Networks of “crimefluencers” are targeting young girls for “sadistic online exploitation”, the country’s new top cop has warned.

The country’s most senior intelligence officials and public servants were among the dozens who packed into the National Press Club on Wednesday to hear Krissy Barrett’s first major speech since taking up the reins as Australian Federal Police commissioner earlier this month.

The first woman to lead the AFP, she highlighted “a new and disturbing front in traditional gender-based violence”.

“There are decentralised online crime networks and loosely affiliated individuals in Australia and offshore who are glorifying crime online such as sadistic online exploitation, cyber attacks and violence,” Ms Barrett told the National Press Club.

“These crimes are now spill

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