A court case from the mid 2010s found that app operators had actively provided a platform for the buying and selling of illegal sexual images.

(Illustration by qnel)

On the app Album Collection, users trade child sexual abuse images and images of women taken without their consent. Through my reporting, I learned that Kenichi Takahama, the founder of affiliate service company “infotop” (now First Penguin), and Keisuke Nitta, a former infotop president, were involved with the app’s management and operations.

The two had created the company Max Payment Gateway Services in Singapore.

I sent questions to Album Collection specifically addressed to Takahama and Nitta, but the response was signed “Album Collection Support” without mentioning either name. Album Collection Support said it would “alert users” and “strengthen patrols.” In other words, the crimes taking place on the app are users’ — not management’s — fault.

However, nine years ago, Japanese authorities arrested the operators of an app that worked the same way as Album Collection.During the trial, Japanese courts found the app’s structure and management system to be illegal.

Metropolitan Police Department: “They are providing a place for public display”

From 2015 to 2016, “representative B” and employees of “Company A,” which operated the smartphone apps “Photo Bag” and “Photo Box,” were arrested one after another. A joint task force of the Metropolitan Police Department and the Kyoto Prefectural Police Department, as well as the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Department, had pursued the investigation.

During this period, Photo Bag and Photo Box users were also arrested on charges including the possession and public display of child sexual abuse images and other obscene images. The police believed that the apps had become a hotbed of crime, and they also launched an investigation into the operators.

This was the first time that an app operator had been arrested for posting child sexual abuse images. The Dec. 7, 2015, Tokyo morning edition of the Sankei Shimbun newspaper, which announced the operators’ arrest, quoted an individual involved in the Metropolitan Police Department’s investigation who took the situation very seriously.

“They are providing a place for public display,” the individual said. “It’s beyond child sexual abuse images just happening to be gathered there.”

The Yokohama District Court found representative B guilty of public display of child sexual abuse images and indecent images. He was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, suspended to four years, and fined 4 million yen (about $28,000). I obtained a copy of the court’s judgment of the case.

Daily phone calls from the police

The app Photo Bag was created in 2012 by a company called Kayac. In 2013, Kayac sold Photo Bag to “Company A,” which took over its operation and whose “President B” was later convicted.

I met with a former Kayac employee who had been involved in Photo Bag’s operation. This individual said they were heartbroken that an app they had been involved with was subsequently misused.

In 2012, messaging apps such as LINE did not have a way to share multiple photos and videos at once. Photo Bag was created as a way to do so; for example, students could share photos from their school festivals and club activities.

However, only a year after the app began operating, in the spring of 2013, the situation changed drastically. Illegal images, including child sexual abuse images, began to be posted to the app. Passwords to obtain the images were spread on internet message boards and other sites.

“The police started calling us on an almost daily basis,” the former employee recalled. “They asked for information about users for an investigation into child sexual abuse images. It wasn’t just one department: One day it was the Kanagawa Prefectural Police, the next it was from some other prefecture, from all over the country. Inside the company, we became increasingly worried.”

In addition to cooperating with the police investigation, Kayac contracted another company to monitor and remove illegal images. Patrols included checking images in the top 20 highest-earning folders and banning users who repeatedly posted illegal images.

However, the app had reached 500,000 downloads by May 2013. The response could no longer keep up.

“I felt that if the app’s system was being misused so badly, it would be difficult to operate it as a normal app,” the former employee said.

Kayac sold Photo Bag in October of the same year.

“Like a locked rental box”

Kayac sold Photo Bag to Company A. It briefed B, the company president at the time, that illegal images were being traded on the app and that it was necessary to take action such as removing and patrolling the images.

However, instead of preventing crime, B used the app to make money. He asked an acquaintance for advice, saying he was operating an app called “Photo Bag” and that it was so profitable that he wanted to create another similar app.

In mid 2014, B began work on another app, “Photo Box,” which had a similar mechanism. When Photo Box became public the following year, operators directed child sexual abuse images and other obscene images that had been uploaded to Photo Bag to Photo Box. While Photo Bag earned revenue from advertisements, Photo Box instead generated revenue by charging users.

B changed the system in order to make money from sexual images.

However, B did not believe that management could be held liable. He argued that users are the ones posting to the app.

“The apps Photo Bag and Photo Box are like a locked rental box,” he explained to another acquaintance. “Whatever is inside is the responsibility of the user, not the manager.”

The district court, however, convicted B. It’s key argument was the app’s structure and management system.

Court: App “designed to incentivise” the posting of obscene images

Here’s the app’s mechanism.

Photo Box allows users to “lock” folders they post. Keys must be paid for, and when they are used to open a folder, a portion of the profit is returned in the form of points to the poster. The points can be exchanged for gift certificates, etc.

