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This session highlights the powerful role that the travel and tourism industry can play in protecting children from sexual exploitation and abuse. With more than one in four Australians having experienced child sexual abuse (ACMS, 2023), businesses across this sector have a unique opportunity to be part of the solution.
Whether it’s through booking platforms or hotel staff on the ground, companies in travel and accommodation can be in a position to identify risks and respond early. Recent cases in which hotel staff have identified and stopped abuse on their premises serve as a powerful reminder that awareness and training can prevent harm and save lives.
In this webinar, we’ll hear directly from Marriott International and Booking.com on the proactive steps they are taking to strengthen child safeguarding.
Hosted by ICMEC Australia, this session will open with a brief overview of how child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) can occur within the travel and tourism industry, followed by a panel discussion with leaders from Marriott and Booking.com. We’ll explore how businesses can take action and why this work is not just ethical, but essential to building trust, safety, and social impact across the tourism industry.
Please note, the session will run under the Chatham House Rule: while participants may freely use information received during the event, the identity and affiliation of any speakers and participants must not be disclosed without express prior consent.
Your speakers
Abbe Horswill is the Director of Human Rights at Marriott International. She oversees Marriott’s human rights and human trafficking awareness initiatives, manages strategic partnerships and programs with nonprofit organisations, and provides education and guidance on human rights issues. Prior to joining the Marriott team, Abbe spent more than a decade in the anti-trafficking field, working at leading organisations, including Polaris and the National and International Centers for Missing and Exploited Children. She is thrilled to share this field-driven subject matter expertise with Marriott and the hospitality industry to help combat human trafficking, advance human rights, and make a positive social impact.
Jennifer Easterday, Head of Human Rights at Booking.com, leads the development and execution of the company's human rights strategy. Since January 2023, she has built and led a dedicated team advancing business and human rights standards across the organisation. Before Booking.com, she co-founded and served as Executive Director of JustPeace Labs, a non-profit organisation promoting the ethical and responsible development of digital technology. She holds a law degree from UC Berkeley School of Law and is licensed to practice law in California.
Event details
21 August 2025
Thursday
2:00pm – 3:00pm
AEST / Sydney time
1:30pm - 2:30pm ACST / Adelaide time
12:00pm - 1:00pm AWST / Perth time
Online event
via Microsoft teams
Registration
Registration for this event has now closed.
For more details on ICMEC Australia's events, visit our industry events page below.
Online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) is an urgent, national issue, with far-reaching consequences. However, there is a distinct lack of information on the economic toll this crime takes on society – and without this insight, efforts to enact systemic change can be limited.
Our July Monthly Brown Bag will explore the outcomes from a first-of-its-kind Australian study into the economic and financial costs and impacts of OCSEA, conducted through a partnership between the University of Queensland (UQ) and ICMEC Australia. Presented by Dr Jonah Rimer, lead researcher from UQ, the session will focus on the study’s recently completed initial phase, which established the existing knowledge base, and conceptualised the meaning of OCSEA costs.
Join us to hear a summary of the identified costs, the sectors likely to be involved, and participate in a discussion about the next steps of the study. This is an opportunity to provide input on cross-sector efforts to progress the research agenda and identify how industry can translate the findings into meaningful, tangible action.
To read the full report, visit our research page.
Your speaker
Dr Jonah Rimer is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Queensland and Convenor of Cyber Criminology for the university’s postgraduate Cyber Security programs. He holds a Doctorate in Anthropology and a Master’s in Medical Anthropology from Oxford University, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. Jonah’s research areas are online sexual offending, child abuse, human factors in cybercrime, social science of the internet, childhood and youth studies, and the justice system. He has been researching online child sexual exploitation and abuse since 2007 while in academia and the non-profit sector. For a list of publications, see Jonah’s UQ profile.
Event details
24 July 2025
Thursday
12:30pm – 1:30pm
AEST / Sydney
12:00pm - 1:00pm ACST / Adelaide time
10:30am - 11:30am AWST / Perth time
Online event
via Microsoft teams
Registration
Registrations for this event have now closed.
