At least one young person in every Year 12 classroom has experienced or known someone who has been the target of AI-facilitated sexual abuse. That's the shocking finding from new national research that is the first national estimate of how often AI is involved in the online sexual victimisation of Australian children - and how AI has changed both how young people are harmed and how they seek help. Advocates are urging governments and stakeholders to catch up with evolving technology
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TRANSCRIPT
In 2007, Sonya Ryan’s daughter, Carly, was murdered after becoming the target of months-long child sexual abuse online.
Since then, she has been advocating for tougher legislation against online child sexual abuse.
“The technology has lowered the barrier to offending someone who previously needed technical skills can now create abusive material in minutes using widely available AI tools, so you know, really, AI has industrialized this form of abuse.”
Ms Ryan says predators are using evolving technology for their activities, moving from online chats to social media, and now to artificial intelligence.
Now, a new study has provided the first national estimate of how often AI is involved in the online sexual victimisation of Australian children.
The survey of just over 1800 Australians aged 16 to 18 has found over one in four cases of nonconsensual sharing of sexual images that involved AI.
That amounts to at least one young person in every Australian Year 12 classroom.
Associate Professor Tim Cubitt from Adelaide University is one of the researchers, and says that in some cases, predators are using what experts call Nudify apps to convert photos into nude images, and share them without the other's consent.
“AI is more accessible. It is able to generate and manipulate imagery in an automated way, and that's created a new avenue for people to take conventional photography, conventional images, and where in the past they may have had to steal that imagery, or or solicit it from someone.”
The research also found that boys are more likely to be targeted in A-I facilitated child sexual abuse, despite girls facing higher overall rates.
Professor Cubitt says this may be related to a practice known as sex extortion.
“It's possible that because in the past boys' sexual images were less available, it was not as possible to steal and sexually extort or solicit and sexually extort young men for for money or for further imagery, and now, because of AI, we believe that they're being targeted more because it's now more possible to generate that imagery.”
What makes researchers especially worried is that children are also turning to A-I for help when experiencing online sexual abuse.
Professor Cubitt says this means policymakers need to start considering that in their responses to abuse.
“If a young person discloses sexual victimization to an AI platform, we then need that platform to pass that information on to someone who can support that young person. We don't necessarily have that across the board in Australia. That's something that's really vital, but as well as that, we also need to know that the advice that young people are getting from the AI platform is good, and we're not quite sure what those AI platforms are saying back to the young people.”
The research was produced by the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children Australia and the Australian Federal Police’s Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
ICMEC Australia chief executive Colm Gannon is calling for tech companies to embrace safety by design, while Professor Cubitt says more frequent monitoring of tech’s impacts on child sexual exploitation is needed.
Colm Gannon says there is a significant demand within the community for the issues raised in the report to be addressed.
“The Technology Design Policy Institute in Australia identified that 85% of Australians want to have regulation. The government's response is not to have an AI legislation, which means that the guardrails or the standards that we expect with the development of AI technology is fragmented.”
The Australian parliament passed what’s now known as Carly’s Law a decade later that criminalises adults who use online services to plan, prepare or engage in sexual activity with children under 16.
Sonya Ryan says government needs to think ahead to do even more.
“Whether an image is real or AI-generated doesn't change the trauma for the child who's whose face is being used. Children still experience shame, fear, humiliation, and loss of control over their identity, and many children don't even know these images exist until they begin circulating through their school or friendship groups, you know, and the harm and the emotional turmoil and just stress that we're seeing in children and young people coming forward to our organization alone is really distressing.”
If you or someone you know needs support, contact Lifeline crisis support on 13 11 14, Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25). More information is available at beyondblue.org.au and lifeline.org.au.
Anyone seeking information or support relating to sexual abuse can contact Bravehearts on 1800 272 831 or Blue Knot on 1300 657 380.
