AFP TO CHAIR VIRTUAL GLOBAL TASKFORCE FIGHTING ONLINE CHILD ABUSE
3 December 2009
Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, today announced that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has been appointed as Chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) for three years.
AFP High Tech Crime Operations will commence its role as Chair at the VGT meeting being held in Bangkok, Thailand today.
“This is a significant appointment for the AFP which will serve to further strengthen Australia’s law enforcement efforts in globally combating child exploitation online,” Mr O’Connor said. “The AFP was chosen for the role because of their international initiative and leadership in this area.”
“The Australian Government is committed to protecting children from all kinds of harm. The recently announced proposed reforms to child sexual exploitation laws will strengthen existing laws to help combat the sickening transnational trade in child abuse.”
The Taskforce is made up of police forces from around the world working together to fight online child abuse. Its aim is to build an effective, international partnership of law enforcement agencies that helps to protect children from online child abuse.
The objectives of the Taskforce are to make the internet a safer place, to identify, locate and help children at risk, and to hold perpetrators appropriately to account.
The Taskforce was established in December 2003 by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) in the United Kingdom. Its work includes research, intelligence, operations’ support, training and education.
As Chair, the AFP will focus on the expansion of the taskforce’s membership over the next six to 12 months, with a number of law enforcement agencies and relevant organisations having already expressed a strong interest in membership.
Taskforce membership currently includes CEOP, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Italian Postal and Communication Police Service, the United States Department of Homeland Security, as represented by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Interpol.
Critical factors to the success of the VGT are private industry and national government organisation partnerships, including such organisations as Microsoft, Telstra BigPond, AOL UK and Vodaphone UK.
Outgoing Chair, CEOP Chief Executive Mr Jim Gamble, has had various successes under his leadership including the hosting of the inaugural International Youth Advisory Congress last year, which saw 150 youths from around the world, including ten from Australia, discuss what they were experiencing online and how they would like to be protected by law enforcement agencies.
The Taskforce continues to successfully pursue strategic investigations of online child sexual exploitation. Ongoing operational focuses will continue to target offenders who commit such crimes involving children.
Contact: Senior Policy and Media Adviser, Brian Humphreys 0438 595 567
