Between April 19 and May 3, the Los Angeles Police Department-led component of the Internet Crimes Against Children task force orchestrated the effort known as "Operation Firewall." The program was designed to identify and apprehend predators who use the internet to facilitate the sexual exploitation and abuse of children, while also identifying and rescuing those children from their abusers.
"Another alarming trend that we're seeing is the rise of nihilistic, violent extremism... These are groups that form online and their goal is to entice and target children into producing child sexual abuse material and images of self-harm," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference Thursday.
During the operation, the task force conducted undercover investigations across various social media platforms and served residential and arrest warrants of child exploitation suspects across Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
That resulted in the arrest of 341 suspects and the identification and rescue of 40 children, authorities announced.
The various crimes the suspects were arrested for during the operation include production, possession or distribution of child sexual abuse material, lewd acts with a child, contact or attempting to contact a child for lewd purposes, human trafficking, failure to register as a convicted sex offender and various violations of parole and probation conditions by convicted sex offenders.
Essayli encouraged parents and guards to monitor their children's internet use.
"The agents and police officers who do these cases are absolute heroes. They are rescuing children from the most horrific types of crimes - but parents are the first line of defense. I"ve said it before, I'll say it again: Get your kids off the internet," Essayli added.
City News Service contributed to this report.