. He urged parents to monitor their children’s internet activity more closely to limit opportunities for online predators to harm kids.

“This FBI is fully engaged in taking down the heinous ‘764’ network that targets America’s children online,” Patel said.

He also said that more than 300 investigations are ongoing across the United States, and the FBI is “not stopping.”

The network, which investigators say began in 2021 with a Texas teenager, is linked to a broader extremist online ecosystem that pushes children toward self-harm, animal abuse, sexual exploitation, and even suicide.

Bongino said in a Nov. 20 statement that agents in the FBI’s Baltimore field office recently arrested an individual accused of targeting at least five minors as young as 13. The suspect is in federal custody, and more details are expected soon.

“This @FBI will keep working day and night to destroy this network. It is a top priority,” Bongino said. “We are making progress, but the work isn’t done.”

In Arizona, authorities recently announced charges against another alleged “764” affiliate who prosecutors say targeted at least nine victims, including some between the ages of 11 and 15. The indictment alleges crimes including child sexual abuse material production and distribution, cyberstalking, animal-crushing content, and even conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

“This man’s alleged crimes are unthinkably depraved and reflect the horrific danger of 764—if convicted, he will face severe consequences as we work to dismantle this evil network,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “I urge parents to remain vigilant about the threats their children face online.”

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Parents Accuse BBC of HARMING KIDS Through Pro-Trans Bias In Children’s Programming

In a mounting controversy, 650 families have accused the BBC of saturating children’s programming with pro-transgender ideology, claiming it has led vulnerable young people toward social and irreversible medical transitions.

The allegations, detailed in a letter from the Bayswater Support Group (BSG) to broadcasting regulator Ofcom, highlight a “constant drip-feed” of biased content that parents say has caused lasting harm. This comes amid broader scrutiny of the BBC’s impartiality.

The BSG, representing parents of primary school-aged children and teenagers who identify as trans, argues that the BBC’s coverage over nearly a decade has promoted trans lifestyles without balance, objectivity, or adequate safeguarding.

A spokesman for the group stated: “For the past decade, the constant stream of propaganda about gender and trans activism the BBC has transmitted has played a significant role in creating a dangerous culture for children.”

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