Federal police officers will get new protections to possess and share child sexual abuse material to target sex offenders online, with changes to national laws designed to ensure investigators are not themselves committing criminal offences.

Parliament’s powerful joint committee on intelligence and security this week signed off on changes to telecommunications laws, including the new rules for dealing with child abuse material in so-called controlled operations.

The changes will ensure law enforcement officials from the Australian federal police and agencies including the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission are protected from criminal responsibility and indemnified against civil liability to do their work targeting child abuse syndicates, often operating in dark corners of the

See Full Page