NSW Police sex crimes squad boss calls for tech companies to do more to protect young people

The boss of the sex crimes squad has called for social media companies to use artificial intelligence to crack down on creeps targeting kids. Get an inside look at the squad that’s arrested hundreds of predators here.

Almost 700 creeps targeting kids online have been arrested and charged over the past 20 years by a crack NSW Police squad dedicated to tackling online child exploitation.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the arrest data as the boss of the state’s sex crimes squad calls for social media companies to do more to stop predators using their platforms to groom kids for sex.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, NSW Police Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty said laws banning young kids from accessing social media would be of some assistance in stopping online child abuse, but questioned how they could be enforced.

The NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad commander also said parents should take a greater role in supervising children online and educating them on what to do if they are targeted by an online predator.

Ms Doherty told the Telegraph that social media platforms should be “more proactive” in ensuring people can only sign up when they reach a certain age.

A previous arrest by the Child Exploitation Internet Unit. Picture: NSW Police

She also called for powerful AI tools to be used in the fight against child exploitation.

“They should be more proactive … (and) use AI to look for conversations that don’t seem appropriate,” she said.

“If you’re on Facebook, and someone starts talking about sexual activities, that platform should be using AI to then say, ‘well hang on, that’s not the conversations that this platform is for’,” she said.

Parents also have a responsibility in keeping their children safe online, Ms Doherty said.

“You wouldn’t just let them go out into a playground and walk away and leave them with a group of adults around,” she said.

Sex Crimes Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty. Picture: NSW Police

“So why would you let them on the internet, where groups of adults are playing and not have that same interaction with the child?”

In the past five years, a specialised team targeting online child abuse has grown from four officers to 24.

Investigators in the Child Exploitation internet Unit, part of the Sex Crimes Squad, are tasked with targeting, identifying, and arresting predators targeting kids online.

The unit has arrested and charged 671 people since 2005.

Detective Sergeant Natali Stojceski, one of the unit’s investigators, spends her shifts online, on platforms popular with kids.

“We assume the identities of children and engage with offenders … who are there to obviously engage with children for sexual activity,” Ms Stojceski told the Telegraph.

Detective Sergeant Natali Stojceski is a part of the Child Exploitation Internet Unit which assumes the identities of kids online. Picture: Richard Dobson

Those offenders are “looking for children to engage in sexual activity with them, to solicit child abuse material, to groom (children) and procure them,” she said.

The offending starts with “befriending the child and then slowly getting them comfortable into (having) sexualised conversations”.

Sometimes the offenders pretend to be children themselves.

Ms Stojceski, who is preparing to become a mum for the first time, said one of the most important things parents can do is to have open conversations with their kids about what they do online.

“One thing that I would probably want to approach is being able to have that open communication with my child and explain to them about the dangers of online and talking to strangers

“Yeah, well, by the time I think my child’s ready to be on social media, I can only just imagine where the internet’s going to be by that stage.”

“It is a scary world out there.”

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Originally published as NSW Police sex crimes squad boss calls for tech companies to do more to protect young people