Sick messages of sex predators targeting Aussie kids online
Brazen sex perverts are grooming and entrapping Australian children online, as parents pimp their own children to paedophiles.
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Exclusive: Brazen sex perverts are targeting Australian kids in lockdown, as parents pimp their own children to paedophiles online.
Chilling messages intercepted on the Dark Web by Australian Federal Police (AFP) reveal how paedophiles are exploiting Covid-19 lockdowns to groom and entrap children, a News Corp investigation reveals.
Child abuse material shared online has nearly doubled since the start of the pandemic, with a staggering 21,000 notifications flagged to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation in 2020.
Police are now using sniffer dogs in raids to detect hidden devices, such as USBs, found to contain up to 80,000 images of traumatised children being sexually abused.
Undercover cyber-cops have recorded creepy conversations between paedophiles discussing ways to groom and access children under the cover of Covid-19 lockdowns.
“I hope you parents with kids at home are using this opportunity to get the kids nude and take lots of pics!’’ one offender wrote in a chatroom on the Dark Web.
Another wrote: “Unfortunately I can’t go out and see kiddos anymore :( ’’
“Being stuck inside could be good for those who have young ones with them’’.
AFP officers took screen shots of a message “I am so jealous of you parents with children at home’’.
AFP Detective Superintendent Paula Hudson, of the ACCCE and AFP Child Protection Operations, warned that the internet is a playground for sex predators.
She urged parents to keep watch over their children’s internet use, and to limit direct messaging and location services on games and social media.
Detective Superintendent Hudson revealed that some parents are pimping their children to paedophiles, by filming sex acts to sell online.
She said lockdowns left children vulnerable to abuse from family members – including kids blackmailed by predators to film their siblings naked.
“Offenders saw Covid-19 as an opportunity to target vulnerable children spending more time online unsupervised,’’ she said.
“We’re seeing forums dedicated to the Covid-19 pandemic – users of like mind are discussing opportunities to groom children and upload and share images.
“It’s been shocking and brazen.
“Kids are being groomed to take images of their siblings.’’
Detective Superintendent Hudson said police were investigating more cases of abuse between family members.
She said one offender had been caught telling a forum that he was “looking forward to babysitting his niece’’.
A mother in the Riverina district of NSW had been arrested for taking naked photos of her 12-year-old daughter, for an online forum.
Detective Superintendent Hudson said predators were using direct messaging in online games to build friendships with children, offering them “likes’’ or free products.
“Parents or carers are being offered free products, or their children being asked to model clothing, are some of the means being used to groom their children,’’ she said.
Predators then tricked or cajoled children to send sexualised images, which were then used to blackmail them for even more explicit material, by threatening to tell their parents or release the images online.
“Often when the children are being exploited you can hear adults in the next room watching TV or making dinner,’’ Detective Superintendent Hudson said.
“With lockdowns, parents are wanting to give kids more screen time than ever because there’s nothing else to do, but it’s not necessarily a safe way to play.
“You wouldn’t let your children cross the road on their own or go to a playground and leave them unsupervised, so you shouldn’t do that online.”
The AFP charged 187 Australians with child abuse-related offences in 2020 – including a teacher, a furniture removalist, information technology professionals, shop assistants and even law enforcement workers.
Police officers are posing as children or paedophiles online to trap sex offenders, and have trained “technology detection dogs’’ to sniff out devices hidden in furniture, TVs or power plugs.
“If you are sharing, uploading or viewing child exploitation material, you will be located and tracked down by our investigators who operate on the clear and dark net to ensure our children are safe,’’ Detective Superintendent Hudson said.
“You will be traced and de-anonymised, arrested and prosecuted.’’
Detective Superintendent Hudson slammed Facebook’s plan for end-to-end encryption of messages next year, warning that police would no longer be able to detect tens of thousands of images of child abuse.
She called on tech giants to have a “moral conscience when it comes to children who don’t have a voice’’.
The federal government’s e-safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, is also demanding that technology companies make games and apps safer for children.
“Responsibility for online safety can’t continue to be the responsibility of kids and their often overwhelmed parents,’’ she said.
“We need the tech companies to lift the safety standards of their platforms.
“We believe user safety should be as much a priority for tech companies as it is for the food, toy and automotive industries.’’
Ms Inman Grant said a recent study found that one in three teenagers has been contacted by a stranger online.
She urged parents to talk to and teach their children about staying safe online, as “scare tactics, finger wagging and lectures don’t work.’’
“We need to teach them to question everything,’’ she said.
PARENTS WARNED OF APPS SNOOPING ON KIDS
Kid-friendly apps are snooping on children and storing their personal details, parents have been warned.
The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) has launched a new website, for parents to check the privacy settings of 50 top Android educational and gaming apps.
ACCM president Elizabeth Handsley, Professor of Law at Western Sydney University, said some apps were invading children’s privacy by tracking their web searches and storing or sharing personal information
“It might include things like the child’s name, address, date of birth or age, that you wouldn’t want complete strangers knowing about your child,’’ she said.
“Technology changes so fast, so who knows how data could be used against children’s interests when they’re adults?
“It could be something like being stalked, profiled or identity theft.’’
Professor Handsley called for special protections for children under Australian privacy law.
“The onus has unfairly been placed on parents to protect their children,’’ she said.
“They have been left to scrutinise and decode the long and complicated privacy policies of each app their children use.
“Even then, these don’t clearly state what information the app will or will not collect.’’
Concerned mother Narrah Zollo discourages her daughters Stella, 12, and Nia, 9, from playing online, as she fears social media and games can be a “gateway’’ to predators.
“I don’t feel comfortable or safe with strangers having access to my children,’’ she said.
“In some cases I think apps are just a way of collecting information which these days is extremely valuable.’’
Ms Zollo, who works for Nature Play in Adelaide, said her daughters enjoyed playing with friends, craft activities, and gardening in the backyard.
“Childhood is precious, and I want them to spend time playing with friends, without playing on screens,’’ she said.
NEED HELP?
If a child is in immediate danger call triple-0, your local police station or call 131 444
Report child abuse images and get advice online at Thinkuknow.
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