Terms of reference

Pursuant to subsection 7(1) of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement Act 2010, the Committee will inquire into and report on the capability of Australia’s law enforcement agencies to tackle the growing scourge of child exploitation, with particular reference to:

(a)trends and changes in relation to the crime of online child exploitation;

(b)reviewing the efficacy of and any gaps in the legislative tools and tactics of law enforcement used to investigate and prosecute offenders;

(c)considering opportunities and suitability of streamlining legislative constraints to enable faster investigations that can better respond to rapidly evolving trends in offending;

(d)considering the use by offenders of encryption, encryption devices and anonymising technologies, and Remote Access Trojans to facilitate their criminality, along with the resources of law enforcement to address their use;

(e)considering the role technology providers have in assisting law enforcement agencies to combat child exploitation, including but not limited to the policies of social media providers and the classification of material on streaming services;

(f)considering the link between accessing online child abuse material and contact offending, and the current state of research into and understanding of that link; and

(g)any related matters.