Spanish man detained over child porn blackmail

Spanish police have arrested a young man in the south of the country who blackmailed underage Internet users in a nude picture scam, it said on Sunday.

The 20-year-old from the town of Viator near Almeria in Andalusia told users of Internet fora he was a hacker who would publish their photos on porn sites unless they sent him nude pictures or stripped in front of a webcam.

Police did not reveal his identity but said they seized "976 videos featuring minors stripping" and a large number of CDs and DVDs with naked and half-naked minors.

The investigation that led to his arrest was launched after a 12-year-old girl from the northern town of Oviedo complained of sexual harassment while on a social network.

He was suspected of having made contacts with more than 600 girls, aged between 14 and 17, in various parts of the country since 2007.