00:01She's positioning this issue as a critical one and a whole of society responsibility.
00:07So Adelaide University, along with the AFP-backed centre to counter cyber exploitation essentially
00:16crunched the numbers, had a closer look at this issue and found that 15% of young people
00:21are basically going to AI chatbots for counselling services and that's each week.
00:27And this is amid what we're seeing in a massive spike of children as young as 12 being manipulated
00:34by AI-generated nudes as well as sadistic online exploitation.
00:39In that cohort of victims, 35% are either disclosing that abuse to an AI chatbot or not telling
00:47anyone at all.
00:48Commissioner Barrett says this is heartbreaking and she's really also acknowledged the limits
00:54of policing when it comes to tackling this issue.
00:57So she's putting out a call to arms, if you like, to the nation's parents and saying that
01:03they need to have open discussions with their children about the dangers that are apparent
01:08and also really creating a safe space so that they can come forward in case they encounter
01:14any of this behaviour online.
01:16At the same time, the AFP is working on a new tool.
01:20It's AI-generated and would essentially basically escalate or triage some of these complaints
01:27when they're made and get them in front of a police officer more quickly.
01:31I did ask Commissioner Barrett whether the government should consider, for example, extending the under-16
01:38social media ban to include AI to try and clamp down on this kind of online behaviour and this
01:44is what she had to say.
01:45I won't speak specifically to what government should or shouldn't do.
01:49I would just say generally that anything that helps to keep our kids safer is obviously something
01:56that, you know, we support with the social media ban.
02:00I mean, I think it's important to, you know, I guess reinforce that these things are not the
02:07whole solution.
02:09Obviously, you know, they are good in terms of drawing attention and starting conversations
02:14in households around dinner tables, around, you know, what kids are doing online.
02:19But I go back to there is still, you know, such a critical role here for parents, carers,
02:25family, educators, you know, community leaders, people that have direct access and visibility
02:30of kids day to day that can see, you know, whether a kid is starting to change their behaviour
02:36or withdraw.
02:37Delivia, Chrissie Barrett also provided new details about the threat environments more
02:42generally.
02:43Yeah, it was a far-ranging interview and she did paint a pretty stark picture of the kind
02:48of complexities in national security that the Australian Federal Police and other intelligence
02:53services are facing.
02:55So, among them, there's been an uptick in youth radicalisation and, interestingly, those
03:00individuals are being fuelled by grievances, whereas in the past, often it was politically
03:06motivated or ideologically motivated.
03:09And she said that that uptick, if you like, had validated her decision to create national
03:15security investigations teams.
03:17This was one of her first acts as commissioner a year ago now.
03:21And what they essentially do, look at these types of criminality that doesn't necessarily
03:26meet the threshold of terrorism.
03:29She said 65 arrests had been made of those being monitored by these national security investigations
03:36teams.
03:37And she expects that number only to grow in coming months.
03:40I did ask her for her reflections, having spent one year in the role now.
03:46And she said that her restructure of the agency to try and make it focus more on national security
03:52had been the right one.
03:54So, what I would say is, I guess, in the 12 months since I became the commissioner and
03:59post-Bondi, for me, the threat environment has actually validated the decisions that I
04:06took early on in my commissionership and the changes that we made quite quickly.
04:10The work for our counterterrorism investigators is getting more complex.
04:15And sometimes, particularly with our young people, what we see is perhaps they're not actually
04:21driven by a particular ideology.
04:24They are driven by a grievance.
04:27So, Commissioner Barrett, she's firmly focused on what's happening in Australia, but she's
04:31also doing a lot of outreach overseas and she'll be heading to Tokyo later this month to meet
04:36with her counterparts.
