Overview
- Commissioner Krissy Barrett used her first National Press Club address to unveil Taskforce Pompilid and a crackdown on decentralised networks she described as “crimefluencers.”
- The AFP has identified 59 alleged offenders linked to these networks and contributed to nine international and three domestic arrests, with Australian arrestees aged 17 to 20.
- An AFP–Microsoft prototype is being built to interpret emojis and Gen Z or Alpha slang in encrypted chats to help detect exploitation earlier, with the tool still in development.
- A Five Eyes law-enforcement sub‑group is targeting these networks, and the AFP is coordinating an Australian counterpart to concentrate domestic efforts and share intelligence.
- Barrett linked the trend to broader youth radicalisation, citing 10 terrorism-related investigations this year with four teenagers charged, and highlighted ongoing international work including a Royal Malaysia Police probe into an alleged paedophile network and counternarcotics operations with Colombian authorities.