Australia has been on the leading edge of government efforts to counter online child sexual exploitation, both domestically and globally, through regulatory, enforcement, research, and diplomatic means.
Regulatory Agency
The eSafety Commission (known simply as “eSafety”) was the world’s first government regulatory agency dedicated specifically to online safety. Established with a focus on children in 2015, and later expanding to address online safety for adults as well, eSafety has broad regulatory and enforcement authority, largely empowered by Australia’s Online Safety Act 2021.
eSafety has promoted Safety by Design , compelled reporting from tech companies, developed Basic Online Safety Expectations , and implemented Industry Codes to guide tech company practices.
For more information about eSafety, visit www.esafety.gov.au.
Research
The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has published numerous studies, research reports, briefs, and other resources specifically related to child sexual exploitation and child sexual exploitation material (among many other topics). These publications cover both domestic (i.e., relating only to Australians) and international offending and include analyses of chat communications, financial transactions, and CSAM. AIC publications can be searched and filtered at www.aic.gov.au/publications.
Collaboration
In 2018, the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) launched as an Australian Federal Police-led initiative to bring together government agencies, non-governmental organizations, academia, and the private sector to fulfill four primary functions: (1) triaging reports (primarily from NCMEC’s CyberTipline) relating to online child sexual exploitation; (2) distinguishing trends and sharing information with other stakeholders; (3) identifying victims and locating offenders; and (4) preventing exploitation through education, awareness, intervention, and deterrence efforts. See www.accce.gov.au for more information.
Beyond its own borders, Australia has led international collaboration in southeast Asia against online child exploitation through a series of Child Sexual Exploitation Regional Dialogues hosted in the Philippines, Cambodia, and Thailand. Australian Federal Police personnel, some of whom specialize in child sexual exploitation investigations, are deployed throughout the Indo-Pacific region to assist host-nation law enforcement, including through support offered to other organizations delivering training and other programming to build capacity.
The deployment of personnel to help foreign governments counter child exploitation is not limited to traditional law enforcement; the Australian Border Force and AUSTRAC—the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, a financial intelligence and regulatory agency—each have provided support to counterpart agencies in the Philippines to improve detection and disruption of traveling offenders and offenders who pay for online child sexual exploitation.
Preventing Extraterritorial Offenses
Legislatively, Australia has taken a strong stand against its citizens who may travel to commit child sexual exploitation offenses internationally. Since late 2017, certain convicted offenders have been required to obtain government permission to leave the country. When permission is granted, the Australian Federal Police shares relevant information with foreign authorities, empowering them to make informed decisions regarding the traveler’s entry into their country. Regardless of criminal history, Australian citizens and permanent residents are subject to investigation and prosecution in Australia for sexual exploitation and child abuse crimes committed elsewhere. See https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/before-you-go/laws for more information.