Paedophiles hiding behind Anonymous mask to lure children and share explicit content

Hackers and cyber activists are exposing paedophiles online after they discovered sexual predators were hiding behind the guise of Anonymous members in order to lure victims and share explicit content.

Anonymous, famous for its stand against injustice – including hacks where they have revealed sex offenders – is being used as a front by paedophiles who are pretending to be part of the movement through fake Anonymous Twitter and Facebook profiles.

An unknown source posted to the pastebin site claiming "practising" paedophiles and "MAP activists" (Minor Attracted People) were exploiting the social media site and released an extensive list of Twitter user names that the poster alleged are guilty of being involved in the consumption and distribution of child pornography.

The post it also revealed the emerging issue of "predators" joining "and hiding behind the guise of Anonymous" social media accounts to lure children, women, and men as well as share "bestial stories and videos". One Facebook user who was exposed reportedly feigned support for Anonymous and used it to allegedly link to pages known to attract paedophiles.

The post makes it clear that anyone who is found falsely using Anonymous as a mask or a vehicle will be exposed "in the most public of ways for co-workers, family members, relatives, friends and neighbours to see."

It signs off by warning: "Remember: Anonymous is an idea, not a playground for rapists, beaters, animal abusers [or] paedophiles. Ideas are bulletproof, predators are not".

Anonymous has been carrying out its #OpPedo and #OpBeast campaigns to reveal sexual predators and those interested in bestiality. The ongoing campaign was able to expose the social media accounts and identities of 190 paedophiles to authorities in December 2015 during Operation DarkNet and it has also focussed on taking down servers known to host Dark Web sites containing the explicit material.