Over 1,000 Danish youths charged for sharing sex videos on social network

COPENHAGEN, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 Danish young people are being sentenced by the police for allegedly sharing sex videos on the social media, local media reported Monday.

According to Danish news agency Ritzau, two videos and an image containing sexual materials involving a primary school girl and several boys were being shared among young people back in 2015 on Messenger of Facebook.

Many young people were fined for sharing the materials in 2016, but that did not stop the spreading of the videos.

"I can confirm that it is the same material we have seen before," North Zealand Police Commissioner Henrik Gunst was quoted by Ritzau as saying.

After the cases were settled two years ago, Facebook has registered several divisions of the same videos until the autumn of 2017, according to Ritzau. The information has since been submitted to the Europol by the US authorities.

The Danish law prohibits the possession and sharing of photos and videos of persons under the age of 18 if there are sexual contents.

"We have taken the case very seriously as it has had serious consequences for those involved because of how the material has been spread. And it must be stopped," Lau Thygesen, a police inspector with North Zealand Police, was quoted by the newspaper Copenhagen Post as saying.

Those found guilty will face conditional sentences of around 20 days in prison, while the conviction will go on their criminal record for at least two years, according to the paper.

They will also spend at least 10 years on the child offence registry, which would bar them from working in certain jobs relating to children. Enditem