Author(s): Madonna King

Family

The crime of sextortion has reached epidemic proportions, fuelled by both sex offenders and organised scammers targeting our most vulnerable online.

Children are some of the internet's most prolific and most naive users, and increasing numbers are finding themselves caught in an evil web of networked manipulators. Up to 70 percent of all new sexual exploitation content online is victim-produced, and much of it follows the same script.

An adult abuser tricks a child into thinking they are a peer, the child produces the content themselves and the abuser then blackmails their victim - for money or for more content.

It's a script well-known to Detective Inspector Jon Rouse, who, for three decades, headed up Taskforce Argos, the expert arm of Queensland Police dedicated to hunting down online predators and rescuing children from abuse. In collaboration with Rouse, Madonna King tells the story of their investigations, from undercover cases to operations on a global scale, exploring what makes a victim and what makes an abuser, and distils the work that goes into bringing down perpetrators. Hunting Evil highlights the dangers lurking in every child's smartphone, web browser and computer game.

It is the story of the tireless work of saving children from the online manipulation that is stealing their innocence, and raises awareness on how we can all protect the children in our lives.