Horror to Hope: Ending the Online Sexual Exploitation of Children

This time last year corporate Australia stood in shock.

AUSTRAC – the federal agency responsible for preventing, detecting and responding to criminal abuse of the financial system – had filed with the supreme court a landmark case. Within the 48 page statement of claim against Australia's second largest bank, Westpac, was the financial evidence of an epidemic of violence towards children.

Even the summer's bushfire crisis would not stop this story from raging across social media. The issue at heart had been flung into the spotlight. However, like COVID-19 that would arrive on Australian shores in a few months, this virus of child exploitation had to that point been unseen by the Australian public.

That virus was the rampant cybersex trafficking of children.

This scourge was identified due to the confirmed cases of 12 Australian’s known to have sent money to the Philippines for the sexual abuse of children over the internet.

This is what is known as the cybersex trafficking of children or live-streamed online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC). It shocked the nation.

Cybersex trafficking is a form of human trafficking that involves Australian’s paying for the live streamed sexual exploitation of children in the Philippines and around the world. Our research shows that Australian’s account for 18% of all customers for the online sexual abuse of children in the Philippines – third globally only to the United States and Sweden.

The scale and inhumanity of it was an outrage to many. Disbelief at the nature of the crime; anger that it went on undetected; grief that children were brutalised, raped and dehumanised. By us – Australians. The Australian Federal Police recently commented that statistically, every Australian would know an abuser.

IJM has been hearing from the AFP and international law enforcement authorities for years that a tsunami of sexual violence against children over the internet was occurring.

In the immediate aftermath of this story, it was clear that for many Westpac staff I spoke with at the bank, learning about cybersex trafficking made them feel like they wanted to vomit. It made them and all who heard about it sick the core of their being. As it should.

All children everywhere must be protected from this pay-per-view abuse – whether in Australia or around the world.

The actions of these Australian’s – requests made through devices we use every day – have in one sense had a butterfly effect. Edward Lorenz said in 1972 that small changes in one place lead to large differences elsewhere.

Individual Australian men sitting in the comfort of their own homes have sexual exploited thousands if not tens of thousands of children. But it has also set off a chain reaction and movement to an end this appalling crime.

Around the world financial companies who administer these payments and tech companies whose platforms are used must think - as the eSafety Commissioner highlighted - Safety By Design at the centre of their products and services. We need to see that the privacy interests of children be placed over and above those of Australian platform users engaging in OSEC. Companies need to prioritise the detection of all child sexual abuse material as an essential business function.

Some governments are not waiting for corporates to take action. Government authorities in places like the Philippines are arresting local traffickers, convicting them and showing that they will not tolerate this happening to their children.

During the height of the global pandemic in the Philippines, collaborations among domestic and foreign law enforcement, in partnership with International Justice Mission, has led to 20 Philippine law enforcement-led operations that rescued 76 victims and at-risk individuals, and arrested 16 suspected cybersex traffickers.

But with a reported 122% year on year increase in reports to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation for the months of April, May June 2020, we need leadership from all corners of the Australian community to end the surging demand to abuse children.

Westpac have taken the first leadership step by partnering to support IJM’s Center to End Online Sexual Exploitation of Children. The centre will partner with governments, industries, NGOs, and other stakeholders to expose, neutralize, and deter the online sexual exploitation of children around the world.

Cybersex trafficking of children is one of the fastest growing forms of human trafficking that Australian’s engage in. But recent operations by the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation arresting dozens of perpetrors shows great hope and promise that we can end the impunity that the internet proports to provide.

As something of pandemic proportions, we must do everything possible to suppress and eliminate it. Let's have the global resolve to #EndOSEC.