Sexual exploitation of children in Australia: Our report for UN Special Rapporteur

We were invited to join other child protection representatives in a roundtable consultation at RMIT in November with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children, Ms. Mama Fatima Singhateh, as part of her country visit to Australia to learn more on the risks facing Australian children and young people.

Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist gave evidence, speaking on the negative influence of pornography, how it operated as a grooming tool, and was contributing to a rise in harmful sexual behaviours in young people.

You can read the full report we prepared for the Special Rapporteur here, and additional content on child sex abuse dolls by Campaigns Manager Caitlin Roper.

A paedophilic aesthetic which portrays girls as sexually available drives child sexual exploitation

We outlined the nature and scope of the sale and sexual exploitation of children. We noted that Australian men are among those sexually abusing children online, predominantly in the Philippines. 

We argued that one of the root causes and contributing factors in the sale and sexual exploitation of children is increasing sexual interest in minors through development of a paedophilic aesthetic which treats them as sexually interesting and sexually available. We noted that crimes of violence against children are being eroticised through 'Barely legal' and incest-themed porn and fiction, hentai and anime porn depicting sexual violence, and the global trade in child sex abuse dolls. We also noted that underage girls are sought after in sex industry and child sex tourism, with a deregulated sex industry making it harder to locate and assist them.

We pointed out the failures of industry self-regulation, including:

• The failings of Classification systems which allowed illegal animated CSEM depicting child rape, abuse and exploitation to be classified as suitable for audiences as young as 15—in some cases even younger
• Attempts to require online pornography platforms to require proof of age to help protect minors from exposure continue to be resisted by industry.

We shared our campaigns and victories against global platforms hosting and facilitating child sexual abuse material, including child sex abuse dolls, and our calls for banks and investment firms to divest from companies profiting from sexual exploitation. 

We noted the prevalence of online sexual exploitation, our objection to End to End Encryption, and the need for Age Verification to prevent children's exposure to harmful pornography. 

In our report on the trade in child sex abuse dolls, we noted that some academics and paedophile rights groups advocated men's access to child sex abuse dolls, claiming they could prevent men sexually abusing children. We rejected these claims, arguing that child sex abuse dolls in the likeness of little girls, toddlers and babies normalise men's sexual use and abuse of children, and put them at risk. We included evidence of how predators incorporate real children in their sex doll use, child sex abuse dolls customised in the likeness of real children, and how the products are being used to create new virtual CSAM. We called for uniform legislation to criminalise the dolls globally.