Federal police officers will get new protections to possess and share child sexual abuse material to target sex offenders online, with changes to national laws designed to ensure investigators are not themselves committing criminal offences.
Parliament’s powerful joint committee on intelligence and security this week signed off on changes to telecommunications laws, including the new rules for dealing with child abuse material in so-called controlled operations.
The changes will ensure law enforcement officials from the Australian federal police and agencies including the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission are protected from criminal responsibility and indemnified against civil liability to do their work targeting child abuse syndicates, often operating in dark corners of the internet.
A covert investigation can involve an official assuming the identity of a paedophile online, allowing them to trade in pornography to garner credibility among criminals, for the purpose of gathering evidence to arrest and prosecute real-world offenders.
Under the changes, officers would have protections for accessing, possessing, modifying and transmitting the illegal material, including photos and video, text and audio.
Among scenarios considered under the new laws are instances where officers could be required to administer or moderate an online forum to infiltrate a syndicate and collect evidence, including by building rapport with individual participants in order to secure their trust.
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But the rules for controlled operations would not include any legal authorisation for officers to create child abuse material by directly harming a child, moves which would involve additional sexual offences.
The Department of Home Affairs linked the changes to high-profile allegations against childcare workers in Victoria and New South Wales revealed this year, noting community demands for urgent legal changes.
“This type of offending has been uncovered by police through online investigations,” the department said in a submission to the PJCIS review, chaired by the Labor senator Raff Ciccone in September.
“With the proliferation of child sexual abuse and exploitation, the community has called for urgent reforms to better protect children.”
Officers will be required to apply for approval to conduct controlled operations from a qualified authorising officer, such as senior member of their agency or another designated person.
The scale of child sexual abuse in Australia is vast.
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In the 2022-23 financial year, the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation’s child protection triage unit received more than 40,000 reports, including images and videos of children being sexually assaulted or exploited for the sexual gratification of child sexual abuse offenders.
The Australian federal police charged more than 185 offenders with 925 child exploitation-related offences in the period. More than 140 victims were identified, and 545 referrals were made to Australian law enforcement agencies.
State and territory police forces already have similar legal protections. Queensland police’s Taskforce Argos, a specialist child abuse unit, secretly operated one of the dark web’s largest child abuse sites for almost a year, posing as its founder in an undercover operation that triggered arrests and rescues across the globe.
To maintain their cover, undercover detectives posted and shared abuse material on a vast child exploitation forum, Childs Play.
Introducing the legislation to parliament in August, the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said it was appropriate that Australia update electronic surveillance and law enforcement rules.
“Our government’s commitment to create a nation where everyone can be safe and feel safe must include cyber and telecommunications systems,” he said.
He said the changes were technical in nature, but provided “essential clarifications to ensure that the agencies that keep our nation safe, can continue do so in an era of rapid technological development”.
The PJCIS, which is made up of senior Labor and Liberal MPs, recommended the new legislation pass parliament unamended.