Experts Tackle Online Child Exploitation

Nearly 400 delegates from 11 countries are meeting on Queensland’s Gold Coast for the 11th annual Youth, Technology and Virtual Communities Conference, focused on strengthening efforts to combat online child exploitation. The three-day event is hosted by Argos, the Queensland Police Service Crime Command’s specialist online child exploitation investigation and prevention unit.

The conference brings together representatives from law enforcement, corrections, health, intelligence, academia, education and child protection agencies. Its theme, “Collaboration,” highlights the need for cooperation across jurisdictions and sectors to protect children from increasingly complex online threats.

Delegates and speakers from Australia, Europe, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and the United States are examining emerging technologies, prevention strategies, investigative methods, case studies and partnerships. Topics include the use of artificial intelligence to create or manipulate child exploitation material, encrypted platforms used to conceal offending, and the misuse of image-generation tools to produce non-consensual intimate imagery.

Queensland Police Service Specialist Operations Deputy Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon said the conference would help agencies share expertise and improve their ability to disrupt offenders and protect victims. She said online exploitation, including coercion and sextortion, causes serious and lasting harm, while rapidly changing technology continues to create challenges for investigators.