The predators that locked doors can’t stop

Warning: distressing content

It was a race against time. In a deep dive into a child abuse offender’s computer, they find a hidden file of a young girl, apparently being filmed against her will.

The Australian Federal Police-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) kicks in. While part of its job is to gather evidence against offenders and identify criminal syndicates, its priority is to find and rescue the kids at risk.

Australian Federal Police examining seized equipment.Credit: Australian Federal Police

Frame by frame they look for clues. Is the furniture specific to a country? What about the clothes? Is the accent unique? Is there a metadata clue? Has the child’s image already been identified along with millions of files held in the INTERPOL International Child Sexual Exploitation database?

AFP Commander (Human Exploitation) Helen Schneider says the process can take “weeks, months or even years”.

To make matters worse, this time it is a waste of time. An international syndicate has used AI to generate the image. There is no girl to save – there is no girl at all.

“Our greatest fear is that while we are working on a case where there aren’t real victims, there are others waiting to be rescued,” she says.

The syndicates use AI to create “synthetic” images, alter previously made child abuse material, and superimpose pictures of kids on fake images. This means these rings can generate thousands of images with little effort.

Schneider says it is still an offence to generate, purchase or view such material.

In July, a Melbourne man was sentenced to 13 months’ jail for using an AI program to create 793 child images.

Crooks have an advantage over cops. They lead the chase and police usually have to follow.

An AFP tech dog on a child protection raid.Credit: Australian Federal Police

This means the crooks may be in Africa and the victim in Armadale. Sophisticated crime is now international while police remain local.

Each state and country has different laws and standards. For crooks there is only one law: the law of supply and demand. Syndicates will provide anything for a price, and that includes child abuse material.

Organised crime syndicates can argue they simply provide products such as drugs, sex and booze to a willing market – that they are “victimless crimes”. Except when you are using kids. Then the pretence is stripped away.

In this area, Schneider says, there is international law enforcement co-operation, with police around the world sharing intelligence.

Between 2020 and 2023, ACCCE set up six victim identification taskforces, involving 17 national and international law enforcement agencies. It has officers in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Sydney working alongside state police child exploitation squads.

A perfect example is Operation Molto – an investigation that took years and culminated in the arrest of around 100 offenders in Australia. But that was just the local arm as it became a world-wide operation code named “H”.

The AFP says it resulted in the rescue of 153 kids – 79 in Britain, 51 in Australia, 12 in Canada, six in New Zealand, four in the US and one in Europe.

The FBI/AFP Operation Bakis was both a triumph and a tragedy. Two FBI agents were shot dead in Florida when they went to arrest a suspect. About 80 offenders were charged and 13 kids saved when the syndicate’s encrypted dark web system was cracked.

Operation Tenterfield began when Queensland police found child abuse material on the dark web in 2014 and sent it to INTERPOL to try and find the victims.

It took eight years until the ACCCE identified background objects that matched to a Brisbane childcare centre. It led to a childcare worker who had offended at 10 Brisbane centres, one in Sydney, and others overseas.

He was charged with 1600 offences between 2007 and 2022 involving 91 victims.

Policing can be simple. Find a crime, catch a crook, then have a counter lunch. But child exploitation investigations are anything but simple. Schneider says the ACCCE’s first mission is to rescue at-risk children, then identify and charge local offenders, share intelligence with international partners and break up syndicates.

There are welfare considerations. Once arrested, child abusers are at risk of self-harm. And then there are the investigators, many of whom are parents of young children.

“They see the worst of the worst,” Schneider says. She says safeguards include stopping investigators looking at child images near the end of their shifts, peer-group support, professional counselling and a promise of an immediate transfer if needed. “They can opt out at any time.”

But many stay because their contribution in rescuing children is so great. “They know they are having a significant impact, and they remain passionate about their work.”

The AFP has set up an online tool for parents and guardians called ThinkUKnow.

“We know that law enforcement is not the total answer.” Schneider says.

Police have generated an online heat map that creates a pinpoint when a computer user enters a known child exploitation site. It is shocking to see Melbourne illuminated by thousands of highlighted pinpricks across every suburb. It shows that what we may think is a terrible but small crime problem is mainstream.

Many offenders kid themselves that they “are just looking” and would never physically touch a child, but they are creating the market that is generating millions of images.

AFP dog Doris training to find hidden electronic devices.Credit: Darrian Traynor

The level of depravity beggars belief. Victoria Police have found livestreams where men in wealthy countries can pay to watch kids in developing nations be abused.

On the dark web a mother and her boyfriend published a price list of perversions. The information was passed on to police in the Philippines, resulting in arrests.

Offenders often download material then export it to devices that can be hidden, which is one of the reasons the AFP has specially trained dogs that can sniff out devices hidden in walls or buried in gardens.

The figures from the federal police are depressing. In the last financial year there were 58,000 reports of online child exploitation in Australia, an increase of 18,000. The data files are becoming bigger, and it is becoming easier to access and create the material.

“The bar is being lowered,” Schneider says.

Maybe once there were people who didn’t even know they had some hidden sexual demons involving children. Maybe the anonymous access to just about anything on the web led them click by click into internet quicksand.

Parents who would never let their children wander far from home allow them to wander through the web without supervision. Kids who are told never to hop in a car with a stranger are left to chat with strangers online. Many parents who invest in CCTV home security, check locks at night and have smoke alarms inside, allow their kids unsupervised screen time with potentially disastrous consequences.

So concerned is the federal government that it has announced it will attempt to place an age limit on social media. “Parents are worried sick about this. We know they’re working without a map – no generation has faced this challenge before,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Schneider says this is not a one-conversation issue, as the risks change as children develop.

It begins with young children playing seemingly harmless online games. Some have a chat capacity allowing exploiters to pretend they are a friend. Schneider says parents should teach kids critical thinking. “Who am I speaking to and do I know them?” Police records show the youngest known victim was eight.

Then as children get older (the target group is 13 to 17, mostly teenage boys) there is the threat of sextortion. International gangs throw out online nets looking to catch kids, persuading them to send compromising images and then snap the blackmail trap, demanding cash by bank transfers and gift cards.

“We have seen this lead to self-harm, including suicide,” Schneider says.

“Our priority is the victim. They need to know they are not in trouble.”

Police have identified 1800 overseas bank accounts used by exploitation syndicates and receive around 100 reports a month of the scams, which they know will only be a small percentage of the actual crimes.

Key warning signs are unsolicited friend requests, fake profiles that claim their microphone and webcams are not working, pressure to move from one app to another, and signs the person sending the messages has English as a second language.

Police say the first response should be to stop the chat, block the account, take screenshots and tell a friend or family member. The ACCCE has an online kit for parents on sexploitation.

This crime type is now generating its own language. The AFP’s Operation Blackheath identified 47 “capping” offenders. These are people who trick kids to perform sexually explicit acts, then capture or “cap” that material to be distributed worldwide on pay-for-view sites. The victims don’t know their images are being used.

The cap offenders were based in 24 countries. They found nearly 100 victims in the US, Britain, Russia, Denmark, Argentina, South Korea, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Italy, South Africa, Germany and France.

The first line of defence is to know your enemy and understand that no family is immune from attack. This is the high-tech version of a gas attack where the poison seeps through any cracks.

Don’t wait. Have that conversation with your kids – before someone else does.

If you think a child is in immediate danger, call triple zero. You can also report anonymously to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Guidance on how to report to ACCCE can be found here.

If you or someone you know is in need of support, contact Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.

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