Kelly Humphries
Research Fellow
Early Themes Definitions, disclosures directions, responding to "Capped" and Unknowing Victims: A Collaborative Approach
This presentation, a project of the AiLECS Lab, in partnership with Bond University and funded by Safe Online explores emerging early themes in the identification and support of capped and unknowing victims of CSAE. These individuals often remain outside traditional service responses due to limited self-identification, systemic thresholds, or fragmented detection and disclosure pathways. Many do not know they are victims, until material depicting them is identified by Law Enforcement.
Open Access
Innovation Through Collaboration: Bridging Research, Technology and Lived Experience to Strengthen Global Responses to Online Child Sexual Exploitation
The rapid evolution of technology has transformed the landscape of online child sexual exploitation, creating increasingly complex challenges for law enforcement, policymakers, researchers, and victim support services worldwide. Responding effectively requires more than isolated innovation. It demands sustained collaboration across disciplines, jurisdictions, and sectors.
This presentation explores how the AiLECS Lab is addressing these challenges through a multidisciplinary model that brings together research, technology, law enforcement, lived experience, and international partnerships to develop practical, evidence-informed solutions. Our work spans key areas including the triage of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), emerging software solutions that enhance investigative capability, victim identification technologies, and the application of advanced analytics, including image, voice and audio detection, to improve the identification of victims and offenders while reducing investigative burden.
Alongside technological innovation, the Lab contributes to legislative reform and policy development, recognising that effective responses must evolve alongside offending behaviours and technological change. Central to this work is the belief that meaningful progress can only be achieved through collaboration across academia, government, industry, law enforcement, and survivor communities.
A defining feature of the AiLECS Lab is the integration of a lived experience research stream, ensuring that the voices of victims and survivors inform the development of policy, investigative practice, and support responses. This research examines how victims experience the continued existence and use of their abuse material, the impact of investigative and justice processes, and how engagement by authorities can either reduce or compound harm. Embedding lived experience alongside technological and investigative innovation enables the development of responses that are both operationally effective and trauma-informed.
The presentation will demonstrate how collaborative partnerships are generating practical solutions that strengthen investigative capability, improve victim engagement, and contribute to preventing further abuse. Ultimately, protecting children in an increasingly digital world requires shared responsibility, collective expertise, and a commitment to innovation that keeps victim safety at the centre. Collaboration is not simply beneficial; it is essential if we are to identify more victims, disrupt offending earlier, and save as many children as possible from abuse.