Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Protecting children online from predators who are planning to cause harm or to engage in sexual activity with a child is vital. The Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Act 2017 was a critical step forward. It updated the law to take account of our changing digital world and allowed law enforcement to take action against online predators sooner, hopefully preventing many more harmful crimes from taking place. However, we can and we must do more.

This morning, we've learned more about an excellent example of the vital role that police in Australia play in protecting children online both domestically and overseas. The Queensland Police Service, QPS, leads a task force called Task Force Argos. It has a worldwide reputation for excellence in this area. Following the arrest of Canadian website founder Benjamin Faulkner in 2016, Task Force Argos began operating one of the internet's most popular child abuse websites, called Childs Play. Using the founder's login details, they maintained the site for over a year. They gathered evidence on the identities of some of the more than 3,000 active users and their victims. Unbelievably, the site had attracted more than one million worldwide user registrations. In total, Argos identified around 100 active offenders who produced child abuse material for the site, and resulting arrests are already underway in countries all over the world. The offenders unfortunately included a healthcare professional, who worked with children; lawyers; and even military personnel. Critically, more than 100 victims were identified and have been rescued from their abusers as a result of the investigation.

This was the second investigation of this type successfully carried out by Task Force Argos. In 2014, Argos took over another website called The Love Zone and similarly gathered evidence which led to the arrest of serious serial offenders in Australia and Britain. Once again, 85 victims and more than 100 offenders were identified through this investigation.

The Turnbull government is acting to help and go further to identify and rescue more than 200 victims each and every year. We're setting up an office called the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, the ACCCE, to drive a national effort to disrupt, prevent and investigate child abuse. The government will allocate $68.6 million in the coming budget to the ACCCE. It will draw resources and expertise from the AFP, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, AUSTRAC, the office of the cyber coordinator, Australian Border Force and the Australian Institute of Criminology. The agency will work with non-government and third-sector organisations with expertise in child exploitation. It will also link Australian efforts even more closely with international law enforcement and national agencies overseas like the US National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children.

I'm pleased to say that, building on the excellent work of Task Force Argos and because of our region's reputation as a cyberhub, the new agency will be based in South-East Queensland. This law enforcement action is vital, and Task Force Argos, the Australian Federal Police and the government should be commended for their commitment to rescuing children and prosecuting offenders. However, to protect children and to prevent more of these crimes from taking place, we have to educate children, parents and grandparents about these online threats and how to avoid them. Like I've said often in this space, you wouldn't drop your 11-year-old off at the Valley on a Friday night and say, 'I'll see you in two hours.' As parents, we've got an obligation to ensure that we know what they're doing online just as we know what they're doing in the real space. Programs like the AFP's ThinkUKnow as well as the excellent resources provided by the eSafety Commissioner and organisations like the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, based on the Sunshine Coast, are critical in turning around this growing threat by helping kids to understand how to avoid becoming a statistic of sexual crime on the internet. I've been engaged in this space for about 12 months. I'm working with the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General on ways that we can improve cybersecurity for our young people. I'll have more to say about that shortly.

See this speech in context