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Recent press coverage and events in Australia have sparked widespread discussions about online safety, highlighting the way technology has increasingly integrated into our daily lives, particularly for children. Concerns about online harms have surged to the forefront of public consciousness, prompting a call for urgent action.
ICMEC Australia welcomes the recent decision by the Federal Government to enforce stronger measures preventing Australian children from accessing explicit online content. This initiative represents a key step in shielding children from harmful exposure to pornography and artificial intelligence-generated sexual content online.
It is evident that there is a lot more work to be done in this space and a pressing need for comprehensive online safety measures to protect individuals, especially children from online threats. With sextortion increasing along with the prevalence of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), there is an urgency for us to act. We strongly support the unrelenting efforts of the eSafety Commissioner in online child protection and in setting a global standard for responding to this crime.
We must take a collaborative approach, with all stakeholders playing a role in fostering a safer online environment. By fostering partnerships between government, industry, educators, parents, and young people themselves, Australia can cultivate a culture of responsibility and accountability in the digital space.
The Online Safety Act typically undergoes a review every three years. However, in response to the rapid changes in the online landscape since 2021, the process has been brought forward. The Australian Government is now asking for input and insights into the review process. ICMEC Australia is committed to prioritising child protection, and we encourage you to join us in ensuring it remains a top priority. You can contribute by submitting your input to The Act here.
Together, we can work towards creating a safer and more secure online world for children.
Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a complex and widespread crime that is showing no signs of abating. The Australian Childhood Maltreatment Study from April 2023 found more than one in four Australians have experienced one or more types of child sexual abuse.
You might be wondering: how does this relate to my small business? The reality is that every small business, including those whose business is conducted online, could play a role in fighting CSE.
Through technological advances, perpetrators are finding more ways to harm and exploit our children through AI, live-streaming, sextortion and a variety of other means resulting in devastating effects on the victims. For instance, the same Australian Childhood Maltreatment study showed that adults who have experienced child maltreatment are 2.8 times more likely to have a mental health disorder.
We implore businesses to start by learning about the issue and understanding where your systems, processes and procedures can play a role. It takes a whole of community response to break the cycle and we all have a part to play.
Awareness is the first line of defence. Our society can’t confront anything we don’t know or don’t understand. With more information comes greater prevention and protection, and knowledge on what steps to take if something would go wrong.
Spread awareness throughout your business and across your wider stakeholders and partners about the prevalence of this heinous issue, especially in areas that are more vulnerable to this crime like financial services, risk and compliance, procurement, and customer service teams.
It can help to think about this issue from the perspective that unfortunately, statistically, there could be many people in your workforce who have lived experience of child abuse. There may also be many parents or carers who would want to be educated about this issue and better equipped to spread the message further. According to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, only 52 per cent of parents and carers talk to their children about online safety. Prevention is key to combatting this crime.
To further your understanding of this issue, you can tap into a multitude of online resources from experts such as the National Office for Child Safety, the eSafety Commissioner and the AFP’s Think U Know program.
Look at your business operations that may be affected by this crime, and understand reporting requirements for each area of your business. Some businesses have mandatory reporting requirements, for instance under the AML/CTF Act. For those entities, resources like AUSTRAC’s Financial Crime Guide Sexual Exploitation Of Children For Financial Gain are very useful.
Even if your business doesn’t have mandatory reporting requirements, or these are already well covered, it’s still essential that your organisation has policies and procedures in place should an incident occur. Without these, there is uncertainty about how to address risks connected with CSE.
Establish guidelines for online communication and social media usage, especially if the business has an online presence. Educate employees about the risks of online interactions to children’s safety, and how to report any concerning behaviour.
As hard as it is, we must confront this issue and have conversations with each other and children about how to prevent and stop this serious crime. We need to open the dialogue across society, small businesses included. With more information comes greater prevention and protection, and knowledge on the steps to take if something were to go wrong.
Once we have awareness, a collaborative and networked approach is essential, within and across financial institutions, and across sectors. If you’re still uncertain, ICMEC Australia can provide guidance, resources and connections to expertise.
