Calling out sexualisation and sexual exploitation of children

September 5-11 is National Child Protection Week. The theme is 'Every child, in every community, needs a fair go'.

Read on to learn more about what we're doing to combat sexual abuse and exploitation of children, and to give children a 'fair go'.

We’ve had another #WakeUpInstagram campaign win, with Instagram announcing the following new measures to help protect young people from predators:

We were pleased to make a submission to the European Commission's public consultation on Child sexual abuse online - detection, removal and reporting.

Why we’re saying NO to 'Insta for Kids'

*Content warning

Why Facebook must abandon plans for 'Instagram for kids'

Collective Shout with James Evans*

**Content warning**

How would you feel if you found out your neighbour had 10,000 images of underage girls wearing bikinis on his hard drive? What if I told you that Instagram hosts collections just like this, serving no other purpose than the sexual entertainment of men?

We've had another major #WakeUpInstagram win, with Instagram's rollout of new tools to help protect underage users from predators on the platform including:

Update: UN adopts General Comment on children's online rights (February 11, 2021)

The United Nations now recognises that children’s rights extend to the online realm. These rights - and the responsibilities they invoke on world governments and corporates regarding issues such as children’s online safety - are outlined in the Committee on the Rights of the Child's General Comment 25.

Tech giants must act to stop sexual exploitation

According to data recently shared by the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE), we are in the grips of a global child sexual exploitation epidemic. Much of the abuse is happening online and in plain sight. And Australian men are the third largest consumers of live, online child sexual abuse, according to the Australian Federal Police.

Instagram has responded directly to our #WakeUpInstagram campaign by adding a new in-app reporting tool to report accounts which sexualise children.

Article reprinted from The Conversation