Qld detective up for Aussie of the year

A Queensland detective who has saved thousands of children from around the world from sexual predators and horrific abuse is in the running to become Australian of the Year.

Detective Inspector Jon Rouse is a career cop who started investigating crimes against children in 1996.

He's a driving force behind the highly successful Taskforce Argos, but is reluctant to step into the spotlight.

"I am a bit uncomfortable, but I guess it is recognition for the whole unit. I'm just a cog in the wheel," he said.

Despite his modesty, the detective has saved thousands of children from harm, possibly tens of thousands.

He counts busting a South Australian paedophile ring with 45,000 members around the world as a career highlight.

Another is saving a Russian boy adopted by a depraved gay North Queensland couple who shared him with paedophiles around the world.

Back in 1996, before Argos, Insp Rouse was in charge of the child abuse squad dealing predominantly with historic sex crimes.

Then came the internet and in a heartbeat, everything changed.

"That was the year the internet was starting to grow and I was given a team of two people to look at the what was a potentially burgeoning threat and we developed online capabilities," he said.

"It progressed from a team of two to a team of 40 dedicated detectives."

Technology, new apps and the dark web remain an enormous challenge.

He described the lifelong damage done to abuse victims as "horrendous" and said police were determined to stop abuse at as young an age as possible.

"We are stopping abuse at 18 months, or even 12 months of age - these kids have a chance to never remember what happened to them. That's the goal."

While the primary mission of Argos is to protect Queensland children, they work closely with international counterparts under the mantra "any child, anywhere".

Once a victim is identified, anywhere in the world, a search warrant can be executed within 24 hours.