In an open letter, child protection and anti-slavery organizations have urged the Australian Government and technology companies to take stronger action to stop ongoing child sex abuse online – meanwhile Christians have been called upon to support the fight for children’s rights to be safe.
The open joint letter was sent to Michelle Rowland MP, Minister of Communications for the Australian Government, earlier this month (September, 2024). It has been sent in time for the government’s review of the country’s Online Safety Act, addressing “new and emerging harms.”
In particular, the child protection and anti-slavery organizations want the existing law amended so that technology companies in Australia take more responsibility to stop the production and distribution of sickening material “on their platforms and services, including through live streamed video.”
In the letter, the experts call for the voluntary Duty of Care framework with industry codes and standards for digital service providers to become legally mandatory. At the same time, strengthening the Online Safety Act should involve “safety by design” for device manufacturers when creating new products and services - adding that penalties should be imposed for not complying with these requirements. Lastly, digital service providers must be legally required to report any suspected child abuse.
The letter also referred to a national survey recording that 7.5 percent of Australian men, out of 2,000 surveyed, admitted they had committed online sexual offending against children. These men were “avid users of youth-focused social media platforms.”
These predators, compared to normal non-predatory Australian men, were more likely to use YouTube, Instagram, Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, Skype, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger, according to the experts.
The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, according to the experts, has specifically identified the online sexual abuse of Australian children.
“Australian children as young as eight are being coerced into performing live-streamed sexual acts by online predators, who often record and share the videos on the dark net and sexually extort victims into producing even more graphic content.”
Concern about some social media sites is a stated concern, with the letter slamming the ‘OnlyFans’ website, known for paid subscription sex material, which the experts say includes child sex abuse, sometimes with the involvement of parents and guardians.
“In the case of livestreamed child sexual abuse, vulnerable children who may not be technology end users themselves experience repeated hands-on sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted adult, which is livestreamed to paying sex offenders around the world, including in Australia,” said the experts in the letter.
The Australian Institute for Criminology (AIC), as quoted in the letter, found that “popular video call platforms such as Facebook Messenger and Skype have been used by Australian predatory men to view the livestreamed sexual abuse of children in vulnerable countries such as the Philippines.”
IJM Australia, one of the letter signatories, does not undertake casework in Australia but is working with authorities in the Philippines to crack down on criminal predators exploiting children there, and “to stop other traffickers from abusing children in the first place.” This work includes rescuing victims, providing pro bono (free) legal help for child survivors and providing aftercare specialists to give long term psychological support to survivors on their journey to restoration.
David Braga, IJM Australia Chief Executive Officer, defined the online sexual exploitation of children as a crime where “children are sexually abused by traffickers who livestream their abuse to offenders who direct and pay for it from anywhere in the world, including Australia.”
Almost half a million children in the Philippines are trafficked to produce child sexual abuse materials for paying customers, according to Braga, in comments sent to Christian Daily International. He added that Australian offenders are the third-highest consumers, behind the U.S. and the U.K.
“Through International Justice Mission’s open letter to the Minister for Communications, together with leading anti-slavery and child protection experts, we are calling on the Australian Government to urgently impose legal obligations on tech companies to prevent their platforms from being used to livestream child sexual abuse,” Braga said.
Braga added that the IJM wants the Australian Government “to do more” to protect youngsters from online sexual exploitation by strengthening the existing law.
“We are calling for tech companies to face higher penalties for failing to meet their online safety obligations under Australian law – including penalty amounts of up to 10 percent of annual turnover for digital service providers,” said Braga.
“Online service providers should be subject to an enforceable duty of care. The onus should be on them to make sure their technical design, their business model, their algorithms do not facilitate online sexual exploitation of children, and that their products cannot be misused to create, distribute or consume child sexual abuse material.”
More than anything, deemed “the bottom line” by Braga, children should be safe online and in his opinion, the realistic possibility for that to happen is with companies responsible for running the internet and meeting consumers’ needs.
“Service providers, equipment manufacturers, and operating system providers have the power, resources and technical capability to prevent the creation and dissemination of child sexual abuse material in the first place, and they should be required to do so,” he said.
“Service providers who breach the Act and fail to protect children exposed to their products should pay for the consequences of their failure.
“Stronger and enforceable measures are crucial to delivering an Online Safety Act under which Australian offenders cannot harm children, wherever they are in the world.”
Apart from the open letter, IJM Australia is seeking across-the-board support from churches, grassroots organizations and individuals, to push for better legislation and robust implementation of such laws.
“IJM Australia is inviting Australians, including Australian Christians, to advocate to their federal parliamentary representatives for stronger online safety laws that work to protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse,” said Braga.
The organization asks Christians to respond to the prophet Isaiah’s call to God’s people to “seek justice” and “help the oppressed,” according to Briony Camp, IJM Policy & Campaigns Lead. “Many Australian churches are already supporting the work of IJM in the Philippines by partnering with us financially and through prayer,” she added.
Carol Ronken, director of research at Bravehearts, an Australian child protection organization, said the rights group had signed the open letter “as we recognise that this is a growing risk if we all don’t step and act.”
“Those of us working ‘on the ground’ are more aware of the vulnerabilities children and young people are facing in an increasingly technology-reliant world,” Ronken said. “We saw a huge swing in young people connecting with others online during the COVID restrictions, and an equal increase in those seeking to sexually exploit children utilizing social media, gaming, youth-focused sites, etc., to meet and groom children. These trends have only continued to grow.”
Ronken added that implementing stronger legislation was vital to holding the tech sector responsible and enforcing a duty of care to “prevent harm from occurring on platforms, including harmful content, swift responses to reported harm, and consideration of risks to child children when developing technology is critical.”
Everyone has a responsibility to protect children and young people, Ronken pointed out. Empowering and educating youngsters of all ages responsibly on the risks of exploitation was “critical” to making them less vulnerable. She referred to an additional issue found in an undisclosed study that whilst 12 percent of child sex exploitation images were created by adults, most images (74%) were generated by youths.
“The online space is increasingly a place where children and youth find support and connectedness, but there are risks, including, exposure to inappropriate material, contact/grooming by offenders, physical dangers such a meeting up with people they have met online, exploitation, sexting and harassment or bullying. We need to have those brave conversations with children and young people in our lives.”
Churches “can play a critical role”, according to Ronken, in helping to fight for young people’s safety, creating “child safe environments.”
Signatories of the open letter were International Justice Mission Australia (IJM Australia), a Christian organization; alongside the United Church in Australia, Office of the NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Be Slavery Free, ICMEC Australia, Bravehearts, Hagar, A21 Australia, ACRATH and ACU: the Institute of Child Protection Studies.
