Australians comprise over 20 per cent of a growing audience paying for live-streamed child sex abuse

International Justice Mission Australian chief executive Steve Baird describes the figure as a blight on the nation.

Child sex abuse viewing by Australians is a national disgrace.

Australians are paying as little as $18 to watch child sexual abuse live streamed directly from The Philippines, and more than 40 per cent of convicted offenders are avoiding jail time.

It’s a harrowing statistic that the Australian arm of NGO International Justice Mission is looking to combat, with the launch this week of the #notonourscreens campaign.

The campaign calls on community members to change their desktop backgrounds to raise awareness about the ongoing trade of child sexual abuse (CSA) across cyberspace.

IJM works closely with domestic and international law enforcement agencies to end slavery worldwide, with a focus on sex trafficking, child sexual assault and cybersex trafficking.

The Philippines has been identified as a global hub for live streamed CSA where victims often are coerced by family and friends into performing sex acts in front of webcams for paying customers online.

Almost 20 per cent of viewers identified in IJM’s cases, in collaboration with the Australian Federal Police, were Australian.

IJM Australia chief executive Steve Baird – brother of former NSW Premier Mike Baird – said the figure was a “blight” on society. He said Australia was tracking third in paying customers for CSA, behind only the US and Sweden.

Almost 20 per cent of online paedophilia cases identified by IJM involved Australian viewers.

Mr Baird described the figures as embarrassing.

“There needs to be far more research as to why people commit these crimes because it’s often just everyday people – there’s not a clear group of citizens, other than the fact it’s mostly men,” Mr Baird said.

“This is three steps past child pornography.

“It’s commissioning live sex acts with children – it should stop you in your tracks. We want to raise the alarm and let people know what’s going on.”

Viewers pay between 500 and 2000 Philippine pesos for footage – or about $A14 –$57.

Only 10 per cent of people caught participating in the trade had a previous sexual offence on their criminal record.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Grant said there had been a notable uptick in CSA viewership since the start of the pandemic, further fuelled by travel bans and lockdown restrictions.

“It’s clear that as Covid lockdowns and travel bans reduced opportunities for predators to travel, particularly to South East Asian countries, offenders focused their attention on the live streaming of abuse through messaging apps,” Ms Grant said.

“Our investigators are … seeing higher volumes of ‘coerced’ child sexual exploitation material where children aged as young as six and seven have been manipulated or intimidated into performing sex acts for the camera in the ‘privacy’ of their bedrooms and bathrooms.

“This is backed up by recent Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) data which shows almost 20,000 web pages of child sexual abuse imagery in the first half of 2022 included ‘self-generated’ content of children.”

Ms Grant is currently leading a global crackdown on the circulation of CSA.

Under the Online Safety Act (2021), Australian authorities have issued a range of companies, including Apple, Microsoft and Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) legal orders to reveal how they are keeping track – if at all – of CSA posted on their platforms.

They will be given 28 days to respond to a range of questions designed to gauge an understanding of measures taken to reduce and monitor potentially harmful material.

Those found to be non-compliant will be served fines of up to $550,000 a day until they respond.

The Philippines is the source for much online child sec abuse material.

Mr Baird praised the initiative, and called for more collaboration between community, government and business sectors to combat the Australian contribution to the abhorrent trade, as well as stronger sentencing for offenders.

“(The abuse) is happening between countries, on tech devices, money is changing hands – all those parties need to come together,” he said.

“While Australian law enforcement is trying to do their job … the consequences are just not strong enough.

“We need stronger sentences to send that firm message to offenders.”