Ex-Neighbours star Madeleine West revealed how she alerted cops to a ‘paedophile’ who had been talking to hundreds of primary school-aged girls via social media.
The actor and author, 43, said her alarm bells went off when she saw a young girl she knew and a dozen of her friends were being followed on TikTok and other platforms by the same account which had uploaded no content, prompting her to look closer.
‘He followed 4,025 accounts … So I cross checked the first 200 and discovered they were all children under nine,’ she told Newscorp.
West said she then went through the comments on the posts those girls had been uploading and found ones posted from the suspicious account – which left her in shock.
‘These comments were along the lines of, ”You’ve got such a sexy body. Can I see you with your clothes off?” And most pertinently, ”Please put your face in the video. Can I see a post of your face”,’ she said.
West said she first went to talk to the parents of the group of girls who lived in her local area and said they had no clue their children were using these platforms, so they shut down their accounts.
West said she then took screenshots of the information she had found and forwarded it, with the permission of the girls’ parents, to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) and the office of the eSafety commissioner.
‘The federal police contacted me within hours because this was a dead set peadophile,’ she said.
Ex-Neighbours actress Madeleine West has revealed how her online sleuthing led her to uncover a paedophile
West said the AFP told her they are investigating her tip off.
The Underbelly actor and author from Melbourne has become an advocate for child safety after revealing she had been abused by a neighbour when she was a child.
She confronted her own abuser four decades later when she knocked on his door in July 2022 wearing a secret audio recording device detectives had given her.
Peter Vincent White, now aged in his seventies, received a 15-year sentence for his cruel abuse of seven young victims aged between four and 14.
The recording was crucial in prosecuting White.
In the audio, West could be heard exchanging pleasantries with White and his wife, who is profoundly deaf, before confronting him about the abuse.
She was left shocked when White said he could not remember committing any of the crimes – only to then beg her for forgiveness with four damning words: ‘I’m very, very sorry.’
West went public with her story in January 2023 and has since become an advisor and speaker for cyber-safety organisation Safe on Social and abuse survivors group Warriors Advocacy.
West has become an online child safety advocate after revealing her own abuse as a child
A campaign to block children’s access to social media to limit online harms such as predatory behaviour and cyber-bullying has been gaining momentum in Australian politics.
The current age limit for platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok is 13 but there has been wide criticism these age limits are not verified and can be bypassed.
Some state governments are calling to raise this age for social media use to 16.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has welcomed these efforts, and the federal opposition has committed to introducing laws that will bar under 16-year-olds from social media.
Many online sites currently rely on age gating, where users self-report their age. This can easily fail.
Children under 13 can provide fake birthdates to create social media accounts. And teenagers can simply tap ‘yes’ when asked to verify if they’re over the age of 18.
To prevent children from accessing inappropriate and harmful online content, the federal government is already funding a trial of ‘age assurance’ technologies.
Self-reporting is a type of age assurance but other methods, including more rigorous age verification processes, are also available.
These include providing ‘hard identification’ documents and emerging biometric technology.
The Australian Federal Police are believed to be making further inquiries based on Ms West’s revelations.
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