Kay Patterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Ellison. Will the minister update the Senate on the Australian government’s efforts to combat online child sex exploitation?

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There can be no greater priority than the protection of the children of Australia. This is a very relevant question during Child Protection Week. I want to acknowledge the great work that Senator Patterson has done in this regard and acknowledge her interest in this area.

This morning Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, and I launched a significant initiative in the protection of children online in launching Cybersmart Detectives. This is an initiative that is sponsored by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and Australian law enforcement, particularly the Australian Federal Police. What it does is engage young Australians in relation to how they can use the internet more safely. Whilst the internet remains a great tool for information and education, it is no secret that lurking on the internet are people who want to prey upon children. We have seen examples of this with successful prosecutions and investigations carried out by the Online Child Sex Exploitation Team of the Australian Federal Police.

What this program does is increase the awareness of both parents and children alike and give those safe messages to young Australians who use the internet not to impart their personal details to people whom they have not met or do not know, to report any contact that they have on the internet that they feel uncomfortable with and of course never to meet face to face with someone who has made contact with them over the internet unless they do so in the company of a parent. But, importantly, it also builds a relationship between children who use the internet and people in law enforcement. I want to acknowledge the great work that the Australian Federal Police do in conjunction with the state and territory police around this country.

This initiative is a whole-of-government approach. I want to congratulate those involved in it, from Senator Coonan’s department, from the Australian Communications and Media Authority and from the Australian Federal Police, on working together to bring about an initiative that can bring added safety and assurance to those families who have children who deal with the internet.

The question deals with the wider aspect of online child sexual exploitation. This initiative that we launched today is a very important one. But it is also very important that we bring the perpetrators to justice—those people who prey upon children using the internet. It is disturbing to realise that the Online Child Sex Exploitation Team of the Australian Federal Police have laid no less than 200 charges. They are working 24 hours a day with overseas law enforcement in a virtual global task force monitoring the internet internationally to track down those paedophiles who want to prey upon our children. It is interesting to note that it has received just under 500 international referrals from foreign law enforcement.

What you have to remember is that the internet knows no boundaries, whether they be state, territory or international. That is the challenge that we face with the internet today. When I was recently in Washington I met with the director of the FBI. We agreed strongly that we needed international cooperation to fight the scourge of those predators who use the internet to prey upon children. We will continue to do that internationally; we will continue to do that nationally and domestically. What we saw today was another step forward in the protection of young Australians who want to use the internet. I commend it to all Australian families to have a look at Cybersmart Detectives. It is a good program and it is there for the protection of children.