In 2016, Australian police ran a secret online operation that shocked the world.
For eleven months, Task Force Argos controlled Childs Play, one of the largest child sexual abuse forums on the dark web. During that time, the police themselves uploaded and shared real child sexual abuse material as part of their undercover work.
The Norwegian newspaper VG later uncovered the operation and revealed that the entire site was hosted on a server in Sydney. UNICEF condemned it as a clear violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires governments to protect children from sexual exploitation.
Now, almost a decade later, Australia’s Parliament is considering a bill that would make this practice legal.
Why This Matters
The proposed law would allow the Australian Federal Police to possess and distribute real images and videos of child sexual abuse during investigations.
Legalizing this act would revive the very harm survivors have fought to overcome. Each time those images are viewed or shared, their pain is renewed. Every circulation of abuse material extends that suffering instead of ending it.
A Law That Betrays Victims
UNICEF has already warned that using real abuse material violates children’s rights. Yet this proposal attempts to re-legitimize the same approach that caused global outrage in 2017.
No form of policing can claim integrity while reusing evidence of real human suffering. Protecting children must never rely on the continued display of their abuse.
Survivors Deserve Healing
Survivor and advocate Marley Basford has spoken powerfully about this issue. She explained that the continued use of real abuse material removes survivors’ agency and renews their fear.
When institutions preserve these materials as operational tools, they hold power over survivors’ healing. Every survivor deserves the freedom to heal without their trauma being revisited, stored, or used by the state.
An International Precedent of Harm
If passed, this bill would make Australia the first democracy in the world to authorize police to distribute real child sexual abuse material.
Such a law would set a dangerous international precedent. It would signal to other governments that re-exploitation can be justified under the name of enforcement. The decision Australia makes will define the ethical boundaries of global child protection for years to come.
Better Paths Forward
Justice grows from integrity, not imitation of harm. Investigative alternatives already exist that honor both safety and human dignity.
Law enforcement can develop investigative simulations that avoid using real or synthetic children. They can enhance data tracing and international cooperation to pursue perpetrators. They can strengthen prevention work and survivor recovery programs to stop exploitation before it begins.
Ethical protection affirms the worth of every survivor and upholds the principles justice was meant to serve.
Australia’s Legal and Moral Obligations
Australia has signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which demands both protection from exploitation and the restoration of dignity for survivors.
By endorsing this bill, Australia would fail those obligations. It would treat evidence of abuse as expendable and disregard the psychological recovery every survivor deserves.
A nation’s commitment to human rights is measured by how it safeguards the most vulnerable. This bill would fall short of that responsibility.
Our Call to Action
The Center for Online Safety and Liberty calls on the Australian Parliament to reject the proposed bill expanding AFP powers to share or distribute real child sexual abuse material. Parliament must prohibit the use of authentic abuse material in covert operations. It must also commit to survivor-informed, rights-based approaches to online child protection.
Governments cannot defend human rights by sacrificing the people they are sworn to protect.
A Global Call for Dignity
This issue reaches beyond Australia. Around the world, governments and citizens share a collective duty to defend the integrity of child protection. Every society must affirm that true safety arises when children’s dignity is beyond question.
Protection begins with compassion. Justice begins with restraint. Humanity begins when no child’s suffering is ever used again.
Use the form below to take action.
Withdraw the bill. Protect children. Defend human dignity.
