 Good morning everybody and it's great to be here. This is obviously another tool for the Queensland Police Service but very important during Trial Protection Week and what you'll see when you see those three words that prevent, protect, prosecute, it just goes to show that the protection of all our children is a responsibility of everyone and it's only through cooperation and obviously information from all members of the community that we can assist police and families in ensuring that perpetrators are brought to justice. Now police will do the enforcement and now today we'll be launching a number of educational and awareness programs to assist parents and empower young children and teenagers in relation to prevention but I'm really am calling on all members of the community to work with police. Police are as only as good as the information they receive and it's very important particularly not just this week for Child Protection Week but every other day, 365 days of the year that we do the utmost to protect Queensland children. Now Task Force Argos is a magnificent command that is achieving remarkable results in relation to obviously enforcement with over 900,000 images collected, many hundreds of thousands of videotaping equipment that has been obviously confiscated and Task Force Argos has already seen the proof of over 158 young children that have been rescued from a life of obviously deprivation and being used and abused by these predators. Now today the two particular areas are in relation to yourself, keep it to yourself. Now these particular posters will be going out and we're encouraging young people and adults to ensure that if you have an image of yourself so your selfie keep it to yourself because only 10 years ago young children were warning them about talking to strangers on the street and now these strangers are in our homes, they're in our own bedrooms and they have connection to our young children and I'm really imploring parents and adults as well as those teenagers that if you have a selfie that you keep it to yourself to ensure because these images, these pedophiles and other people out there not just in Queensland but right across the world will use it and abuse it and then many years later those particular images could come back to haunt that particular child as he or she goes into adulthood. But again police are as good as the information they receive and what today is also about is a very successful program in relation to who's chatting to your kids is also going to be enhanced to give parents other ways to be able to work together. Simple little things that parents need to know about being able to filter the information and that their children have access to, to being able to even where you position your computers and IT within the home whether they be in a more family or more visible area besides young children retreating to their bedrooms and not knowing that what's happening with these certain perpetrators because that's what they rely on. They rely on being able to use their power over young children and their time has gone because at the end of the day operations within the Queensland Police Service, Task Force Argos as well as other operations within the CMC means that when you break an offence, break the law particularly in relation to young children all that information will be recorded and is only a matter of time before the police come knocking at your door and I make no apologies for sending that message out to these pedophiles and people who think they can perpetrate the youth of Queensland that your time is up and the resources, the technology, the advancements in relation to policing are at the hands of the Queensland Police and they will come knocking down your door no matter even if you try to move overseas or into state because we're also working in with ministers from all the states and territories to enforce that we have a coordinated approach in relation to pedophilia and the disgraceful acts that they perpetrate on young people and the lives that they take away. So I'll just pass the Commissioner for some comments. No thank you Minister and good morning ladies and gentlemen and thank you for covering what we think is one of the most important weeks of the year Child Protection Week. It's all about enhancing people's knowledge of those threats that are out there and in particular this year with the theme of Child Protection Week being protecting children is everyone's business. It can't be more important in the announcements that we've made this week of updating our who's chatting to your kids website and all the material around that that has been updated this year. It's an award-winning program. Our Task Force Argos have been involved in over a number of years but importantly this year we have the issue of selfies about what these things can do and who can access those photos over a long period of time. Selfies keeping it to yourself is an important message for our young people for both now and into the future and I congratulate Task Force Argos and the team at State Crime Command for the work they've done in this regard. Yep, any questions particularly? Well obviously it'll go out through the different educational units within the Queensland Police Service but also coordinate with the other government departments whether it might be obviously it might even be within the health areas, public spaces where other people can see it as well as obviously within the schools because that's the message to have a coordinated response. Gone are the days where one department takes responsibility of a particular issue and where we talk about education it's about everyone working together. In the QPS itself you'll have the the community-based policing areas where from adopter cops to school-based police officers right through to the obviously community-based officers who will get out as well and we've got my police blogs now. Now my police blogs are in 14 areas across the state and they are achieving over 15 million hits. It is very successful and this message will be emanated through the my police blogs as well as the Facebook as well. We've got one of the largest Facebook sites of any police service in Australia and these are things that are engaging with with the community young people. We've also put a lot of material on our website and the minister has been given access to that so he can look at it as well but and we think that most of the young people now particularly with their interest in social media and their access to the internet they can go straight to our website to get that a range of information about this plan. But a lot of young people do not realise the sheer evil behind these perpetrators and pedophiles and the extent that they'll go to obtain certain images and self-images and we have a number of young people doing a lot of experimentation on the internet as well as through technology and obviously later on in adulthood it can really come back to you know not just affect that child whether it be the perpetrators getting contact then but also whether it be for certain positions jobs or or other community groups elsewhere. Oh look I think generally right across the whole of the community I think what we've seen is how we embrace technology per se is certainly a reflection right across the community and I think when we talk of whether it be Queens and Pleas politicians or other members of the communities we have a diverse group and it's a simple message to say you know at the end of the day is what you have on the computer it will come back and it will certainly will bite you and we've seen the examples of that right across the board. You're absolutely right and I think we're in a very good space over the last few years we've done a huge amount of work in putting in the foundations for the fact that technology is changing on a daily basis and certainly we're very grateful to the government for the way that they've been supporting us yesterday there was an announcement of the GWN a half a billion dollar investment over the next 15 years to give us secure digital comms something that we've wanted for a long long time and I believe that there'll be more announcements over coming