News report | 13-01-2026 | 13:30
A 40-year-old man from Herten, Limburg, suspected of committing online abuse involving over 150 underage girls, remains detained longer. This was decided by the Rotterdam court on Tuesday during a first public hearing. The man approached his young victims via a partly self-developed computer game. According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), he induced the girls to perform increasingly explicit sexual acts in front of the camera. He recorded these acts and also distributed the footage.
The man from Herten came to police attention on July 3, 2024, due to information from America. The suspect is said to be one of the users of a dark web forum for men with a sexual preference for underage girls. On the forum, users share child sexual abuse material with each other. The Team Combating Child Pornography and Child Sex Tourism (TBKK) in Limburg is handling the case under the direction of the National Office and arrested the man on October 1, 2025.
Online game
The man approached his young victims via an online game, the “Highscoregame”. In this game, young girls can earn points. With enough points, they advance to the next level. To earn points, they must complete tasks. The tasks appear on their screen and start innocently: girls begin by waving at the camera, but the further they progress in the game, the more explicit the tasks become.
Under pressure
What the children do not know is that someone is watching live, recording, and then can use this to pressure them. What starts with waving progresses to tasks where they must touch their own bodies and remove clothing. Some of these girls are blackmailed with these images to perform even more explicit sexual acts on themselves. Several girls were heavily pressured: if they do not comply, the videos are posted online or sent to their parents. Girls who played the game and became entangled in their blackmailer’s web sometimes cried visibly on the videos.
Worrying development
Investigations show that the suspect has been involved in this for years, from 2017 until his arrest. Thousands of child pornographic images were found on his computer. In total, the police found more than 300 sexual videos of girls aged 9 to 17. Besides the recordings he made himself, the man also received footage from other men who make recordings of young girls via online games in the same way. The victims are both Dutch and foreign. Police and OM see the worrying development that men with a sexual preference for minors increasingly approach their victims via online games.
Investigation ongoing
The police are actively investigating and identifying the girls and are also working internationally. Together with victim support, the police strive to contact the identified girls and their parents in the coming period. Victims can also report themselves to the Limburg police via the email address: melding-highscore-game.lb@politie.nl.
The substantive hearing of the case is scheduled for June 26.