ICMEC Australia’s Child Protection Fund (CPF) provides support to data and technology-driven approaches that reduce and prevent sexual exploitation of children across several areas, including data acquisition, technological solutions and ecosystem strengthening.
Our CPF is carefully tailored to respond to the needs and issues identified by stakeholders on the frontlines of responding to Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and takes a targeted approach that aims to support and grow programs that catalyse data, technology, and preventative approaches to reduce and prevent CSE.
Key recent highlights include :
As part of ICMEC Australia’s support towards ecosystem strengthening, Paul Griffiths from QPS has recently completed a world first Victim Identification Case Data Analysis program and presented his groundbreaking project to Interpol Specialist Group on Crimes Against Children in early March.
Collaborating with Australian and international law enforcement agencies, Paul reviewed close to 2,500 cases, of which 800 of these cases were found to have involved the use of one or more recognised technique, which resulted in the identification of the child, or children, depicted in the associated media and/or the identification of the suspected producer.
Detailed annotation of the investigative techniques disclosed 40 distinct techniques that had been successfully employed in previous cases. These techniques primarily rely on visual, digital, and intelligence-based/environmental clues. The analysis also made clear the importance of capturing and recording the techniques that have been applied in investigations, and flagging those that were successfully employed. Such a process not only assists in the review of unidentified cases, but also provides a mechanism going forward for the continued growth of corporate memory for the international victim identification community.
Queensland Police Service Argos Victim Identification Manager, Paul Griffiths, said he was honoured to be given the opportunity to carry out the study:
“I am certainly pleased with the way it has turned out and INTERPOL was the ideal venue to share the outcomes, the project will definitely be the catalyst for continued developments in the victim identification community.”
Another example of ICMEC Australia’s commitment to fortifying ecosystems in the fight against CSE is our partnership with Jesuit Social Services (JSS) supporting the expansion and development of their child sexual abuse prevention service – Stop It Now! – in Australia. The platform offers an anonymous helpline, chat and web resources for people concerned about their own sexual thoughts and behaviours towards children or to people concerned about the thoughts or behaviours of others – aiming to prevent child sexual abuse.
Tiphanie Au, Head of Impact at ICMEC Australia believes that:
“Safeguarding children is a shared responsibility that requires a multifaceted approach involving education, awareness, and intervention”.
ICMEC Australia saw a gap in the sector, with a much needed service needing interim support after coming to the end of its initial funding from Westpac’s Safer Children, Safer Communities grant program. The Child Protection Fund stepped in during this bridging phase and managed the partnership process in a very streamlined, but supportive way to create the best impact in the sector. This includes additional in-kind contributions from the broader ICMEC Australia team to enhance the program outcomes and ultimately prevent child sexual exploitation.
StopItNow! has seen significant success internationally, including the UK and Ireland. The current program that ICMEC Australia is supporting aims to further enhance the adaptation of this service to the Australian context.
Through the data and insights derived from this groundbreaking program, the knowledge base regarding the behaviours and characteristics of undetected offenders will be enhanced. This will in turn assist ICMEC Australia and other stakeholders in the child sexual exploitation response ecosystem to consider and develop innovative technological approaches to disrupt and prevent child sexual abuse offending from occurring in the first place.
RedCompass Labs, a UK-based payments expert services company, was one of ICMEC Australia’s first recipients of support from the CPF to advance technological approaches to combating CSE.
ICMEC Australia partnered with RedCompass Labs to localise the Global RedFlag Accelerator Typologies on CSE to make them easily accessible for the first time to Australian financial services institutions (FSI’s) via an online portal. The objective is to provide Australian financial services institutions with access to additional localised intelligence to assist their work in the detection and reporting of CSE. The development of these insights and analytics enhances financial institutions’ capabilities to identify crimes against children.
Under Phase 1, a working version of the Australian RedFlag Accelerator CSE Portal has been delivered. ICMEC Australia has further invested in RedCompass Labs to enhance the Portal under Phase 2, involving additional user testing and feedback from a pilot group of users, including Westpac. From March onwards, ICMEC Australia is collaborating with RedCompass Labs on a beta user program, extending portal access to additional financial services actively participating in ICMEC Australia’s Collaboration Working Group.
