Expert shares urgent warning all parents need to hear: 'Every child is vulnerable to this'

With the rate of child exploitation exploding online, this is a message every parent needs to hear in order to keep their children safe.

Jon Rouse, one of Australia’s top child protection investigators, has revealed the online crimes targeting children and how to spot them.

“I don’t care who you are, if you think that your child is immune to this then you are fooling yourself,” Rouse told A Current Affair.

“You’re living in a fantasy world if you think that. Every child is vulnerable to this. These people are very good at what they do.”

Rouse has long been focused on protecting children in various ways.

He worked in child protection for most of his life before focusing on online crimes.

Over the years, he instigated and led multiple national and international major operations targeting child exploitation criminal networks.

A police officer specializing in child protection is warning parents about crimes targeting children online. Shutterstock

Now, his insights are detailed in a new book “Saving Our Kids” and he wants to share the knowledge he’s gained over the years with all parents.

‘It’s up to you to protect them’

If the children are using devices, it’s ultimately up to the parents to learn how each apps work, test them out and research them. If parents fail to do so, that’s when the children become more vulnerable to the online predators.

“Don’t rely on big tech … to protect your kids. It’s up to you as the parents because you’re giving them the actual handheld device that’s got the technology on it,” Rouse said.

“If they’re using apps, understand how the apps work, set up an account, look at all of the security precautions that some of the apps put in place and activate them.”

Be on alert for ‘sextortion’

Rouse cautioned that some apps with chat functions try to trick children into thinking they are an exciting figure such as a celebrity in order to extort them, in “sextortion.”

“Many of these children thought they were dealing with Justin Bieber,” Rouse said of the crime that mostly targets girls.

There’s also the growing crime of “financial sextorion” targetting boys.

“The financial sextorter is just after money and it’s brutal. The demands are really quite heavy,” Rouse said, adding that children don’t know how to deal with these situations.

Jon Rouse advised parents to be aware of what apps their children are using and how they work. Shutterstock

Both of these forms of extortion begin when the new follower contacts the child, engaging in friendly conversation and asking them to send an image. Then, the demands begin for money or more shocking content.

“The child will be very unwilling to do that until the offender … shows them the content that they’ve captured and says, ‘I’ve got all your friends list. I know who your parents are … I’m going to put it out online’,” Rouse said.

There are 18 complaints of financial sextorion in Australia every day, and this number has tripled, according to the eSafety commissioner.

He advised parents to have their children surrender their devices at bedtime, and for the children to keep their friend list private.

Top tips for parents

Here are more some other online safety tips from Laura Easterbrook, Child Protection and Forensic Medical Service in Queensland.

1. As soon as your child starts accessing the internet, talk to them about what they are reading, watching and who they are communicating with online – and keep the conversation going as they grow older

2. Always monitor your child’s time online, particularly younger children. Keep the computer in a central spot in the home where it’s easy to keep an eye on what your child is doing and viewing online. For mobile devices, you can set them to forget Wi-Fi passcodes so your children can not go online without you knowing.

3. Know your parental controls. Innocent searches online can lead to not-so-innocent results, so it’s wise to know how to use the parental controls/search restrictions offered by web browsers, internet service provider and devices.

4. Know who your children’s online friends are. As adults, we know that some people online aren’t who they say they are, but children and young people can be alarming naïve about who they are chatting with if they are not taught to be cyber wise from an early age.

5. If your child is a regular user of social networks, they must be aware of the risk of personal information or images being made public once they post it. While they won’t fully understand the consequences of revealing personal information online, you should teach them to be cautious and thoughtful about what they post and share.

6. Keep control of your family’s digital footprint. Every picture and personal detail that is posted and shared on social media and the internet contributes to someone’s digital footprint. The big risk with this is that once information is shared publicly, it can be used in ways you may not expect and cannot control.

7. Teach your children to keep their location private. Most apps, networks and devices have geo-tagging features which make your whereabouts public and can lead someone directly to you. These features should be turned off for obvious privacy and safety reasons.

8. Keep track of online time. The Australian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines recommend children between the age of five and 17 should have no more than two hours of screen time a day.

9. Educate yourself on ways to be safe on social networks so that you can give the best advice to your children. Sign up to the social networks and apps your children are using and find out how to use the privacy settings and reporting mechanisms.

10. Lead by example and always model the kind of positive online behaviour you would like your children to use. If they see you being cautious and respectable when you are online, they are more likely to follow in your footsteps.