Login
iscover
Share this article on:
Powered by
MOMENTUM
MEDIA
Powered by MOMENTUMMEDIA
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has been appointed to lead the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), which fights child exploitation and child sexual abuse material, for the next three years.
The VGT is an international collaboration between 15 law enforcement agencies from around the world, which are allied in the fight against child sexual abuse.
VGT was started in 2004 and is tasked with assessing the “global child sexual abuse threat” and working collaboratively between member nations to address it.
AFP Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough is the chair of the VGT as of 1 November 2024, which will be led through the AFP’s Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE). The AFP will lead the taskforce for the next three years.
“The Virtual Global Taskforce provides a collaborative and united approach to tackling child sexual abuse,” Assistant Commissioner Gough said.
“A collaborative approach is essential as technology allows offenders to operate without geographic limits.”
In the 2023–24 financial year, the ACCCE received 58,000 reports of online child sexual exploitation, a dramatic increase from the previous year’s 18,000.
The VGT will focus on exchanging knowledge between member law enforcement agencies, raising awareness globally, threat scanning, looking for new solutions to maximise impact, streamlining collaborative efforts and more.
This is the second time the AFP has led the VGT, previously chairing it from 2009 to 2019. At the time, the ACCCE had not been established, and the threat landscape has changed dramatically.
Other members of the VGT include the UK National Crime Agency, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, National Police of Colombia, Philippine National Police, Philippine National Bureau of Investigation, Netherlands National Police, Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates, New Zealand Police, Kenya National Police Service, Korean National Police Agency, United States Homeland Security Investigations, FBI, Interpol, and Europol.
Be the first to hear the latest developments in the cyber industry.
