Sadism, sextortion and terror: The global push to stop the rise in threats targeting young victims

London: Australian police are joining a global push to demand more help from big tech companies to disrupt online networks that are fuelling crime, amid a disturbing rise in cases of violent extremism, child exploitation and “sextortion” that blackmails young victims.

Law enforcement agencies from five global allies are gathering in London this week to seek new agreements with the tech sector to use more powerful tools, such as artificial intelligence, to detect and disrupt online suspects.

In one of the most troubling trends, the police are reporting an increase in young men using online networks to encourage sadism and self-harm by their targets, who are primarily young women.

Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett named the increase in sadism and self-harm online as one of the concerns on the agenda in her talks with counterparts from the Five Eyes allies – the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand.

Agencies from the five member nations already conduct rapid joint operations – known as “sprints” – to target networks and share information, leading to the arrest of suspects accused of extremism, sexual assault and child sexual abuse.

Barrett said the agencies were speaking to tech executives at the London meeting about improving algorithms to identify suspicious patterns online, as well as building chatbots and using AI to detect potential crimes.

“The number one objective is that we walk away with a commitment on how we work together to combat the scale and pace of the tech-enabled offending that we’re seeing,” she said.

Speaking to Australian media in London ahead of the talks, the AFP chief said the online networks allowed predators to seek out targets for sadism and self-harm, in some cases turning their victims into perpetrators.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of reports around sadistic online exploitation,” she said.

“That is these decentralised networks sadistically targeting victims online. We are seeing that the general theme is that these are young men in their teenage years that are targeting predominantly young females in a sadistic fashion.

“So, manipulating, blackmailing them to carry out particular acts of violence or self-harm – and, indeed, sometimes actually blackmailing the victims to become perpetrators themselves.”

In one Australian case, counter-terrorism investigators charged a young person after concerns were raised about his discussions on an online platform about a potential shooting and terror attack.

In their investigation, they also uncovered material that suggested the suspect was affiliated with an international online network that engaged in “sextortion” – the practice of blackmailing someone by threatening to release sexually explicit images of them unless they comply with the predator’s demands.

The investigators also found material on the suspect’s network that promoted sadism. The case is before the courts.

The London meeting includes nine agencies from the five member nations such as the FBI, the US Homeland Security investigations agency, the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the UK’s National Crime Agency, the UK’s Counter Terrorism Policing and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Barrett is attending the meeting with Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission chief Heather Cook. The gathering is known as the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group and has been meeting since 2013.

In another example of their work, a Five Eyes agency notified the AFP of suspicious activity online that led to the arrest of a suspect who was charged with terrorism offences.

Police searched the young suspect’s home and alleged they found violent extremist material as well as evidence of plans to attack someone because of their race.

“We are seeing in our counter-terrorism caseload an increase in possession of violent extremist material, which is an offence in Australia,” Barrett said

“The impact of that is the desensitisation of particularly vulnerable people continually viewing violent extremist material, and what that leads to.

“We are also seeing an increase in the number of young people in our counterterrorism caseload. I’ve spoken publicly about particularly young boys – you know, 13, 14, 15 years of age – who we are seeing being rapidly radicalised or exploited online.”

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