A man accused of sexually exploiting a young Kiwi girl he groomed through social media has been charged by Australian Federal Police (AFP) following a tip-off from New Zealand Police.
The 23-year-old Sydney man is expected to appear in Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday, charged with using a carriage service to transmit indecent communication to a person aged under 16.
If convicted, the man will spend a maximum of seven years behind bars.
New Zealand Police sent a tip-off to the AFP after receiving information that a man in Sydney had allegedly posed as a child to send sexually explicit messages to a young Kiwi girl, coercing her into sending photographs in response. The AFP's New South Wales Child Protection Operations team subsequently launched an investigation.
The 23-year-old was identified as the suspected user of the social media account and a warrant was carried out at his suburban Sydney home on June 3.
A computer and phone allegedly containing child abuse material were seized in the raid, according to local authorities, including records of sexualised online conversations with young girls.
In a statement released on Wednesday, AFP Commander Kirsty Schofield said the arrest of the 23-year-old highlights the close partnership between the AFP and NZ Police.
"Australian and NZ Police stand together in protecting our young people from this abhorrent crime," Commander Schofield said.
"It is disgusting that adults trawl online platforms to try to engage children in sexualised conversations or to send intimate images, and the distress and harm it causes children is irreparable.
"We work tirelessly with our partners to stamp out this behaviour and prosecute anyone who preys on children - whether that’s online or through physical contact."
Schofield hopes the allegations in this case will serve as a reminder that cyber security is an important conversation for families.
"It is important that children feel comfortable talking to adults if they are worried about someone who has contacted them online, and not share anything online that they would not tell anyone else about."
In 2019, the AFP's Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) received almost 17,000 reports of child exploitation, amounting to roughly 45 cases a day.
Between July 2019 and May 2020, the AFP has laid 1078 Commonwealth Child Exploitation charges against 144 people.
The average number of images seized when an offender is arrested has been steadily increasing. In the early-to-mid 2000s, a child sex predator had about 1000 images - now it;s between 10,000 to 80,000, including videos.
The Internet Watch Foundation's annual report in 2019 stated that it assessed a web page every two minutes. And every four minutes, that web page showed a child being sexually abused.
