Industry and international engagement

We are responsible for leading a number of efforts to counter child exploitation and abuse online, working closely with international partners and digital industry to meet the challenges posed by technology to children and young people, including the impacts of artificial intelligence and anonymising technologies.

Child sexual exploitation and abuse is not limited by proximity. It is common for victims and perpetrators to be located in different jurisdictions and countries. Working closely with regional partners allows the Australian Government to be able to better respond to the scale and severity of the threat, which is taking place in a rapidly changing environment.

Industry engagement

We hold regular dialogues with digital industry to discuss emerging challenges to combatting child sexual abuse online. We identify opportunities to strengthen industry cooperation with Australian law enforcement and to enhance safety features and reporting mechanisms to better protect children from sexual exploitation online.

We also support the work of the Five Country Ministerial (FCM) through the Five Country Working Group to Tackle Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. In March 2020, FCM Ministers launched the Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in consultation with technology companies and civil society. The Voluntary Principles provide a baseline framework for industry to keep children and young people safe online and on their platforms, and cover issues like grooming online, livestreaming of child sexual abuse, and industry transparency and reporting.

International engagement

We are funded to provide capacity building, technical assistance and partnership support within the Indo-Pacific via the Indo-Pacific Child Protection Program. The department works in close collaboration with the Australian Federal Police (AFP), which includes the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and various non-government and not-for-profit organisations.

The Indo-Pacific Child Protection Program has allowed the department to partner with policy and justice agencies and international organisations in priority countries to assist them to strengthen their law and justice frameworks and share best-practice approaches to countering online child sex offences.

In the Pacific, we conducted a regional environmental scan of the nature, extent and causes of child sexual exploitation and abuse, including online. The scan identified risks to children in Pacific island countries associated with increased digital connectivity and limited awareness of online harms. The scan also identified opportunities to respond to these risks, including raising awareness, enhancing reporting and strengthening legislative approaches. Read the Pacific Environmental Scan Report 2024.

We are also Australia’s Secretariat for the AUS-US Joint Council on Combatting Online Child Sexual Exploitation. Announced in May 2023, the United States and Australian governments reaffirmed their commitment to combatting child exploitation and abuse in our collective communities, online and internationally.