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ICMEC Australia’s September Brown Bag event featured Susanne Drakborg, Senior Programs Manager at World Childhood Foundation. Susanne has led the World Childhood Foundation’s Child Safety Online program for the past 17 years and is the team lead for their Stella Polaris initiative.
During the webinar, Susanne shared learnings from Stella Polaris – focused on using AI to enhance the fight against child sexual exploitation (CSE) – and her presentation highlighted the crucial role of prevention in addressing this issue. Susanne shared fascinating projects that Stella Polaris is implementing which creatively utilise AI to protect children, and the insights and experience she shared offered valuable lessons that we can apply in Australia to strengthen our global efforts against CSE.
ICMEC Australia’s May Monthly Brown Bag webinar series featured Georgia Naldrett, the Stop It Now! Australia Manager within The Men’s Project at Jesuit Social Services and Dee Nicholas, the Senior Practitioner at Stop It Now! Australia.
During the session, Georgia and Dee delved into the importance of secondary prevention efforts in combatting child sexual abuse. They also examined emerging trends from the perpetrator prevalence study with UNSW and their work with perpetrators via the Stop It Now! Australia helpline, including what we know about their online behaviour (e.g. use of cryptocurrency, pornography use etc.).
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.
With an increase in digital currencies as a method of payment, the rapid advancements in this area since the introduction of the Blockchain in 2008 have increased the complexity of detecting suspicious payments. Understanding how cryptocurrency operates and its differences from traditional banking structures is critical to applying frameworks to detecting and preventing child sexual exploitation transactions.
ICMEC Australia’s November Brown Bag event featured Luke McGoldrick, Sales Director at Chainalysis, who discussed cryptocurrency, its capabilities, and the ways it has the potential to intersect with online child sexual exploitation.
Luke covered the different types of crypto, how they can be used to facilitate child sexual exploitation, and dispelled the idea that digital payments made on the blockchain are completely untraceable.
Our September Monthly Brown Bag event was an in depth discussion about some of the challenges that arise for those detecting, reporting, prosecuting and preventing child sexual exploitation.
During this event Madonna King, award-winning journalist and author of Saving Our Kids, interviewed Jon Rouse APM, ICMEC Australia Board Director and former Head of Taskforce Argos, to gain his thoughts about the key role of collaboration across various industries when it comes to protecting children from harm.
Understanding how each organisation fits into the jigsaw puzzle that is child protection requires cross-industry collaboration. Jon and Madonna’s discussion highlights some of the ways that law enforcement and financial institutions, in particular, can work together to identify perpetrators and their victims.
View the recording below for a limited time.*
*Recording available until 31 December 2024
Our June 2023 Brown Bag event covered the key topic of artificial intelligence (AI) which is currently in the spotlight due to its wide applications across aspects of life such as business, education and law enforcement.
Our presenter, Colm Gannon discussed the regulatory landscape, the risks and the potential harms of AI, especially in the case of child sexual exploitation (CSE) and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Colm is an AI/Machine Learning expert, working as a Product Manager with Irish technology company, Rigr AI. He has over 20 years’ experience in Law Enforcement, involved in national and international investigations and prosecutions relating to online harms, child sexual abuse and exploitation, violent extremism, and harmful online communications.
Colm’s presentation examined the impacts that AI is having on the generation of CSAM and ways that AI can be positively, safely and successfully applied by law enforcement and the financial services industries in the detection, reporting and prosecution of CSE.
View the recording below.
Our May 2023 Brown Bag event discussed the importance of preventing image-based sexual violence and the impact this issue has on children and young people. With a focus on the extent of harms victim-survivors of this extreme form of abuse endure, this session featured key takeaways from survivors and advocates on the path towards justice and healing. As the ways we are able to connect online expand, so do the risks to children and young people.
The session brought a global perspective to inform our local response, and shared how different organisations, companies, and individuals working in this space can collaborate to move toward the greater goal of protecting children from this online harm that creates real-life, devastating consequences.
Andrea Powell, Director of the Image-based Sexual Abuse Initiative at Panorama Global, shared her wealth of knowledge from working extensively with victim-survivors of sexual violence. Andrea’s presentation shared her vision of a world where children and young people are free from the enduring trauma that results from image-based abuse, and other types of online harm.
View the recording of this informative session below.
Understanding the motivations of people who seek out, produce or encourage the creation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is a key aspect in informing our methods and practices in the CSE response ecosystem. The ever-evolving nature of this heinous crime necessitates an up-to-date response, as the ways that offenders use technology to abuse children is constantly changing.
Research into the online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) is a vital piece of the puzzle in detecting and identifying perpetrators of child sexual abuse. Our March 2023 event focused on understanding the perpetrator behaviours and tactics that are essential to those working to detect, prosecute and prevent this crime. We were joined by Dr Sarah Napier from the Australian Institute of Criminology, who presented the findings of her extensive research into offender behaviour, and the emerging trends in the area.
View the recording below.
Using appropriate language and applying a victim-centric approach when engaging in public discourse surrounding the heinous crime of child sexual abuse and exploitation is critical to raising awareness, reducing stigma and empowering victim survivors to share their personal experiences.
Our inaugural Monthly Brown Bag event featured Dr Kerry McCallum, Director of the News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra. Dr McCallum presented on the importance of using appropriate terminology in relation to child sexual exploitation and shared insights from her team’s research project, commissioned by the National Office for Child Safety (NOCS), which included a literature review and quantitative and qualitative analysis of media coverage on child sexual abuse over a two‑year period.
You can access the recording of Kerry’s insightful and informative presentation below. Having difficult conversations about the sexual abuse of children is a critical aspect of creating awareness of this crime, But it is essential that public discourse of this topic be trauma-informed and incorporate appropriate language.
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.
