Stealing their innocence

Operation Rescue, which sought to take down those responsible for causing inexplicable pain to children, was a success with more than 650 suspects identified and 184 arrested. Photo / Thinkstock

I don't have to point out how evil the people who prey on kids are. But what needs to be said is a big loud bravo following yesterday's news that a worldwide paedophile ring (that included six New Zealanders) was taken down. They have been well and truly busted - and damn good job.

Police involved in Operation Rescue said five of the local offenders had already been convicted.

As a dad, it makes me shiver with fear and shake with loathing to think the exchanging of indecent images and footage of children is so widespread.

Because you want to protect your kids, but who knows where these sinister stalkers lurk?

They could be down at the dairy, the mall, or on the beach. Or - in this day and age especially - beavering away on their laptops. Or worse, online with a direct high speed broadband link to your kid's bedroom.

There is some sick stuff out there in internet land, and sick minds manipulating it to their own devious and troubled means.

And call me paranoid, and overly protective, but it creeps the hell out of me how these newfangled cameras, phones, and computers are aiding paedophilia.

By the sounds of this latest case - where more than 650 suspects from around the world have been identified - these sickening offenders have gone hi-tech. Although thankfully they were not clever enough to avoid being busted.

And what of the Kiwi kids caught up in Operation Rescue?

It's not just the physical torture, but the emotional toll it will have taken on the three kids who were sexually abused and the 16 others who police believe were at risk of being victimised in the future.

Many of them were in their teens, and you can just imagine them walking around now like hollow shells, rather than living out the best and most formative years of their life. And that's just wrong.