The Australian Federal Police and the National Association of Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) are this week banding together to highlight the fundamental need to protect Australian children online through the National Child Protection Week initiative.
National Child Protection Week will focus on keeping our children safe from harm in a constantly-evolving social and technological environment and encourage community vigilance in protecting our children online and in the real world.
NAPCAN founded National Child Protection Week and will be undertaking activities throughout the week to educate the community on child protection issues, including child abuse prevention, treatment, research and education.
The AFP’s High Tech Crime Operations portfolio has a particular emphasis on combating and investigating online child sexual exploitation.
AFP Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said that today’s children have been born into the internet era and need to be educated about possible online risks and how to manage them.
“Online risks faced by children include being approached and potentially groomed by online sex offenders, cyber-bullying, being stalked online, and exposure to inappropriate content,” he said.
“Child sexual exploitation and abuse is not just a law enforcement issue. The victims are children, our children. The nature of exploitation and abuse of children is abhorrent and defies human logic and reasoning. It is not acceptable behavior.”
Sue Packer of NAPCAN said changes in society and technology presented new challenges for parents in Australia and all over the world.
“The internet is an ever-increasing part of our lives, but it enables our children to have contact with strangers – and in a most intimate way – as never before,” she said.
“It is up to us to minimize the risks to our children through involvement in our children’s lives and some ingenuity – the age-old cornerstones of successful parenting.”
A number of other events in Sydney during National Child Protection Week will put a spotlight on the AFP’s activities in dealing with exploited and missing children.
The AFP and the University of Technology Sydney will host the second annual Australian High Tech Crime Conference from September 7-9 at Darling Harbour for experts in the field to share ideas and contribute to the fight against technology-enabled crime.
The AFP will also co-host the 2010 Global Missing Children’s Network Conference from Wednesday, September 8th. The conference will focus on global strategic issues affecting missing children.
In collaboration with national and international law enforcement partners, the AFP has successfully identified and charged more than 500 offenders with online child sexual exploitation matters, including grooming, since the inception of Child Protection Operations teams in 2005.
Since August 2005, the AFP has charged 546 offenders with 774 online child sex offenses.
The AFP continues to educate children around Australia through the award-winning cyber safety program ‘ThinkUKnow’.
ThinkUKnow Australia is a joint partnership between the AFP, Microsoft Australia and ninemsn to deliver interactive presentations to parents, carers and teachers through primary and secondary schools to raise awareness of issues facing youth online.
National Child Protection Week runs from September 5-11 .
Source: AFP
Net News Publisher for Australian News
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