AFP and British cops crack down on ‘sextortion’ of children

Australian children are being blackmailed by more than 450 creeps online who have been identified by police.

TikTok is a popular platform used by crime syndicates to make contact with youngsters. Picture: AFP

Police from three countries are now jointly working to “shut down” nearly 500 online groomers operating sextortion stings targeting Australian teenagers.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has expanded its bilateral partnership with Britain to include French agents, after identifying 450 perpetrators from December to February blackmailing youngsters — mainly men — for money.

Working with criminal gangs, the offenders coerce innocent Australians on social networks including Facebook, TikTok and Instagram into sending naked images of themselves, before seeking ramsons of between $50 and $1000.

Officers from Operation Huntsman, a special AFP unit set up to tackle financial sextortion, have already shut down more than 1000 Australian bank, financial services and digital currency accounts operated by grooming gangs.

The expanded policing partnership comes a week after it was revealed the number of victims approaching the nation’s online watchdog, the eSafety Commission, for help had almost tripled since the start of the year.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has expanded its partnership with Britain to include French agents, after identifying 450 online groomers blackmailing Australian youngsters for cash from December to February.

More than eight Australian teenagers a day are being stung each week, according to the Australian Centre To Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) — or 250 per month.

Around 94 per cent of victims are boys, and six per cent are girls.

“There has been an alarming spike in numbers of victims of sexploitation in Australia and around the world,” AFP Detective Superintendent Stephen Jay, the senior officer for London, said.

Detective Superintendent Stephen Jay says there has been an ‘alarming spike’ in the enticement of teenagers for explicit images which they are then blackmailed for. Supplied

“With the help of British, French and crime agencies in other countries we share intelligence to target the perpetrators manipulating Australian children and shut down their means of operation.

“We are specifically targeting the financial structures of these groups and looking at Australian and international arrests.”

ACCCE commander Helen Schneider last week met representatives from Britain’s lead crime agency the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the French national police’s online child exploitation investigation unit to ramp up collaborative efforts.

Grooming gangs target victims on social networks including Facebook, TikTok and Instagram and progress to an encrypted platform where the conversation becomes highly sexualised.

AFP in the United Kingdom and the NCA already share intelligence from their tech platforms on online child sex offenders.

“The ACCCE is working with domestic and international partners to identify and stop offshore criminal syndicates profiting from Australian children, with rapid initial action to stop the flow of money from Australian victims reaching criminal syndicates,” Det Supt Jay said.

“This combination of organised financial crime and child sexual exploitation presents a worrying threat …

Online groomers will use social media platforms to contact young people before progressing to an encrypted platform where messages become more sexualised. They are then blackmailed for money with the threat of the images made public

“Offenders will coerce a victim into self-generating child abuse material, which they then threaten to share unless their demands for money are met – and sometimes they can get between $50 and $1000 and multiple payments.

“If the child refuses to share self-imagery, the crime syndicates can generate false naked images using the child’s face.”

In England, nearly 19,000 minors in England were sexually groomed in the last year.

And in America, at least 12 child suicides were directly attributed to international sextortion in 2022.

“Some of these children are left feeling very vulnerable and ashamed to confess to their parents, let alone report to the police they have been blackmailed for their own naked pictures, so the number of victims is potentially much, much higher,” Det Supt Jay said.

“This type of offending has increased risks for self-harm. It’s crucial children speak to parents, family, or the police if they find they have become victims and know they’re not alone.”

Lifeline: 13 11 14