Child sexual abuse: A million wesbites blocked in New Zealand over a year, reports increase
Online child sexual exploitation is a growing issue in New Zealand, with a 283 per cent increase in reports to authorities since 2020.
The Department of Internal Affairs’ (DIA) digital child exploitation team has released data on the investigations it launched and actions it took against the “situations and acts that no human being should see or know exist” throughout 2023.
The DIA blocked over a million websites known to show child sexual abuse material over the year.
The department also launched 47 investigations into child exploitation, seeing 15 people prosecuted. Authorities seized 209 devices with abuse material on them.
Investigators sifted through and categorised almost three million pieces of abuse material.
“The volume of child sexual abuse material being shared is extremely worrying and we hope these findings highlight the scale and nature of this deplorable content” digital child exploitation manager Tim Houston said.
“The content we are seizing and prosecuting against is not innocent pictures of children.
“It is serious and abhorrent sexual abuse of children.”
Houston said the material contained “situations and acts that no human being should see or know exist, let alone have to experience and then have distributed online for the despicable satisfaction of online offenders”.
A growing amount of that sexual abuse material was “disturbingly realistic” computer-generated content created by artificial intelligence, he said. This was proving an increasing challenge to investigate and counter.
“[Artificial intelligence]-generated content is becoming easier to create, which normalises and encourages the physical abuse of children,” Houston said.
“It takes significant resources and time to determine whether a child is AI-generated or not and takes our investigators away from identifying real-world children who are at risk.”
Websites using “end-to-end encryption”, a security method keeping online communication secure and hidden from authorities, were also hindering agencies from detecting the illegal activity, he said.
“As this [encryption] becomes more prevalent, a lot of child exploitation will go unreported and offenders will increasingly operate with impunity.”
A website filtering system which blocks pages with objectionable material had logged 1,149,570 attempts to access these sites and blocked them.
Houston said: “If you are seeking out this material, please reach out for the help and support that is available, otherwise you will be found, stopped and held accountable.”
The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children referred 18,598 reports of child exploitation material to authorities including the DIA and police. This was a 283 per cent increase in 2021-23 compared to 2018-20.
The DIA said the safeguarded 35 children in New Zealand from harm or potential harm and identified some 414 child victims as part of international joint operations.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.