Three alleged child sexual abuse victims have been identified and rescued following an operation involving West Australian and federal police.
Over the course of seven days, officers executed around 61 search warrants across the state as part of the joint WA Police Operation Palomar and Australian Federal Police Operation Tamworth.
Forty-five people were charged in WA with a total of 149 offences and police say more than 35,000 images and videos were seized.
WA Police Detective Superintendent Gordon Fairman said exploitation material was direct evidence of children being abused, and identifying and rescuing the children was the highest priority for officers.
"People who manufacture, distribute or possess child exploitation material may believe they are anonymous, hiding behind a computer," he said.
"Let me tell you they are not. We can identify them, we can locate them and we can prosecute them."
WA Police confirmed the child exploitation material possession charges laid against former City of Stirling councillor Keith Sargent and another former Stirling employee were linked to the operation.
In 2021, the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation received more than 33,000 reports of child exploitation, double the number of reports from 2019.
AFP Detective Superintendent Graeme Marshall said the figures showed the scale of the problem.
"We need everyone in the community — parents, teachers, carers — to be alert," he said.
"The AFP, together with our state, Commonwealth and international partners remain committed to identifying, arresting and prosecuting those who seek to exploit and harm our community's most vulnerable — our children."
Concern over online predators
WA Police Inspector Hamish McKenzie said the operation, carried out in the lead-up to National Child Protection Week, was the largest of its type ever conducted in Australia.
He said authorities had seen an increasing connection between possession of child exploitation material and sexual offending against children.
"One in 10 offenders that we find in possession of child exploitation material are physically offending against children, whether it be their own children or somebody else's," he said.
"It reinforces what we in the law enforcement community have been saying for some time, that this is not a passive crime type, but is intrinsically linked to child sexual offending."
Both Inspector McKenzie and Detective Superintendent Marshall raised serious concerns about predators online, saying the three children removed from harm were teenagers "unknown" to the alleged offenders.
'Sextortion' warning for parents
One 22-year-old man charged as part of the operation allegedly paid a teenage girl to record herself performing sexually explicit acts and send him the videos, and had targeted her through social media.
"The case demonstrates how predators are targeting children through online activities, and effectively invading their bedrooms," Detective Superintendent Marshall said.
He also said instances of "sextortion" were on the rise, and urged parents and children to be aware of risks online.
"We are seeing more children groomed then blackmailed to produce more extreme child abuse material, with the fear that if they don't comply, the images will be shared with their family and friends," he said.
"You will not be shamed by coming forward and telling police what is happening to you."
