With the prevalence of children and young people accessing the internet, online safety is becoming an increasing concern around the world.
The increase in young people (including children and infants) accessing the internet has seen a corresponding upward trend in cases of online child sexual exploitation.
In 2021, the ACCCE Child Protection Triage Unit received more than 33,000 reports of online child sexual exploitation. Each report contains images and videos of children being sexually assaulted or exploited for the sexual gratification of online child sex offenders. The AFP charged a total of 237 people with 2,032 alleged child abuse-related offences in 2021.
In the past 12 months alone, the ACCCE has reviewed more than 217,000 media files that relate to reports of child sexual abuse and exploitation. The ACCCE works closely with national and international law enforcement agencies, prevention organisations and private sector, as well as civil society to drive a collaborative national response to counter the exploitation of children in Australia.