Tougher on Tech

The online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) is 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.

The US based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children received 36.2 million reports of suspected online child sexual exploitation and abuse globally in 2023 – a 12% rise compared with 2022.

Almost half a million children in the Philippines are trafficked to produce child sexual abuse materials for paying customers and Australian offenders are the third-highest consumers.

International Justice Mission (IJM) Australia is ...

The online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) is 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.

The US based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children received 36.2 million reports of suspected online child sexual exploitation and abuse globally in 2023 – a 12% rise compared with 2022.

Almost half a million children in the Philippines are trafficked to produce child sexual abuse materials for paying customers and Australian offenders are the third-highest consumers.

International Justice Mission (IJM) Australia is calling on the Australian Government to do more to protect children from OSEC by strengthening the Online Safety Act, which is currently under review. Specifically, they should…

✅ Increase the fines.
The eSafety Commissioner should have the power to issue more significant penalties to tech companies for failing to comply with their online safety obligations.

✅ Expand safety expectations.
Tech companies must put the safety and rights of children impacted by the use of their products and services at the centre of their design. By expanding the basic online safety expectations to include device manufacturers and operating system developers, we can prevent the production and distribution of child sexual abuse material without impacting user privacy.

✅ Protect all children.
Tech companies should have a legal duty of care to prevent online harm from occurring through their products and services. The onus should be on them to make sure their platform design, algorithms and business models do not facilitate the sexual exploitation or abuse of children.

By contacting your local MP, you can help them recognise this issue is important to their voters and motivate them to strengthen the Act to protect children from OSEC.

Together, let’s get Tougher on Tech by raising our voices to our local politicians, and ask them to raise theirs too! 📣

Find out about the Online Safety Act review here.

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GET TOUGHER ON TECH: EMAIL YOUR LOCAL MP 📩

We must do more to protect children from online sexual exploitation by strengthening our online safety laws. Get Tougher on Tech by emailing your local MP to show the Australian Government that we won’t tolerate OSEC on Australian screens! 📣

Find your local rep

Would you be interested in attending a meeting with your local MP to advocate with IJM even further?

Yes! Please contact me about setting up a meeting with my local MP.

Subject:

I write as a constituent in your electorate to ask you to legislate stronger protections against online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) by Australian perpetrators in response to the Online Safety Act review currently underway.

OSEC is a global crime where children are sexually abused by traffickers who livestream their abuse to online offenders anywhere in the world, including Australia. Online offenders pay for and direct the abuse via livestreamed video on everyday social media and messaging services using camera-enabled devices.

This is not an issue confined to the dark web – it takes place on everyday social media and messaging apps. A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology found popular video call platforms have been used by Australian men to view the livestreamed sexual abuse of children in vulnerable countries.

Almost half a million children in the Philippines are trafficked to produce child sexual abuse materials for paying customers, whilst Australians are the third largest consumers of child sexual abuse material from the Philippines.

Livestreamed child sexual abuse is a rapidly increasing global crime, with cases having been identified across dozens of developing countries, yet it is not an offshore problem.

According to the ACCCE, “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.”

This crime is enabled by tech companies operating popular social media and video chat apps operating in Australia.

The Online Safety Act 2021 is Australia’s legal framework that promotes a safer digital ecosystem and seeks to prevent online harms, and it’s currently under review.

In consultation with survivors, International Justice Mission (IJM) Australia provided specific recommendations for how the Government should protect children from this kind of abuse as part of the review.

I support their recommendations to:  
✅ Increase the fines.  
The eSafety Commissioner should have the power to issue more significant penalties to tech companies for failing to comply with their online safety obligations.

✅ Expand safety requirements. 
Tech companies must put the safety and rights of children impacted by the use of their products and services at the centre of their design. Manufacturers should ensure camera-enabled devices and operating systems are incompatible with child sexual abuse material.

✅ Protect all children. 
All children should be protected from online sexual exploitation. Tech companies should have a legal duty of care to prevent online harm from occurring through their products and services.

The independent review will be handed to the Minister for Communications on 31 October.

I ask you to represent my concerns about the urgent need to protect children from online sexual exploitation by Australian perpetrators to the Minister for Communications.

Thank you for your action to protect children from online sexual exploitation by Australian offenders.

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