HMN 2025: How Online child sexual exploitation is a rising but misunderstood threat—here’s what the experts want you to know

Australians filed over 80,000 reports of online child sexual abuse last financial year, more than double the 36,600 reports in 2021/22.

But major knowledge gaps on who perpetrates online child sexual exploitation (OCSE), and why they do it, is inhibiting the ability to prevent and tackle this rapidly increasing problem.

Dr. Reneta Slikboer from Swinburne’s Center for Forensic Behavioral Science is part of a team working to reduce this serious crime that impacts the victims for life.

While most offenders are men, female-perpetrated OCSE is a more pressing and urgent issue than what is represented in official data, she says.

“Important policy and prevention efforts targeting online child sexual offending should recognize that females are likely to account for a significant portion of offenses.

“We know there are likely differences between females and males who engage in OCSE, such as females potentially having more extensive victimization histories and the more obvious presence of co-offenders. It’s not a black and white issue, and we need to continue learning about these females.”

In a first of its kind study published in Behavioral Sciences & the Law, Swinburne’s team also found that women who are known to police for sexually exploiting children online are likely to continue experiencing formal police contact. A higher than expected portion were also aged under 18 years.

“Why women continue to involve themselves in criminal activity once they become known to police was a mystery,” says Dr. Slikboer. “This knowledge could drastically impact the way we tackle the problem—we need to break the pattern.”

It’s not just women who are producing this material more than originally thought, but young men, too.

Swinburne research based in Victoria found that it was common for men to start producing OCSE material between the ages of 18–25 years, with 25% of offending men starting in that age range and based in regional areas. That work is published in Sexual Abuse.

Dr. Slikboer says the study points to two different types of men who produce OCSE material: Specialists and Generalists.

“Specialists tend to focus on sexual crimes, where the victims are children or adults, and the crimes occur online or offline—we can think of these men as sexually motivated. For Generalists, the production of the material is an extension of general criminal behavior where the production is a part of a broad tendency to offend in many areas—we can think of these men as criminally minded.”

Dr. Erika Fortunato and Daniel King led the above research that will continue to be expanded as the group focuses on details of offenders and improving investigation outcomes, which will help tackle this growing crisis.

“Limited knowledge regarding the assessment and treatment needs of offenders also leaves victims vulnerable to ongoing victimization,” explains Dr. Slikboer.

“OCSE is a very complex and layered issue with the potential to ruin the lives of all involved. Support is needed to ensure protecting our children and families is a top priority.”

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