Mark Dickson, Executive Manager, Financial Intelligence Unit at Westpac Group, says,
‘Having been involved from the very first user test group, I see great value in the Portal being used as a one-stop-shop for all Australian banks to access the latest CSE typologies. This is only possible through ICMEC Australia’s work in bringing RedCompass Lab’s global tool to Australia, enhancing the CSE detection capabilities for the Australian FinCrime community.’
Child sexual exploitation is all around us, a crime hidden in plain sight thanks to a pervasive culture of silence and stigma. According to current research, one in three women experienced sexual abuse as a child, compared to one in five boys. Further to this, perpetrators of violence against women and girls have often been found guilty of child sexual exploitation and abuse against both groups.
The figures are startling and paint a confronting picture of the terrifying world that many children continue to face. It’s a situation that industry leaders ICMEC Australia chief executive Anna Bowden, National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse chief executive Dr Leanne Beagley and Bravehearts chief executive Alison Geale have devoted much of their professional lives to ameliorating. The three women are coming together to urgently call for an end to violence against women and girls.
Here, we speak with each leader about their roles, their never ending fight to end child sexual exploitation, and how we can all play a part in helping end the abuse.
Anna Bowden, CEO of ICMEC Australia
Anna Bowden, CEO of ICMEC Australia, is one of the leading women tackling child sexual exploitation and ending violence against young women. A powerful voice in a challenging industry, Anna leads the charge against the growing harm to our children online and is responsible for showing resilience every day in the face of darkness.
Lack of awareness is a major driving force behind Anna’s work. “It’s still not broadly understood by society how common child sexual exploitation is - more than one in four Australian children are sexually abused and exploited - and what we need to do to stop it,” she says.
As someone with lived experience of child sexual abuse, Anna says that for her, doing something to contribute feels better than nothing. “There’s a lot of evidence to support that feeling helpless in the face of horrible events can feel really awful,” she says. “Despite how overwhelming the problem can seem, every tiny thing we do to protect children adds up – and, together, we can achieve change.”
Anna also names salt water - whether sweating through exercise, tears, or swimming in the sea - as aids to help her manage the emotional toll of her work. “As the saying goes, sweat, tears, and the sea can make a lot of things feel better. Sweat and exercise are huge coping strategies for me.”
As for the question of legislation, Anna says Australia is very fortunate to have Julie Inman Grant as the eSafety Commissioner, whose team is world-leading in their regulatory response to technology-facilitated crimes.
“We need others to follow Julie’s leadership and put children’s safety first in legislation and regulation. Our commercial and consumer interests should always come after the priority of defending children’s human right to safety.”
Anna sees the solution to child sexual exploitation involving a comprehensive, cross-sector approach to child protection, with government, law enforcement, families, community, and businesses all playing a critical role.
“Children and young people interact with all these systems, and so do perpetrators,” she says. “We can’t continue to say ‘it’s just up to police, or government to sort this out’. They do tremendous work, but this is something we all must participate in.
“As hard as that is, we must confront it and have conversations with each other, and children about how to prevent and stop this. I never got justice against the man who offended against me, because I didn’t know how to vocalise it, or who to tell. We need to open the dialogue across society and with our children. We can’t confront anything we don’t know, or understand.”
As Nelson Mandela said: “There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children”.
Dr Leanne Beagley, CEO of the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse
Dr Leanne Beagley is tasked with overseeing the work of the National Centre and providing leadership on integrated responses to child sexual abuse and its impacts across the country.
Leanne began her journey when working as a therapist with children who had been traumatised by abuse from someone they trusted. “It broke my heart,” she says.
As adults with agency and power, she says we must fight for the rights of children to be heard, believed and protected. “What continues to motivate me is the growing roar of those who have lived and living experience of child sexual abuse. They richly deserve the support and healing and change that they are asking for.”
Leanne admits that there are times when she struggles to manage the emotional toll of the work. “For me, it’s about balancing the challenging and demanding and draining experiences with others that are generative, productive, healing and affirming,” she says.
“When we are strong, we can stand with those who feel shaky. When we are shaky, we have new insights into what it’s like for those who live with trauma.”
