Criminal Law

New data reveals the growing threat of sextortion, particularly for young people. Learn who is most at risk, which platforms are most commonly used, and why experts say tech giants must do more to combat online exploitation.

Child exploitation has become a commercial ecosystem sustained by digital payments, online platforms and regulatory blind spots. In Australia, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing regime is designed to disrupt the financial flows that enable exploitation. Yet recent supervisory actions and reporting gaps suggest that some payment providers are failing to meet their obligations.

An ABC investigation found AI platform OurDream.AI may generate illegal child sexual abuse material, raising concerns about law enforcement, AI regulation, unsafe training data, and inadequate safeguards as generative AI platforms rapidly expand.

Culture has always played a role in men’s sexual violence against women. However, new emerging contexts might be increasing sexual violence risk. How are these emerging contexts appearing, and how do they affect justice?

Australia’s human trafficking laws are among the world’s most detailed. The gap between legislation and justice — just 24 convictions against nearly 500 identified victims over 15 years — reveals a system that is failing the people it exists to protect.

If your child attended a Sydney daycare and you’re watching the Operation Moonbi coverage anxiously, this is for you. Koffels explains what the investigation involves, what to do if the AFP makes contact, and where families can find support.

Australia’s counter-terror laws have expanded steadily for more than two decades, each reform justified by the urgency of crisis. From the sweeping legal response to 9/11 to the aftermath of the Lindt Café siege, successive governments have built an increasingly preventative security framework. The legislative reaction to the December Bondi attack may represent a new stage in this trajectory. Measures framed as responses to extremism now reach beyond terrorism itself, regulating protest activity and political speech. Viewed through the lens of incrementalism, these developments raise complex questions.

NSW is on the cusp of reshaping one of the most influential rules in criminal trials – the use of good character evidence. The proposed reforms are poised to recalibrate how character evidence is deployed, signalling a shift in how NSW criminal law balanced faitness to the accused with the realities of institutional and sexual abuse cases.

The recent conviction of a Knox Grammar Teacher, exposes the tension within the legal system between community concern and unlawful vigilantilism.