Child predators are now increasingly becoming prey themselves -- to child abuse investigators on the hunt, hoping to eradicate horrendous crimes inflicted on innocent children that not only happen in person, but via webcam or live-stream around the world.

Last week, a joint investigation, code-named Operation Endeavor, conducted by Britain's National Crime Agency, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Australian Federal Police busted an international pedophile ring that charged people money to live-stream Filipino children being sexually abused in the Philippines. 

Last year, a human-like, Filipina computer avatar named "Sweetie" also helped capture 1,000 child predators from 65 countries in another extraordinary online sting.

Both cases show that every possible measure and international collaboration should be taken in order to combat child sex abuse online.

Operation Endeavor

Operation Endeavor, which was underway since 2012, identified 733 suspects, produced a number of convictions, and resulted in the arrest of 29 individuals from 12 nations who paid money to watch the abuse, including the arrests of 11 suspected of facilitating the abuse in the Philippines.

A registered sex offender in Britain named Timothy Ford set off the investigation. Police discovered several indecent videos on his computer and a collection of DVDs recorded from webcams and contacted child abuse investigators. Ford not only paid to watch the live abuse, but planned to move to the Philippines to set up an internet cafe. 

Sadly, some of the people who arranged for the abuse, which was filmed on webcams, were from the children's own families. Fifteen children between the ages of 6 and 15 have been rescued in the Philippines, according to the British agency. 

"This investigation has identified some extremely dangerous child sexual offenders who believed paying for children to be abused to order was something they could get away with," said Andy Baker, the deputy director of the agency's command for child protection, the BBC reports.

"Being thousands of miles away makes no difference to their guilt. In my mind they are just as responsible for the abuse of these children as the contact abusers overseas."

Combating Child Webcam Child Sex Tourism

In another massive online sting, which was widely reported on by major news organizations in November 2013, a human-like, Filipina computer avatar named "Sweetie" also helped capture 1,000 child predators from 65 countries, as mentioned.

According to BBC News, Dutch researchers said 20,000 men from around the world made contact with the10-year-old 'girl' (Sweetie) in the Philippines during a 10-week investigation. Out of the 20,000 who contacted her, around five percent of them offered her money to perform sex acts online. Of the total 1,000 men who were willing to offer cash -- 254 were from US, 110 from UK and 103 from India.

As Sweetie, "chatted merrily with unsuspecting child predators in public chat rooms," activists were busy behind the scenes, tracking their profiles on social networks such as Facebook, Skype handles, phone numbers, photos and video footage.

The sting was spearheaded by children's rights organization, Terre des Hommes, who set up the fake profile for Sweetie in an online chat room -- and "its specially trained researchers were astounded by the avalanche of responses."

"We want governments to adopt proactive investigation policies that give law enforcement agencies the mandate to actively patrol public Internet hot spots where this child abuse is taking place every day," said Hans Guyt, director of campaigns at Terre des Hommes Netherlands. "The child predators doing this now feel that the law doesn't apply to them. The Internet is free, but not lawless." 

"One researcher described it as 'petrifying' but said the real worry now was the number of girls from developing nations getting access to the internet and parents and criminals trying to make money out of them," the BBC News points out.

Watch the incredible computer avatar Sweetie in action, and the powerful impact she had on nabbing child predators.

"Extreme poverty, the increasing availability of high-speed internet and the existence of a vast and comparatively wealthy overseas customer base has led to organized crime groups exploiting children for financial gain."