For more details on ICMEC Australia's events, visit our industry events page below.
We are proud to present our third major annual event in Sydney, the ICMEC Australia Symposium 2025: Convergence.
From the digital trafficking of children across countries to the financial sexual extortion of young people, child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) is an issue that crosses both geographical borders and industry sectors. With more than 1 in 4 Australians having experienced child sexual abuse (ACMS, 2023), we are facing a silent epidemic and a whole-of-system approach is paramount in our fight against this heinous crime.
This in-person, one day event will unite leaders from across the child protection response system, including businesses whose platforms or services may be misused to exploit children. The event will focus on a shared goal: to support and strengthen the professionals who detect, report, prosecute, and prevent CSEA.
The Symposium offers a unique opportunity to engage with leading experts from across public and private sectors, showcasing the latest intelligence, cutting-edge solutions, and innovative strategies driving cross-sector collaboration.
To ensure ICMEC Australia can continue advancing our work in the child protection space, this year’s Symposium will be a paid ticketed event.
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Webinar series
Around 1 in 4 Australians have experienced sexual abuse as a child (Australian Child Maltreatment Study, 2023) and with rapid technological advancements, perpetrators are always finding new ways to exploit financial services to harm children. This crisis demands action, and banks are uniquely positioned to lead the fight against child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA).
Join us for our new multi-part online event series, Empowering every bank: Detecting and disrupting child sexual exploitation and abuse, which will equip small and mid-sized banks with the knowledge and tools to prevent, detect, and report CSEA. These webinars aim to enhance your awareness and understanding of the crime type, offering financially relevant insights, case study examples, and actionable strategies to strengthen your organisation’s response.
This series focuses on the unique challenges faced by small and mid-sized banks, although professionals from other financial institutions are welcome to attend. Together, we can strengthen industry efforts, lead prevention and detection initiatives in the corporate sector, and protect society’s most vulnerable – our children.
Audience
This event series is designed for small and mid-sized banks. However, risk managers, compliance officers, anti-money laundering (AML) professionals, and key business decision makers from any financial institution are also welcome to register.
If you are unsure if these webinars are for you, feel free to contact us at event@icmec.org.au.
Event details
This series includes three sessions held virtually via Microsoft Teams.
Your Speakers
Bronwyn Mead Data and Intelligence Manager, Financial Crime and Cyber Resilience, Customer Owned Banking Association
Bronwyn has over 20 years of experience in the financial crime space. In addition to her operational experience with fraud, scams, and AML/CTF in the customer-owned banking sector, she is a Certified Fraud Examiner, and holds a Master of Fraud & Financial Crime. She is passionate about the value of the mutual sector, and keen to see uplift in the industry.
Her role at COBA is in data and intelligence, and she knows first-hand the challenges the sector faces in relation to financial crime, legacy systems, and capacity
Jessica Price Manager AML Operations, Indue
Jessica Price is an experienced AML professional with over eight years in financial crime, specialising in transaction monitoring, investigations, and regulatory reporting. As Manager of AML Operations at Indue Ltd, they oversee a transaction monitoring service for multiple financial institutions, helping clients strengthen their defences against evolving ML/TF threats.
With a strong operational background, they have built and trained transaction monitoring teams and understand the importance of robust processes in detecting and disrupting financial crime before it causes harm.
Mark Dickson Executive Manager, Financial Intelligence Unit
Mark Dickson is a financial crime risk and compliance specialist. He has worked in financial crime related roles at the Westpac Group for over 16 years and currently leads the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) function within Group Financial Crime.
Mark is passionate about collaborating with stakeholders to lead the fight against child sexual exploitation and his teams actively partner with AUSTRAC, the Fintel Alliance, law enforcement and ICMEC Australia to promote child protection initiatives.
Katelyn Allen, Manager, Financial Crime Investigations, NAB
Katelyn Allen is a Manager in the Financial Crime Investigations team at NAB, focusing on high risk investigations and public-private collaboration. Katelyn has a strong passion for protecting vulnerable people and has dedicated much of her career to combatting child exploitation.
