The Brazilian Federal Police started this past Tuesday, August 19, Operation On-Line Rescue in an attempt to stop the spread of pornographic content involving children and teenagers on the internet.
Over 230 federal police agents took part in the operation aimed at executing search and arrest orders in the Federal District and 14 states throughout the country.
The states were Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Pará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo.
The move comes as a result of the constant internet surveillance by the Federal Police, with a special focus on social networking sites, in an effort to identify internet users who use their computers to store sexual images of children and adolescents.
Crimes of this sort are punishable by three to six years in jail for dissemination, and one to four for storage.