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Underage Australian girls caught up in online porn ring

Xinhua, August 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australian police are desperately trying to shut down an internationally-based porn ring, after it was revealed Australian high school students were having nude images shared by on a deep-web website.

According to media reports on Wednesday, the website featured nude images of underage girls - some with their names attached - with a rating system so users can rank the photos.

Police in the states of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are investigating claims by victims, while it's thought up to 70 of schools across the nation have asked for police to intervene.

Victoria's Education Department has labeled the website as "disgraceful online exploitation," while police in Queensland believe the site could be "moved to another location" in order to evade authorities.

It is reportedly difficult for Australian police to act on the website as it is hosted overseas.

News Corp reported more than 2,000 photos of underage girls have been posted to the site since its foundation in December, while male members have been accused of "hunting" girls, and putting schools on "wanted lists."

The site also encourages its users to post the locations of the subjects, so other users can identify the girls they may know in real life.

Police have said it could take "months" to track down the perpetrators, with a spokesperson from Queensland Police telling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) they will work with other state authorities to ring an end to the "highly offensive" site.

"This could take months and months to identify individuals, identify what imagery we have to look at and go from there," the spokesperson said.

"We're not talking something that's going to be resolved this week or this month, it's going to be an extremely long-term investigation."

The news follows a number of local scandals in recent months, in which high-profile private schools have been busted with their own, localized porn rings. Endit