As part of this commitment, Katelyn has developed industry leading resources and initiatives to help the financial services industry respond more effectively to child exploitation.
Ainslea Milthorpe, Financial Crimes Team Lead, Hume Bank
Ainslea Milthorpe is the Financial Crimes Team Lead at Hume Bank, bringing over 11 years of experience in the financial services industry, with a specialised focus on financial crime including fraud/scams, ML/TF and sanctions.
Ainslea is passionate about protecting and educating the community and believes that collaboration through intelligence sharing and trust are the key to success in combating financial crime.
Registration
Registrations for this webinar series have now closed.
For more details on ICMEC Australia's events, visit our industry events page below.
In today’s digitally advanced society, children can access the online world with unparalleled ease. With a few clicks of a mouse or a swipe of a phone screen, they can virtually connect with friends from the comfort of their bedrooms – and people can connect with them too.
Sexual extortion, or sextortion, is a form of online blackmail in which someone tricks or coerces a person into sending sexual images of themselves, then threatens to share the photos if the person does not comply with their demands – usually for more images, payment, or sexual favours. This scam has rapidly become a critical child safety issue, with a recent Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) study reporting that one in ten Australian adolescents said that someone had sexually extorted them for money or more intimate material.
Our March Brown Bag, presented by Dr Heather Wolbers, Principal Research Analyst at AIC, will explore key findings from two new research reports examining adolescents’ experience of sextortion. The studies reveal the serious and varied short- and long-term effects of sextortion, highlighting the support needs of victim-survivors and the urgency of targeted approaches to reduce this crime.
Your speaker
Dr Heather Wolbers is a Principal Research Analyst in the Australian Institute of Criminology’s (AIC) Online Sexual Exploitation of Children Research Program. She has undertaken research within the fields of family and sexual violence, the online sexual exploitation of children, and serious and organised crime. Heather holds a Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice (with Honours), a Bachelor of Forensic Science, and a PhD in Criminology from Griffith University
Event details
26 March 2025
Wednesday
12:30pm – 1:30pm
AEDT / Sydney
11:30am – 12:30pm AEST / Brisbane time
9:30am – 10:30am AWST / Perth time
Online event
via Microsoft teams
Registration
This event has already taken place. Thankyou to everyone to who attended. If you missed it, you can watch the recording below.
Please note: This video contains sensitive content and is age-restricted. You will need to sign in to a YouTube account to watch.
For more details on ICMEC Australia's events, visit our industry events page below.
Op Blackwrist, led by INTERPOL, was an international cross-agency investigation prompted by the discovery of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on a website which required a paid subscription.
The operation identified a network of offenders committing child sexual abuse, with some perpetrators travelling to Thailand to carry out the abuse. The heinous acts were then recorded and uploaded onto a website, where access to the material was commercialised and made available globally.
Tracking the consumption of the CSAM on the webpage posed a significant challenge to authorities, as access to the site and its content required a pay-per-view membership through an unregulated closed currency platform, TrueMoney.
Presented by ICMEC Australia’s new CEO Colm Gannon, who was an investigator on the case, our February Brown Bag will provide an overview of the operation. Colm’s presentation will focus on the challenges of closed currency platforms and how transaction laundering remains a key modus operandi for digital child trafficking in the commercialisation of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Your speaker
Colm Gannon, CEO of ICMEC Australia, is a seasoned professional with a strong commitment to child protection and extensive expertise in digital safety, cybercrime investigations, and software development. With 20 years in law enforcement, he has been involved in national and international investigations and prosecutions relating to online harms, child sexual exploitation, violent extremism, and harmful online communication.
Previously a Product Manager at Rigr AI involved in the software development process, policy development, and impact assessments, Colm’s wealth of experience positions him at the intersection of technology and child protection.
Event details
26 February 2025
Wednesday
12:30pm – 1:30pm
AEDT / Sydney
11:30am – 12:30pm AEST / Brisbane time
9:30am – 10:30am AWST / Perth time
Online event
via Microsoft teams
Registration
This event has already taken place. Thankyou to everyone to who attended. If you missed it, you can watch the recording below.
