Because we're all short on time and there is a lot happening in the anti-slavery space, we're breaking things down into the choicest, bite-size pieces.??
Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC)
Australia & US recommit to cooperation to counter OSAEC
- Joint statement by Prime Minister Albanese and President Biden: “We also recommit to working together to promote children's online safety, including through strengthening bilateral coordination to advance awareness, prevention, and response to child sexual exploitation and abuse online."
eSafety take action against big tech over failure to report on child safety
- Australia’s
eSafety Commissioner
,
Julie Inman - Grant
, took world-leading action against two big tech companies for failing to comply with transparency notices detailing how they detect and address child sexual exploitation material on their platforms.
- The New South Wales Anti-Slavery Commissioner,
James Cockayne
, followed up on this action, called for a criminal investigation over possible modern slavery charges under NSW law.
Foreign demand sees 1 in 100 Filipino children sexually exploited online
- Tragically, nearly half a million Filipino children, or roughly 1 in 100, were trafficked in 2022 to produce child sexual exploitation material for profit, according to the pioneering Scale of Harm study by International Justice Mission and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab.
- Australia is the third highest remitter by volume and value of financial transactions to procure child sexual exploitation material from the Philippines.
- Australia has a crucial role to play in driving down this crime type through stronger regulation of the tech and financial sectors, and the introduction of stronger penalties for offenders, including victim compensation.
Two Filipino children rescued following the investigation of an Australian child sex offender
OSAEC on the rise globally
The
WeProtect Global Alliance
issued their 2023 threat assessment which showed:
- The volume of child sexual abuse material reports has increased by 87% since 2019 with over 32 million reports globally (National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children)
- 90% of URLs displaying child sexual abuse material were on openly accessible, free-to-use hosting services in 2022 (Internet Watch Foundation)
- 30 of the top 50 online platforms do not issue transparency reports covering steps taken to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse online (OECD)These findings demonstrate the urgent need for tech companies to deploy safety by design principles to strengthen justice system responses and prevent online child sexual abuse at scale. Online safety regulation, including here in Australia, is critical to create the industry-wide action necessary to protect children from online sexual exploitation.
Trafficking into Online Scamming
- The pandemic turbocharged the trafficking of people into sophisticated online scamming operations across Southeast Asia.
- There are hundreds of thousands of people from over 35 countries working in scamming compounds in this region, an industry rife with reports of human trafficking and violent abuse.
- In Cambodia alone, the workforce in this industry probably exceeds 100,000 people, generating approximately 18 billion AUD per year - more than half of that country's GDP.
Quote of the Month
“Children everywhere urgently need tech companies to deploy safety by design to augment justice system responses and prevent abuse at scale.” -
John Tanagho
,
IJM's Center to End Online Sexual Exploitation of Children
Subscribe and share if you're a practitioner or just interested in the fight to end?#modernslavery, including online sexual exploitation of children (#OSEC).?
International Justice Mission is the largest global anti-slavery organisation.?
Interested in IJM's work? Connect with us via email:?[email protected]?for partnership opportunities and enquiries?