weeks and months about technological advancements for us but it is a challenge you can that is an absolute critical factor and I think that the future will be that we're very carefully laying foundation stones in technology so that we've got all of the right networks certainly how the way our systems operate behind the scene we have all of that in in train so that we can take advantage of the types of technology that we're about to bring to the Queensland Police Service for instance smartphone and tablet technology to give our police true mobility probably a probably a first in the country that and we're able to do that because we have integrated systems because of the good planning that we've done over a you know a long period of time. There are a range of apps as you call them that are out there that encourage young people in particular often to do send quite explicit messages including photos of themselves what concerns us the most is the fact that those photos are going to be there forever I mean they're in the Twitter sphere they're out there in the in the cyberspace and one of the big issues for us is the the ability of people with with criminal intent to go and surf the internet looking for kids who put up these types of photos and target them and so what we're trying to do is to make sure that young people and their parents understand the dangers that they face. Well at the end of the day it's never too late and I think least those matters have been exposed and I really do encourage them to obviously contact police straight away there are a number of of community groups that be able to help them through the realisation of what has happened to them both physically and emotionally and each will determine the circumstances of what resources you put into that person if it's it might be a simple message it might be having the police and another and other family members talk to that young person but obviously depending on the seriousness of it then you would involve other other people whether it be in relation to having people being having certain consultation. I can't tell you right now about the number of complaints I know that we do get complaints about it and we have members of Task Force Argos here right now in the room and we can talk to them afterwards about the actual statistics but I think the key message is trying to help young people understand the dangers that sit behind these systems and some of these apps that they use and the fact that the images are going to be there for a long period of time and that's that's one of the challenges it's not to believe necessarily the advertising that's provided by those areas it's to give factual information and that's what we're trying to do is get that prevention rather than the cure in the first place because one of the things that have been identified through Task Force Argos is the now is the members selfies that are starting to get being brought up in in pedophile investigation so there has been a large increase of selfies that these perpetrators are keeping and storing and using you know for very very much illegal means so it's a way that that parents and young children can help themselves by ensuring obviously that that selfies kept to themselves. Can't always be in control of and there's other people that are taking these photos of them. Are there any charges, what are the types of charges, what avenues can police go down to prosecute the group rather than the individual? Every circumstance is going to have to be looked at in in in its on its merits so to speak you know that one of the real sad things is that young people will go to a party they'll drink or they'll use substances they potentially won't be thinking straight maybe for an emotional reason that allows other people to take photos of them sometimes in quite compromising situations. If the person is aware of it they can make complaints to us and we'll certainly follow it up if there has been a level of illegality involved in that. Hopefully in most situations it'll simply be a request to the person who's actually taken the photo or the video to actually have them delete it but you know we've seen some very sad cases where that hasn't occurred and young people have been exploited so we need to know about it we need to have people take this issue very seriously and that's why protecting children you know is everybody's business is the key theme this week. Take those photos that they shouldn't be under any illusion. There is offences in relation to transmitting you know type of images across whether it be you know other social medias or IT you know and that applies even to young people as well and it certainly is a call depending on the type of youth the age of the person as well as the type and seriousness of the imagery but at the end of the day this is about prevention and it's about ensuring that people are certainly wised up to people perpetrators who will use what might be a quite innocent caption or event at the time that might be a very personal issue how that issue then can come back for that young person at another time and affect their lives. I think that one of the challenges is that is the consensual selfie meaning someone takes their own photo which is a selfie and then but does it in a compromising way so it's a you know a naked depiction of them and sends that to someone who at the present time is is considered to be an intimate friend. We all know that often those friendships dissolve and they'd still got that information on that phone now it becomes a little bit challenging for the law when that was sent with consent and you know quite openly sent to that friend then it depends what that person does with it and but in the first instance people should be making sure that I think that they don't take those type of photos in the first place and that's the education process it's what we were saying it's about getting to the root cause of this stopping it before it happens once it happens then you have to go through a chain where you can ask the person to lead it you can take action to make them delete it and ultimately if they publish that if they've sent it then there are criminal offences that do accrue to those facts. Teenage kids as well have you had to deal with this at home? Oh look obviously the who's chatting with your children program obviously has gone out to a majority of schools and community groups and for me obviously as a family we sit down and talk about these particular issues and make sure that they're completely afaid with what other people outside of the family can really have influences on you inside the family I said like they're at the very beginning is 10 years ago we were worried about who was talking to our children out on the street and strangers now these strangers are actually in our homes and in our bedrooms and we really have to have strategies in place I know from the information that you've got here in relation to who's chatting with with your with your kids it's there is some great information to help both both the the child and the teenager but particularly parents and this being Child Protection Week it's a great opportunity to to reinvigorate that because you know we know with technology as it keeps changing is parents sometimes in busy lives aren't able to keep up with with the different changes and the different apps that come out and there is there is a time to be able to have proper plans in place even for your own family. It's about what you guys are doing every day in the media it's about making sure that people understand the threat that's out there I mean this week about it's everybody's business it's the media's business and that's why we're so grateful you're here today because it's about getting that knowledge out there to everyone now we can do it on our websites we can do it through the government websites but at the but the reality is the work that you do in the media is absolutely critical to getting the message out to the entire community to letting them know what those issues are and perhaps some case studies and what have you that our people would be happy to provide to you will help people understand how big the threat is it's there right now