More than 1,000 Ghanaians visit 'Empress Leaks' website per day - NCSC reveals

Head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako, has disclosed that out of 8,000 people who visit the just apprehended "Empress Leaks" pornographic website on a daily basis, more than 1,000 are Ghanaians.

This follows a press briefing held on Monday, August 10, to announce the arrest of one Anderson Ofosuhenene Anim, the administrator, after a joint collaboration with the Criminal Investigative Division of the Ghana Police Service and the National Cyber Security Center.

Dr Albert Antwi-Boasiako, speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb on Thursday, August 13, said his outfit in collaboration with the CID first received a complaint in January from a teenager who had been a victim of sextortion, child pornography material by the website operators.

"First, we had done some analysis and realised that the site had been active since 2013 and was hosted in the United States. We also found out that some 8,000 persons visit the website per day, of which more than 1,000 of them were Ghanaians. We recieved other complaints from the same site and we removed some other contents to safeguard innocent victims due to the state being responsible for them," he explained.

He added; "A visitor to the site spends at least ten minutes and based on information within the last 30 days, most visitors to the website were mostly from Italy, Ghana and Nigeria."

Dr. Antwi-Boasiako said government will not relent in the fight against child pornography and child online protection thus it will continue to create awareness and sensitisation on the menace.

He however advised for parents to be vigilant with the kind of websites their wards visit on the internet and also urged for children to be transparent with their parents on types of material they discover on the internet.

"We [government and parents] should be involved in our children's life. Our actions and inactions must be prudent and our parental responsibility must come in at every point," he advised.

He further called on the public to use the NCSC Points of Contact (call or SMS 292) to report cybercrime incidents.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) of the Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and the National Cyber Security Technical Working Group on Monday, August 10, announced the arrest of the administrator and suspect of the notorious website, "Empress Leak", Mr Anderson Ofosuhene Anim.

The website, is known for the publication of child pornography and adult sexual content.

According to the NCSC, the website records about 600,000 monthly users who are located in Ghana, Nigeria, Italy, and the United Kingdom.