Album Collection uses the same mechanism: Keys are sold for 160 yen each, and users receive 15 points for each key used on their folders. One hundred points can be exchanged for one key, and points can also be exchanged for Amazon gift certificates at a rate of 1 point to 1 yen.

In B’s trial, the court found this system problematic. By sharing a portion of the profits, it said, users were given an incentive to post images likely to be downloaded using paid keys.

B tried to appeal the decision but was dismissed. The Tokyo High Court too took issue with the system itself, which allows the app to earn income from illegal images.

“The system was designed to incentivise users to upload ‘locked’ images by distributing a portion of the profits by awarding points to the poster each time the images were downloaded for a fee and allowing users to exchange said points for gift certificates,” the ruling stated. “Additionally, because many of the images that numerous users were willing to download even for a fee were child sexual abuse images and obscene images, it can be said that the above mechanism had the effect of encouraging users to upload obscene images that required payment to download.”

In fact, obscene images increased after this system was implemented in Photo Box.

The “Photo Bag” website as of 2015 (from web archives).

Deleting only images that have been reported is insufficient

The court also criticized the app’s management system.

In its operation of the apps, Company A did not give a completely free pass to all illegal images posted by users. The company said it removed child sexual abuse images that were reported or that were found by employees.

However, the court found this response passive and insufficient.

It’s reasoning was that the company was not actively trying to check for and remove illegal images other than those that had been reported.

For example, Company A did not outsource the monitoring and deletion of posts, as Kayac had done. In fact, it was found that Company A had lifted bans on users blocked by Kayac.

Album Collection also removes reported posts in some cases, but it has not taken proactive action to prevent damage and crime. Passwords are still being posted on internet message boards and social media every day. These often include child sexual abuse images.

Apps that have specialized in obscene images

The court also found that Photo Bag and Photo Box specialize in the exchange of obscene images.

“This case is different from that in which someone was aware obscene images were, by chance, mixed in with mostly lawful images and did not delete them. As stated above, this is a case in which someone operated and managed similar applications that specialized in obscene images, collected images including numerous obscene images, and actively displayed them publicly. As such, it is reasonable to regard it as a public display of obscene images,” the ruling stated.

The court’s view applies to Album Collection as well.

Since the start of my reporting in the summer of 2022, I frequently review images traded in Album Collection. It’s not just that illegal sexual images are mixed in with legal images. I have only seen illegal sexual images — never any photos or videos sharing happy memories of everyday life.

This is a common perception among users. If you search “Album Collection” on the internet or social media, it’s clear — posts advertising illegal images and those seeking advice for how to avoid arrest after obtaining child sexual abuse images from the app appear one after another.

A post to the Japanese version of Yahoo! Answers asking for advice. Downloading underage CSAMs and fearing arrest for it.

Copying Photo Capsule 

Company A’s intention to use Photo Bag and Photo Box to make money from illegal images was clear.

It instructed its own employees to promote passwords aimed at increasing the number of child sexual abuse images and obscene images, so that said images would be downloaded by many people and make money for the company. It even created a message board for users to post passwords and a website that automatically collected and posted passwords mentioned by users on social media.

However, Company A didn’t develop this malicious method on its own. It was based on a rival app. At the time, another app with the same mechanism had appeared and was taking Company A’s profits. President B had his company set up the message board in imitation of the other app’s tactics.

The rival app was called “Photo Capsule.”

In the 15th article of this series, I reported that Photo Capsule had code in common with the APK file for Album Collection, which is operated by Takahama and Nitta. The app’s website also stated that Photo Capsule’s operator was Max Payment Gateway Services.

In other words, Takahama and Nitta were operating Photo Capsule to attract illegal images prior to Photo Bag and Photo Box’s operator, who was convicted.

Photo Capsule, posted to an app information site.

Fled to Singapore?

There are many similarities between Photo Bag, Photo Box, and Album Collection. It was strange that the Photo Bag operators were prosecuted but not Takahama and Nitta, the operators of Album Collection.

Using multiple operator names, thereby making their activities harder to trace, is one reason they have escaped investigators’ scrutiny.

For example, Album Collection claims on its website and on the App Store that it’s operated by a company called “Eclipse Incorporated.” However, this too may be one of the repeatedly changed company names, with Max potentially behind the operation.

Another reason Album Collection’s operators haven’t been prosecuted is that both Takahama and Nitta currently reside outside Japan. Takahama moved to Singapore, and Nitta to Malaysia. We visited their homes in Tokyo but were unable to meet them. It’s much more difficult for police to investigate across borders.

Illegal images continue to be posted to Album Collection. The number of victims continues to grow.

Even the day before the release of this article, a password was posted on an internet message board hinting that one can get child sexual abuse images on Album Collection.

To be continued.

(Originally published in Japanese on Nov. 23, 2023.)

Uploaded and Re-Uploaded: All articles