Australian police charged a man with hundreds of child abuse offences on Thursday after finding 23,000 sexually explicit images on his computer from children allegedly groomed online. Victims were aged from seven to 15 years and lived in Australia and abroad, Clark said. “It will be alleged the man actively targeted the victims on popular social media and gaming platforms and the offending was between 2018 to 2025,” he told reporters. “The trauma that this causes a child is significant.”He has been charged with 596 separate offences, including more than 200 counts of producing child abuse material and 87 counts of sexual activity with a child over the internet. Australia recently banned under-16s from a raft of the world’s most popular social media platforms, in part citing an alarming rise in adult predators finding young victims online.

Source: Punch February 05, 2026 09:06 UTC