At its height boylover.net, hosted in Amsterdam, boasted more than 70,000 members worldwide

That's a userbase of 70,000

They were caught as part of Operation Rescue, a global policing operation that began in 2007 and culminated yesterday with the announcement of more than 180 arrests in more than 30 countries.

Had the number been 185 or more, they would have said "nearly 190 arrests", so let's assume that "more than 180 arrests" means 184.

Out of 70,000 people, 184 of them had arrestable offenses. That's 0.26%, or about a quarter of 1% of the members.

Authorities now say they have identified 670 suspects, with many of the 70,000 protected by their countries' free speech laws.

670 out of 70,000 is 0.96%, nearly 1%. But reading the full statement, we come to realize that many of these people are suspected of crimes so frivolous that they would be protected speech in many countries.

So, in other words, after years of investigating BL.net, authorities have concluded that less than 1% of the members did anything they could be arrested for in their country, although others got away with some of the same things those 1% did because their countries believe in freedom of expression. Less than a quarter of 1% not only did something for which they could be arrested, but were in fact arrested.


What kinds of things did the terrible quarter of 1% do?

Since 2007 federal police have charged 25 Australians with child pornography offences as well as, in several cases, the rape of boys. At least one of those charged was a school teacher, federal police said.

There were 25 arrests but only "several cases" involved touching offences, the rest were child pornography related. From that statement and the admission pointed out earlier that many of the things suspects had done is protected speech in some countries, it seems clear that the vast majority of this quarter of 1% did nothing but look at or trade images that aren't even graphic enough to be considered illegal in countries that truly treasure their freedom of speech.

It sounds like BL.net was a fairly tame place afterall.