To fight the issue effectively, Leanne says we need to understand how it happens - whether that’s from data, lived experience, from research - and interrupt the trajectories at every step of the way. “We have to be prepared to do lots of things all at once.” This multidimensional approach, along with the challenges faced, provide the foundation for the National Centre’s five-year strategic plan - Here for Change.
Solutions also lie in several actions that interplay with one another. These include building strong, confiding, safe relationships with the children around you, and taking preventative measures seriously - for example, the National Centre’s resource on online safety.
On an individual level, there are several steps we all can take to make a difference. This includes knowing the signs of a child who is a risk or experiencing grooming, and taking action when you see those signs. “If you think it is happening, then you are probably right,” Leanne says.
“CSE is prevalent and it is a crime perpetrated by manipulative wily people who remain hidden by a culture of silence and stigma. For prevention and healing to occur, it is critical we shed light on the issue and bring it out of the shadows. The time for us all to take action is now.”
Alison Geale, CEO of Bravehearts
Alison Geale believes there is no better reason to rise to the work challenge every day than to protect our most vulnerable – our children. Ensuring children are safe from sexual abuse and helping those who have been impacted.
When it comes to the emotional toll of her work, Alison says she has a barometer ‘to gauge when my internal ledger feels off.’ Generally, that barometer works well, but there are still times when it can be tested.
“Balance is key, the task at hand is so important and can feel never-ending, naturally the desire to do everything can overtake your bandwidth and will test you,” she says.
“I have a trusted team; we all lean on each other and have open dialogue to help each other check in on self-care.”
Alison believes that stopping child sexual exploitation crimes involves approaching them holistically, through both systemic and societal change. Education has an important role to play, with Alison recommending that all people, including young people and children, are educated on this topic just as you would any other safety topic as they develop.
“Children and young people are accessing all the wonders of the world through the internet and conversely all of the dangers are impacting them equally. Having open, appropriate, and informed discussions with children and young people from an educated perspective is a priority,” she says.
The most important lesson Alison has learned is that ‘shame, secrecy, and silence assist the crime to thrive in plain sight every day.’ She says that in order to break down the paradigms and myths around child sexual abuse and exploitation, we must normalise the discussion with our children.
“The responsibility of their safety should not lie solely with children, but with everyone.”
The sexual abuse and exploitation of children online is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the world. In the shadows of the digital age, the tide of online child sexual exploitation and abuse is swelling, faster than we can respond to, and is challenging us to mount a formidable response. This isn't just a crime; it's a violation of innocence that knows no borders, thriving where light is scarce.
In 2022 alone, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children added 1,141,667 new confirmed child sexual abuse material (CSAM) files to its database, for a total of 6,314,832. These are unique files, not duplicates, highlighting the amount of new material being created every day.
It’s a complex issue that requires a strong response from a variety of sectors - including our country’s top business minds. At ICMEC Australia, we’re fortunate to have built a team made up of varied industry experience including former corporates, law enforcement, government and some brilliant innovative young minds.
The ICMEC Australia team have honed their skills across a variety of industries but have a shared vision of using their abilities to help make the world a better place - in our case, protecting and reducing harm to children. We understand that the protection of children is good business practice and that we all have an important role in society to protect our most vulnerable.
Our approach is multifaceted. We're going beyond response tactics alone by anticipating, innovating and advocating to protect children. It’s impossible to end CSE for good, but we can contribute to the fight against this heinous crime. To get there, it takes a collaborative whole-of-system approach.
We work with financial institutions, telecommunications companies, government, law enforcement, academics and NGOs. Too often, systemic barriers can make it hard to protect children as comprehensively as we want to. By leveraging our collective expertise and resources towards developing impactful solutions, we can save more children from harm.
Anna Bowden, ICMEC Australia’s Chief Executive Officer has an extensive background in impact investing, philanthropy and impact strategy. Having worked across government, social impact organisations, foundations, and consulting, Anna provides a deep understanding of governance, impact, and outcomes-focused programs.
Anna's affinity for our critical mission of protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation intersects with her ability to provide innovative solutions to wicked problems - making her a passionate leader driving our organisation's work. Anna’s diverse experience brings insights across multiple sectors, helping navigate the complex public-private ecosystem better.
