Operation Protect Our Children
Encyclopedia
Operation Protect Our Children (also called Operation Save our Children) was a joint operation by the US ICE
, CEOS
, and DOJ Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section to execute "seizure warrants against 10 domain names of websites engaged in the advertisement and distribution of child pornography". The enforcement action was spearheaded by ICE’s Cyber Crimes Center (C3).
One of the domains seized, mooo.com belongs to the DNS provider FreeDNS. FreeDNS stated that on "February 11th at around 9:30 PM PST mooo.com (the most popular shared domain at afraid.org) was suspended at the registrar level." All 84,000 of mooo.com's subdomain
s were subsequently redirected to a warning which stated:
Service to mooo.com was restored on February 13 at around 7:15 p.m, although FreeDNS admins noted that it would take up to 3 days for domain propagation. This meant that the affected sites would be unusable and would continue to display the child pornography accusation.
It was initially unclear whether the entire mooo.com domain was shut down due to clerical error or intentionally, ICE later apologized for the seizure stating: "During the course of a joint DHS and DOJ law enforcement operation targeting 10 websites providing explicit child pornographic content, a higher level domain name and linked sites were inadvertently seized for a period of time". The excessive seizure has led to criticism of the DOJ's ex parte
warrant process and its possible abuse.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security , responsible for identifying, investigating, and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security...
, CEOS
Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section
The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section is a section of the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice in charge of protecting the welfare of America's children and communities by enforcing federal criminal statutes relating to the exploitation of children and obscenity...
, and DOJ Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section to execute "seizure warrants against 10 domain names of websites engaged in the advertisement and distribution of child pornography". The enforcement action was spearheaded by ICE’s Cyber Crimes Center (C3).
One of the domains seized, mooo.com belongs to the DNS provider FreeDNS. FreeDNS stated that on "February 11th at around 9:30 PM PST mooo.com (the most popular shared domain at afraid.org) was suspended at the registrar level." All 84,000 of mooo.com's subdomain
Subdomain
In the Domain Name System hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain.- Overview :The Domain Name System has a tree structure or hierarchy, with each node on the tree being a domain name. A subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain, the only domain that is not...
s were subsequently redirected to a warning which stated:
This domain name has been seized by ICE – Homeland Security Investigations pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court under the authority of Title 18 U.S.C. 2254.
Advertisement, distribution, transportation, receipt, and possession of child pornography constitute federal crimes that carry penalties for first time offenders of up to 30 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, forfeiture and restitution.
Service to mooo.com was restored on February 13 at around 7:15 p.m, although FreeDNS admins noted that it would take up to 3 days for domain propagation. This meant that the affected sites would be unusable and would continue to display the child pornography accusation.
It was initially unclear whether the entire mooo.com domain was shut down due to clerical error or intentionally, ICE later apologized for the seizure stating: "During the course of a joint DHS and DOJ law enforcement operation targeting 10 websites providing explicit child pornographic content, a higher level domain name and linked sites were inadvertently seized for a period of time". The excessive seizure has led to criticism of the DOJ's ex parte
Ex parte
Ex parte is a Latin legal term meaning "from one party" .An ex parte decision is one decided by a judge without requiring all of the parties to the controversy to be present. In Australian, Canadian, U.K., Indian and U.S...
warrant process and its possible abuse.