Commenting on news today that a Sydney man has been charged by the AFP in relation to allegedly producing child abuse material at out-of-school hours care services, CEO of International Justice Mission Australia, David Braga, said:
"News that a Sydney man has been charged with producing child abuse material during his employment at six out of school hours care services is abhorrent.
"It coincides with the early childhood bill being debated and passed into federal law today - which represents a great first step to improve the safety of our children, but it does not go far enough.
"There is another urgent reform on the Albanese Government's list which would play a critical preventative role, and that is strengthening the Online Safety Act to include a digital duty of care.
"In October last year the Government received recommendations from the Online Safety Act review, many of which focused on requiring tech companies to prevent Australians from using devices to create and share child abuse material.
"Today's revelations, another in a line of horrific stories we have seen make headlines in this country in the last month, makes it clear that there is no more time to wait. We need a digital duty of care, and we need it now.
"We need to have devices in Australia that are incompatible with child abuse material. The technology already exists, and tech companies must deploy them to block child abuse material, and protect children from child sexual abuse production.
"We do not think it is too much to ask of the most sophisticated companies in the world to implement existing tech on their platforms to protect our most vulnerable."
About us:
About International Justice Mission
· International Justice Mission (IJM) is a global organisation that protects people in poverty from violence. We partner with local authorities in 33 program offices in 19 countries to combat slavery, violence against women and children, and police abuse of power against people living in poverty.
· IJM works to protect children from online sexual exploitation in the Philippines, which according to IJM's prevalence study, affects 1 in 100 children in that country.[1]
· Online sexual exploitation of children in the Philippines is driven in large part by offenders in Australia who pay to access and direct child sexual abuse via live video.[2]
[1] IJM (October 2023) Scale of Harm. Available from: https://assets-sea.ijm.org/documents/IJM_Scale_of_Harm_2023_Full_Report_5f292593a9.pdf
[2] Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council (April 2023) Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children in the Philippines. Available from: http://www.amlc.gov.ph/images/PDFs/Main/Online%20Sexual%20Abuse%20and%20Exploitation%20of%20Children%20in%20the%20Philippines.pdf
