‘Don’t hit publish’: Creeps lurking to pinch innocent pics, warns AFP as sex exploitation rises by 41 per cent

Australians are warned innocent family photos are ending up in the vile collections child predators.

A staggering 41 per cent jump in reports of online child sexual exploitation in just 12 months has prompted the AFP to warn all Australian parents to think twice about “hitting publish” and uploading their favourite snaps to social media.

News.com.au can reveal the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) received 82,764 reports across the last financial year, compared to 58,503 reports in 2023/24, 40,232 in 2022/23 and 36,600 in 2021/22.

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AFP Commander Human Exploitation Helen Schneider said the figures reflected the global threat of this horrific crime type, driving home the critical need for a whole-of-community response, given offences such as sextortion and online grooming were 100 per cent preventable if people understood what the threat looked like.

“The family home is the frontline of defence,” she said.

“The 41 per cent rise in reports of online child sexual exploitation is hugely confronting, as it represents acts of unspeakable horror and trauma that involve Australians as both victims and offenders,” Commander Schneider told news.com.au.

“These acts range from the creation, distribution and consumption of child abuse material through to the livestreaming of child sexual abuse overseas.

A staggering 41 per cent jump in child exploitation reports in 12 months has prompted the AFP to warn parents to think twice about what they post of their children.

Child Protection and Sex Crime Squad detectives arrested a man who allegedly groomed a young girl for sex over the internet. An undercover officer from the Child Exploitation Internet Unit posed as a 14-year-old girl and communicated with the 40-year-old Newtown man over an internet chat site for three months.

“Our team is relentless and committed in response, from the specialists who spend their days trawling through the worst kind of imagery and footage to identify and save victims to our operational teams and law-enforcement partners who help identify offenders and bring them to justice.

“But it’s simply not something police can tackle alone, making it essential for parents, carers and the wider community to take an active role in protecting our vulnerable young people. “Understanding what the threat looks like is the key to empowering families to be the frontline of defence against these online offenders.”

Commander Schneider warned people shouldn’t assume offenders are only interested in child abuse material. When investigators examine the photography and video collections of offenders, they regularly find images and footage that would be widely considered to represent ordinary life.

“This can be something as simple as school or sporting activities, or even a family picnic.

It’s the sort of material that would feel safe to post or share online, but can and does end up in the hands of offenders, who can then share it with networks of fellow offenders globally.

“You wouldn’t walk up to a stranger and simply hand over your family album, so it’s important that you apply the same safeguards to material online,” Commander Schneider said.

Key events considered social media worth – that are potentially red rags to a sex offender – include first day of school snaps.

The ACCCE mapped out a scenario of how this could unfold.

“A parent is excited about their child’s first day at school and wants to share and celebrate the milestone with people who can’t be there, such as grandparents and family friends.

To this end, they post imagery to social media, without remembering their profile is set to public,” she said.

An Adelaide man who paid about $60,000 to watch live on video as children overseas were sexually abused has been ordered to serve more than a decade behind bars. Picture: AFP

Offenders know it’s the first day of school, so they trawl social media for imagery by searching posts, hashtags and other prompts. This leads them to this particular post, which includes shots of the student in uniform, holding a bag showing a school logo, and standing with their family in front of a school building.

“In both cases, they have unwittingly now given offenders clues that point towards the victim’s age, where they go to school and where they live, increasing their risk of being directly targeted.”

There are also cases of parents being groomed.

An example of how it could happen: “A parent posts an image of a child in a uniform playing sport on social media, not recalling that their profile is set to public.

“An offender finds the photo and reaches out to the parent, claiming to represent a sportswear company and offering to send them free gear in return for pictures of the child wearing it while posing athletically.

“The outreach seems plausible in a world of influencers, so the parent accepts the offer in good faith, receives the goods and sends back photos of their child. This imagery is now in the hands of an offender who, having groomed the parent, has the opportunity to share it with a network of offenders that could stretch globally.”

With online child sexual exploitation serving as the umbrella term for behaviours ranging from sextortion to online grooming, the specialist team takes a multifaceted approach to tackling the issue, which draws on technology to access victims globally.

An Adelaide man was sentenced to 10 years, one month and 25 days’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of five years and nine months. The South Australia Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team, comprising officers from the AFP and South Australian Police, started investigating the man’s activities after receiving information about international remittance payments to various beneficiaries over multiple years. Picture: AFP

A 24-year-old Sri Lankan national residing in Melbourne has been sentenced to jail after coercing young girls into sending sexually explicit images and videos of themselves and then distributing the intimate content to their family, friends and posting the material to an adult pornography website. The man was sentenced to 13 years, six months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of eight years and six months for 25 online child abuse-related offences. Picture: AFP

“But it’s simply not something police can tackle alone, making it essential for parents, carers and the wider community to take an active role in protecting our vulnerable young people

This includes partnering with the finance sector to disrupt activities and accounts that funnel

money back to the criminal networks and working with social media platforms to

access and deliver education to at-risk young people.

Awareness campaigns are also key, with the Centre supporting delivery of more than 2500

education presentations to students, parents, carers and teachers last financial year.

“We have worked relentlessly to bolster awareness of how to submit a report, encouraged parents and carers to stay vigilant about online activity and empowered children to feel more comfortable speaking to adults about what they do online, and also to tell someone they trust if something goes wrong,” Commander Schneider said.

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Originally published as ‘Don’t hit publish’: Creeps lurking to pinch innocent pics, warns AFP as sex exploitation rises by 41 per cent