University of Tasmania’s Joel Scanlan details tactics police use to catch child predators

With several Tasmanians sent to prison for child exploitation and grooming crimes recently, a UTAS expert has detailed the lengths that police go to stop young people from being harmed online.

Hacker working on computer. Cyber crime concept. Scam, scammer generic.

A Tasmanian-based cyber crime expert is concerned about the number of young people receiving messages from strangers online.

University of Tasmania and Australian Institute of Health Service Management senior lecturer Joel Scanlan has a PhD for his work in cyber security and privacy.

In recent weeks, several Tasmanians have been sent to prison for child exploitation and grooming crimes.

A man who had been producing child abuse material was caught by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and sentenced to 12 years in jail in the Supreme Court in Hobart.

Last month, 54-year-old Craig Douglas Stewart was sentenced after being stung by undercover officers from the AFP and Tasmania Police Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team who were posing as a teenage girl and her mother in an online chat room.

University of Tasmania ePrivacy lecturer and cyber security expert Joel Scanlan has weighed in on the polarising new tracing app. SOURCE: JOEL SCANLAN.

While he had not interacted extensively with Tasmania Police, Dr Scanlan said he had previously worked closely with the AFP.

“It’s not uncommon for law enforcement agencies to basically look at what’s happening in chat rooms,” he said.

“They have their undercovers talk to people in chat rooms to then find out and elicit the same sort of request they’re making of children, but they make it to a law enforcement officer, and then they can sort of go after them.”

In regards to undercover police officers posing as children, Dr Scanlan said he did not believe it was unethical.

“I’m not aware of it occurring in Tasmania, but there’s lots of cases in America of people being groomed online and met in person; then they’ve been kidnapped.

“You’ve got to think about the harm that could be occurring at the far end. These days, a lot of it is around image-based abuse and blackmailing.

“The thing that we’re commonly seeing in this space is they request, particularly of young males, photos, and they try to extort them for money, saying they’re going to share it with their friends and other people that are in that same social network.”

University of Tasmania ePrivacy lecturer and cyber security expert Joel Scanlan has weighed in on the polarising new tracing app. SOURCE: JOEL SCANLAN.

Police officers posing as children, according to Dr Scanlan, are very careful about what they say undercover.

“They’re not sitting in a chat room saying ‘hey, talk to me; I’ll give you pictures’,” Dr Scanlan said.

“They need to make sure they’re not crossing those lines because that then would hit up against other legal barriers and not be able to successfully prosecute.”

Dr Scanlan said recent Australian data indicated that more than 40 per cent of young people had spoken to strangers online.

“It’s not like all child groomers are trying to kidnap someone. It’s become commoditised to some degree in terms of the blackmailing elements of this.

“You’ve got to think about what’s the mental health impact on a 12-year-old who shared a picture of themselves to someone online who is now being blackmailed by someone overseas who’s getting money out of them, but that money is worth a lot more in a different country.”

Resources and reporting mechanisms are available via the Australian Centre To Counter Child Exploitation website and the eSafety Commission.

People can also report activity to Tasmanian Police on 131 444 or through Crime Stoppers.

Originally published as University of Tasmania’s Joel Scanlan details tactics police use to catch child predators