Please note: This video contains sensitive content and is age-restricted. You will need to sign in to a YouTube account to watch.
For more details on ICMEC Australia's events, visit our industry events page below.
As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, it presents both challenges and opportunities in protecting children from exploitation. Our September Brown Bag will explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can be harnessed to enhance efforts in preventing and combatting online child sexual abuse by looking at a pioneering initiative led by the World Childhood Foundation.
Susanne Drakborg from the World Childhood Foundation will provide in-depth insights into their Stella Polaris project, which combines child rights with AI to create a coordinated, multi-layered approach to combatting child sexual abuse. By fostering collaboration between the technology sector, the judiciary, and child rights organisations, Stella Polaris aims to accelerate the development and implementation of AI solutions that can make meaningful impact in the fight against this heinous crime.
The session will discuss the importance of a global solution to a worldwide problem as we navigate child protection in the age of AI, what we can learn from the data-driven approaches of our international counterparts here in Australia, and what transparency, fairness, and innovation looks like when using AI to bolster child protection efforts. Susanne will share insights from successful AI solutions and offer practical suggestions for how you can be a part of the fight against online child sexual abuse, whether you work in child protection, law enforcement, technology, or policy-making.
Susanne Drakborg, Senior Programs Manager at World Childhood Foundation, works globally to prevent child sexual abuse. Susanne has led the World Childhood Foundation’s Child Safety Online program for the past 17 years, and is the team lead for Stella Polaris – a hub exploring and supporting how Artificial Intelligence can help combat child sexual abuse. A lawyer by education and a multi-linguist, Ms Drakborg previously worked for the United Nations on HIV and AIDS issues and on civil-military coordination on behalf of the European Commission.
Registrations for this event have now closed.
Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is often viewed and managed in isolation, despite its deep interconnection with other human impact crimes, like modern slavery. This siloed approach can limit our effectiveness in addressing the full range of these interrelated issues.
As organisations increasingly focus on minimising the risks of modern slavery through efforts prompted by the Modern Slavery Act, there is a significant and urgent opportunity to extend this same vigilance to protecting customers, particularly children, from harm. Regulatory changes and evolving stakeholder expectations are also intensifying, with customer outcomes critical to maintaining a social licence to operate.
Our August Brown Bag will shed light on how organisations can leverage existing modern slavery efforts for broader harm minimisation. Drawing on lessons learned across industries, this session will discuss embedding safety principles in the design, development, and deployment of products and services. Featuring Sarah Minahan and Gemma Livingston, Directors of KPMG’s Human Rights and Social Impact services in Australia and New Zealand, the discussion will explore specialist insights, real-world case studies, and practical actions to help keep some of your most vulnerable customers - children - safe.
Sarah Minahan, Director, Human Rights and Social Impact at KPMG, works with clients to embed human rights and modern slavery due diligence into their operations and supply chains. As KPMG’s Social ESG Lead in Financial Services, she has extensive experience in supporting managers in financial service institutions, as well as broader sectors such as energy, telecommunications, retail, and more. Sarah specialises in risk control design and implementation, stakeholder engagement, risk and social impact strategy, sustainability reporting, and impact measurement.
Gemma Livingston leads KPMG’s Human Rights and Social Impact offerings in New Zealand. Specialising in human rights due diligence, Gemma works with clients to identify and address human rights and modern slavery risks across their business operations and supply chains. With a background in commercial and criminal litigation and experience in the public, private, and community sectors in New Zealand and Australia, Gemma brings a wealth of knowledge to working with financial institutions to incorporate safety principles in areas like child exploitation, modern slavery, financial abuse, and more.
This session will not be recorded, so please join us live to ensure you don’t miss out on this valuable webinar.
Registrations for this event have closed.
Please contact us at event@icmec.org.au for further enquiries.
Be a catalyst for change by joining us at the inaugural SaferAI for Children Summit. Engage in an important conversation about the manipulation of AI to harm children and explore ways to harness this technology for good.
