I hope I can provide some decent entertainment!

I have a close relative who is an FBI agent. She works on cases like these very frequently. I asked her how these types of situations come about, and her response was that child porn consumers are often baited by officers posing as distributers in online "marketplaces" or forums that harbor people like this; often on the dark web. Once they see either a flow of money or a flow of material, they can issue a warrant to search a computer. ISPs may sometimes forward suspicious activity to the police for investigation, but more often than not, it's the former situation that catches criminals, as VPNs now make it nearly impossible to track a users browsing history, and browsers like Tor do well to hide identities. Sometimes the baiting takes weeks, months, or even years, but it is the preferred method, as law enforcement officials can catch large consumer rings all at once, they'll almost always have all the evidence they need, and they don't have to rely on often inaccurate IP addresses to catch people. A transfer of currency is almost always the kiss of death.

An interesting thing about all of this is that 9 times out of 10, it's a porn consumer that gets caught. Not the producer. The same goes for conviction rates.

Also, human trafficking is no joke, folks; which often results in situations like these. It's disastrously common here in the United States, just as much as it is in other countries. Often, students are lured into these positions from other countries to the USA by people telling them they'll provide free travel and housing--just as long as they do "this one thing." It's incredibly harrowing.

All that can be done now is to see where this goes.

I've never agreed with you more. Not to derail, but back when I was in high school, I was the student who spent his time in the science labs more than anywhere else. While we science kids were using shitty old microscopes and scratched up glassware, and leaky bunsen burners from the '70s (I graduated HS in '09), the football kids were getting a brand new stadium lighting system installed. Mind you, the old system worked, but the board of ed claimed they weren't bright enough... They spent at least $100,000 (probably more), just so some sweaty ass kids could see each other better as they slammed into one another and gave themselves concussions.

I'm all for diversified education plans, but holy cow, I felt like we pulled the shortest straw on that one.

When I went away to college, one of the requirements for me was that the school couldn't have a football team. I didn't want a dime of my tuition to fund that nonsense.