Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General. What work are the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation doing to tackle the scourge of child sexual abuse, and how can Australians help?

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Werriwa for her question. This week is National Child Protection Week. One of the Albanese government's top priorities is keeping children safe. The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, led by the Australian Federal Police, does extraordinary work to prevent harm to children. The task is great. Last year alone, the centre received more than 40,000 reports of online child exploitation. Currently, the centre's work involves the manual examination of tens of thousands of images each year. A project called My Pictures Matter can change that. The Australian Federal Police and Monash University are inviting adult Australians to share images of themselves as children to support a new ethical artificial intelligence tool that will detect child abuse material in videos or photos shared online or seized during criminal investigations. This new tool will be able to quickly detect child abuse material on websites and offenders' electronic devices and triage them for investigators. The project was launched in 2022, but it needs more images to succeed. I understand that if just 100,000 Australian adults contribute a photo from their childhood, the tool can be put to work within 12 months. I'll be sharing an image of my childhood to support this project, and I hope other members will too. All adult Australians can take up the fight against child abuse by sharing a photo of themselves. Visit mypicturesmatter.org, upload a picture and help keep our children safe.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I want to congratulate the Attorney-General and, through him, the Australian Federal Police on this initiative. The technology that the Attorney-General refers to has led to breakthroughs in investigations already, and that it goes to the next stage is a great credit to the investigators and those who run the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.

When you visit the centre you can sense the palpable dynamic there. The not-for-profit organisations who are there with the investigators are providing support to victims, but also helping to disseminate a message of information and awareness. As the Attorney-General rightly points out, I would also encourage all Australian families and parents to go to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation web site during this week. There are five messages there, steps that the ACCCE is asking parents to be aware of. It's an engagement, having a conversation, an awareness of what your kids are looking at online. And even though it's difficult to have that conversation, it's about reporting the information to the authorities so that another victim can't fall into the hands of one of these monstrous individuals.

There's a lot more information, particularly around the protections, the settings on phones and on devices. It's the most important issue that our country can deal with in protecting our children, and we stand with the government in providing additional resources and every effort and support to those who are working at the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.