"We’ve recruited some of the absolute best experts from across the country and internationally to deliver our impact," Anna says. "We need comprehensive, cross-sector approaches to child protection. Government, law enforcement, families, community, and business all play a critical role."
This is why a diverse team of experts is so important to our organisation. A highly networked problem, where perpetrators of this crime help one another evade detection, requires a collaborative solution.
We bring together the public and private sectors to turn on the lights and fight this crime together. Dannielle Kelly, Head of Capacity and Prevention at ICMEC Australia, brings her former law enforcement experience - 17 years at the AFP, working with government, NGOs, academics and law enforcement internationally on the most up-to-date prevention methods.
“Child sexual abuse is a community-wide issue,” says Dannielle. “Police have stated for years that they can't arrest their way out of this, we need systems in place that support our law enforcement partners, bringing together experts from the public and private sector to work together on preventing this heinous crime.”
Perpetrators are collaborating and using technology to harm at scale, so ICMEC Australia and its stakeholders need to collaborate and use technology to target perpetrators at the same scale. ICMEC Australia has a number of initiatives that you can get involved in.
ICMEC Australia hosts a Collaboration Working Group periodically that brings senior law enforcement, government and top financial crime professionals together to share information that will help combat this crime. This amazing collective comes together without competition, to share and collaborate with the goal of combating this horrific crime.
These same stakeholders get involved in diligently testing technological solutions to enhance their approach to fighting CSE. The online dissemination and sale of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) creates multiple digital traces that, when connected, can help to identify perpetrators and their victims, leading to the prosecution of criminals and the rescue of child victims.
This effort wouldn’t be possible without top business leaders contributing their time and expertise - both within ICMEC Australia and across the broader business community. As we continue to shine a light on these horrendous crimes, a collaborative mindset is the best tool we could have in our toolbox.
About ICMEC Australia:
ICMEC Australia is a not-for-profit that collaborates with companies (in particular financial services), governments, law enforcement and academics to detect, report, prosecute and prevent child sexual exploitation.
ICMEC Australia advocates for policies, laws, and interventions that better address issues relating to the proliferation of child sexual abuse material, online grooming, and live streaming that have emerged as enormous threats to children.
About Rosie Campo, Head of Collaboration – Corporate Partnerships, ICMEC Australia:
Rosie Campo is the Head of Collaboration – Corporate Partnerships at ICMEC Australia, where she plays a pivotal role in developing and executing programs aimed at financially detecting, reporting, and preventing child exploitation. With a wealth of experience spanning the public and private sectors, Rosie uses her expertise by working with stakeholders to advocate for children's rights within Australian organisations.
Collaborating closely with banks and corporate entities, Rosie spearheads initiatives to enhance the financial detection and reporting of child sexual exploitation. Her unwavering dedication underscores her belief that protecting children is a collective responsibility, requiring collaboration and unwavering dedication across a range of sectors and institutions.
Child sexual exploitation (CSE) facilitated online is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the world.
Reports of online child sexual exploitation to the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) have increased by more than 180 per cent since it launched in 2018.
The ACCCE’s Child Protection Triage Unit received more than 40,232 reports of online child sexual exploitation in the 2022-2023 financial year.
CSE can be difficult to open your eyes to, especially once you become aware of the prevalence of this crime in our society. Awareness is our first line of defence. We can’t confront anything we don’t know, or understand.
At ICMEC Australia, we’re constantly facilitating meaningful collaboration and partnerships across both public and private sectors for the ultimate purpose of keeping children safe from harm. We work collectively to spread awareness, address gaps in the ecosystem, and work with technological partners on innovative solutions to this awful issue.
We aren’t the ones who do the hard work, but we take an active approach to help those on the front lines of this crime to have access to the resources, information and connections they need to enhance their approach.
We implore businesses to start by learning about the issue and understanding where their systems, processes and procedures can play a role. It takes a whole of community response to break the cycle and we all have a part to play.
Increase awareness throughout your business and across your wider stakeholders and partners about the prevalence of this issue, especially in those areas that are more vulnerable to this crime like financial services, risk and compliance, procurement, and customer service teams.
