Under new proposed laws, Australian Federal Police will be able to intervene directly in online criminal networks, with the aim of disrupting child abuse.

The amendment to surveillance legislation would authorise ‘data disruption’; allowing AFP officers to modify and delete the information contained on a target computer.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton admitted to Ray Hadley “the technology had got ahead of us” in “the sewer of the internet”, but believes the new powers could save children from sexual abuse.

“Federal police [will] be able to go onto the dark web and to try and get past the technology, to identify the pedophiles and terrorists.

“Encryption is good in that sense where it protects us from criminals, but encryption is bad where it protects criminals from the police.”

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