Scott Morrison vows to tackle tech giants over child porn

The Prime Minister has pushed back against big tech companies to stop the airing of child porn and extremist content online.

Australian Federal Police have confirmed a doubling in the number of online child exploitation cases reported last year.

Scott Morrison says he will stand up to big tech companies such as Google and Facebook in his quest to stop global online child exploitation.

The Australian revealed yesterday that Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton would meet the Five Eyes intelligence network — which includes the US, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia — to discuss how to harness the unrivalled global reach and cyber capabilities of the ­organisation to disrupt inter­national pedophile networks.

The Prime Minister has pushed back against big tech companies to stop the airing of child porn and extremist content online and led a landmark agreement on the issue at the G20 summit earlier this year.

“We’re standing up to the big tech companies who have such an important role to play in keeping our children safe online and combating sexual predators online,” Mr Morrison told parliament.

“Right now, our Minister for Home Affairs … is overseas in the UK working with our partners to crack down on child exploitation and work with our partner agencies overseas.

“We also have to ensure that we take on the big internet companies and make sure that the ­internet is not weaponised for sexual predators any more than it’s weaponised by terrorists.

“Our government is committed to the Australian people and taking on the issues that they are focused on. They are focused on trying to keep their children safe, whether it’s online or in the physical world.”

It is understood Britain has agreed to elevate child exploitation to a priority issue for the Five Eyes, with the US likely to back it. It comes as Australian Federal Police confirmed a doubling in the number of online child exploitation cases reported last year, with an explosion in the use of live-streaming and digital platforms by networks of pedophiles on the dark web.

The Australian revealed yesterday that the AFP last year ­received 18,000 reports from international and domestic sources of online child abuse material, ­ an 84 per cent rise since 2017.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said yesterday that Australians expected their children to feel as safe in cyberspace as they did in the “town square”.

“Australians expect the law will apply to maintain public safety when people interact in the physical town square. We also expect that law will apply when ­people interact in the digital town square,” he told parliament.

“And that is our government’s, the Morrison government’s, expectation of social media platforms, of search engines, of websites, whether hosted in Australia or around the world. If your services are accessed by Aus­tralians, you must comply with Australian law.”