There are so many incredible resources out there, put together by groups such as the National Office for Child Safety, the eSafety Commissioner and the AFP’s Think U Know program. Equipping yourself with the knowledge to support children leads to greater prevention and protection.
If you have them, speak to your risk and compliance teams, and even your customer service teams to discover better and more effective ways to adhere to reporting requirements.
According to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, only 52% of parents and carers talk to their children about online safety. Prevention is key to combatting this crime. As hard as it is, we must confront it and have conversations with each other and children about how to prevent and stop this growing issue. We need to open the dialogue across society – businesses included.
Children need to feel they won’t be judged or blamed for what has happened. It’s important to be having conversations with our children about what to look for, and create an environment where they feel comfortable to come to the adults in their lives if they were to feel uncomfortable or uneasy about anything that has happened online.
Every single business, large or small, has a role to play in educating their workforce about this issue, and determining how else they may contribute to helping prevent the exploitation of children. It is only once we connect all the puzzle pieces different organisations hold that we can fight this crime.
It can help to think about this issue from the perspective that unfortunately, statistically, there could be many people in your workforce who have lived experience of child abuse. The Australian Childhood Maltreatment Study from April 2023 found more than one in four Australians have experienced one or more types of child sexual abuse. There may also be many parents or carers who would want to be educated about this issue and better equipped to spread the message further.
Once we have awareness, a collaborative and networked approach is essential. Organisations must work within and across financial institutions and across sectors to ensure that they’re doing everything they possibly can to counter CSE. If you’re still uncertain, ICMEC Australia can provide the guidance, resources and connections to expertise your business needs.
ICMEC Australia is a not-for-profit that collaborates with companies (in particular financial services), governments, law enforcement and academics to detect, report, prosecute and prevent child sexual exploitation.
While official reports of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) have grown rapidly in recent years, less is known about how commonly CSAM is viewed and by whom, due largely to the hidden nature of such offending.
ICMEC Australia’s February Monthly Brown Bag webinar series featured the Deputy Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), Dr Rick Brown. Dr Brown presented findings from his latest research on child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offending.
His findings gave us valuable insight into the characteristics shared by adult Australian CSAM offenders. Dr Rick Brown also highlighted how the study challenges us to review how we approach future intervention and prevention initiatives.
Approaching the end of the year is often a time of furious activity combined with moments of reflection on the successes and challenges throughout the previous twelve months.
As a sector, the child sexual exploitation response ecosystem has witnessed both in 2023, in Australia and globally.
On a positive note, we’ve seen the registering of six of the online safety industry codes by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant. Five industry codes, Social Media Services, Internet Carriage Services, Equipment Providers, App Distribution Services and Hosting Services, were registered in June, coming into effect on 16th December 2023. The revised search engine code was registered in September, and will come into effect on 12 March 2024. And the Commissioner issued the draft Industry Standards for the remaining two industries of Relevant Electronic Services and Designated internet Services in November, with industry consultation to close on 21st December.
This is a significant achievement by the eSafety Commissioner as she implements the requirements of the world-leading Online Safety Act 2021.
Other regulatory wins this year include the final passing of the UK Online Safety Act, which received Royal Assent in October, and the first tier of regulations under the EU Digital Services Act coming into force in August. Along with the formation of the US and Australian Joint Council on Combatting Online Child Sexual Exploitation in May, the level of focus and collaboration at government level around the world is encouraging.
However, alongside this positive action we have also seen a slew of research released this year that highlights the sheer prevalence of the crime experienced by children in Australia and around the world. The Australian Child Maltreatment Study, a landmark research project released in April, identified that more than one in four Australian children experiences child sexual abuse.
This is just one of many research projects published this year that offer sobering statistics and alarming results. The vital work that Australian and international researchers carry out underpins how we respond to this issue, both as professionals and a community as a whole. It helps to create greater awareness of the issue and inform our actions and initiatives. Whilst the results can sometimes be difficult to read, without this work, the sector would be operating in the dark. We’ve created a summary of some of the key studies this year, which you can download here.