The International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children Australia’s inaugural SaferAI for Children Summit is a one-day event dedicated to cross-industry innovation to navigate child protection in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, staying informed is crucial for crafting effective child protection responses. Unfortunately, the misuse of Generative AI by offenders to harm children is a growing concern. Offenders are increasingly manipulating GenAI tools to extend and amplify their abuse, resulting in illegal and harmful material. This issue demands urgent attention and action.
This discussion must extend beyond the harms of AI. This technology also holds significant potential to enhance our ability to protect children. ICMEC Australia’s SaferAI for Children Summit will explore the opportunities AI presents for child protection and emphasise the urgency for action in this space.
Child sexual abuse is undeniably one of society's most harmful crimes. It is our collective responsibility to do everything within our power to protect children from harm and prevent abuse. As the first summit of its kind in Australia, this event will be solutions-focused, highlighting the critical role AI plays in keeping our children safe.
This event is proudly supported by
If you are interested in becoming a supporter of this event, please contact Dannielle Kelly, Head of Capacity and Prevention, at dkelly@icmec.org.au
Date: Tuesday 29 October 2024
Time: 8.45am - 4:00pm, followed by networking from 4:00pm - 5:00pm
This event is free of charge, noting the significance of this topic and ICMEC Australia's commitment to raising awareness of this critical issue.
This event will not be livestreamed. We ask that you only register if you are able to attend in-person in Sydney.
This unique event is tailored to leaders from various sectors, including:
Please note that due to limited spaces, registration is subject to approval.
His Excellency, Mr Gabriele Visentin
EU Ambassador to Australia
Delegation of the European Union to Australia
Ian McCartney APM
Acting Commissioner
Australian Federal Police
Adèle Desirs
Victim Identification Analyst
Argos, Queensland Police
Paul Griffiths
Child Victim Identification Manager
Queensland Police Service
Dr Catriona Wallace
Founder
Responsible Metaverse Alliance
Toby Dagg
General Manager, Regulatory Operations
eSafety Commissioner
Ashley Katz
Director, Child Protection International Partnerships
Attorney-General's Department
Jeannie Paterson
Co-Director, Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Ethics
University of Melbourne
Grace Tame
Advocate and Founder
Grace Tame Foundation
Colm Gannon
Non-Executive Chair
ICMEC Australia
Jon Rouse APM
Non-Executive Board Member
ICMEC Australia
Mark Dickson
Executive Manager, Financial Crime
Westpac
Ryan Black
Director of Government Affairs, ANZ
Microsoft
Simon Fogarty APM
Sergeant, Team Leader - Intelligence Team/Victim Identification Team
Victoria Police
Campbell Wilson
Co-Director, AiLECS Lab
Monash University
Sean Litton
President and CEO
Technology Coalition
Mia Garlick
Senior Regional Director, Policy
Meta
Dr Rebecca Portnoff
Vice President, Data Science
Thorn
Dr Joel Scanlan
Senior Lecturer
University of Tasmania
Sue Bradford
Partner - Audit, Assurance & Risk Consulting, Forensic
KPMG Australia
Danielle Kelly
Head of Capacity and Prevention
ICMEC Australia
Timothy Goodrick
Director, Forensic
KPMG Australia
Rosie Campo
Acting CEO
ICMEC Australia
Registrations for this event have now closed.
Please contact us at event@icmec.org.au for further enquiries.
ICMEC Australia serves as a crucial advocate and resource in the fight against online child sexual exploitation (CSE). We are boldly confronting this issue when most would rather avoid it. Alongside our coalition of partners, we strive to proactively halt and prevent its occurrence.
At ICMEC Australia, we're turning the use of online technology to exploit children on its head. We support frontline workers in combatting child sexual abuse by leveraging technology and data-driven strategies to detect, report, prosecute, and prevent child exploitation.
Our mission is clear: to support and strengthen the professionals who detect, report, prosecute and prevent online CSE. As an independent not-for-profit organisation, we collaborate with various stakeholders, such as financial services and corporate entities, law enforcement, policymakers, academics, and NGOs, to develop strategies to protect children from harm.
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.