In addition to the research statistics, we’ve also experienced collective horror at news stories revealing the dark truth of this crime, in cases such as Operation Tenterfield as well as the ongoing and increasing reports of the sextortion of Australian children to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE). These cases serve as a reminder that we are not dealing with faceless statistics. These are real children significantly impacted by a horrific crime.
Despite the darkness that comes with this work, the most uplifting moments of 2023 have been witnessing the collaboration and commitment shown by those in the CSE response community.
This year has been one of growth for the ICMEC Australia team, gaining the expertise and experience of several of the industry’s most experienced professionals. We are humbled and privileged that these people have joined us in supporting the sector in this essential work.
But the most rewarding aspect of this year has been to experience the passion that our partners have for doing all they can to eliminate child sexual abuse facilitated online. Our inaugural Financial Symposium in October saw so many people willing to give their time to share their expertise with those who would traditionally be considered competitors, in order to help protect children.
As a team, we are incredibly proud of our achievements this year but most of all, we are grateful to have had the privilege to work alongside so many passionate people committed to saving children from abuse and exploitation.
Through all the statistics and dark stories, it’s the commitment of those who are diligently following the digital trails, and throwing light on the crime, who are our inspiration to do the work we do and our encouragement as we continue the fight in 2024.
An Overview of the 2023 Research into Child Sexual Exploitation and the Need for Collective Action
This paper offers a comprehensive overview of some of the current research in the child sexual exploitation (CSE) response ecosystem.
This paper highlights:
The aim of this paper is to serves as a central resource for policymakers, practitioners, and advocates, emphasising collaborative action and robust responses to protect vulnerable children.
It’s free to download, and available here.
A key aspect to better protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation is to deepen our understanding of the crime, perpetrator tactics and behaviour, and the lived experiences of victim-survivors.
ICMEC Australia is proud to have served as the gold sponsors for the inaugural Child Sexual Abuse Research Reduction Network’s (CSARRN) Workshop held this week in Adelaide. Driven by our mission to facilitate cross-sector collaboration and help build the capacity and capabilities of those within the industry, we are always looking for ways to support our stakeholders to meet their missions and outcomes.
Sponsoring the inaugural CSARRN workshop provided a valuable opportunity for us to demonstrate our unwavering support for critical Australian research to uncover data-driven insights and evidence-based approaches, aimed at enhancing the protection of children from harm.
Established in 2023 by a group of dedicated researchers committed to combating child sexual abuse, CSARRN’s inaugural workshop, hosted by the University of Adelaide, brought together key researchers and thought leaders from global institutions and Australia’s world-leading research teams. The event facilitated the sharing of work, the fostering of new collaborations, and the development of unified solutions to better address child sexual abuse.
Featuring informative sessions delving into the complexities of child sexual abuse and exploitation, the workshop covered various aspects of this heinous crime. As a key subject matter expert, our Head of Data Products, Warren Bulmer, was invited to present his research paper on DarkNet Child Exploitation Forums. Other topics discussed at the workshop included offending behaviours, investigative methods, advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, harmful sexual behaviours, and prevention initiatives.
With our work streams designed to seamlessly support projects and stakeholders collaboratively, this was an important event for our Head of Capacity and Prevention, Dannielle Kelly, and Head of Impact, Tiphanie Au, who represented the organisation at the workshop. In addition to enjoying the meaningful insights from presenters on a diverse range of research topics, it was a unique opportunity for them to network with a collective of like minded people committed to finding solutions to this crime.
We know that we need to work collaboratively to tackle these issues effectively, and our Capacity & Prevention and Impact streams combine to support the academic research that plays such a critical role in enhancing the protection of children. By forming new connections and having the potential for future partnerships with these academics leading their field, we hope that ground-breaking work of the future will emerge from this event to help the enhanced detection and prevention of CSE.
As the sponsor for the inaugural workshop we were delighted to support this worthwhile initiative, and we extend our gratitude to CSARRN for organising such an insightful event. We look forward to building on the relationships made and we are eagerly looking forward to further collaborating in 2024.
ICMEC Australia acknowledges Traditional Owners throughout Australia and their continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and Elders past and present.
