Task Force Argos is a highly specialised branch of the Queensland Police Service recruited from around the globe. Their primary focus is on child protection, making forensic and exhaustive inquiries into child sexual exploitation material on the web to track down and save the victims. This film tells the story of how these detectives infiltrate global criminal networks, catching the predators and rescuing the victims.
This film, The Children in the Pictures, outlines the history of this internationally renowned Australian-based unit and it takes us inside the Task Force as they go undercover, infiltrating global criminal networks. The film makers join with the Argos team to shine a light on the dark reality of child sexual abuse and the online exploitation that drives it.
Like me, you will be reluctant and wary of viewing this film, however you will be impressed with how the shocking situation is portrayed without brutalising the viewer. Though the ideas are confronting, the images are pixilated. One thing that becomes clear is that this is not pornography. The material that is being investigated is evidence of serious crime; the documentation of the violent rape of children. These crimes happen in real life with real babies and children as their victims. The clear focus is of the task force is on finding the victims and saving them. And the true-crime thriller nature of this story is enhanced by an international cast of wonderful crime-fighting characters.
Operating beyond the edge of the legal envelope, the detectives assume the identities of online pedophiles to infiltrate and take over websites or boards to snare perpetrators and find victims. One line of investigation led to a heinous abuser who supplied material and encouraged offending internationally. Dutch police forwarded material to Argos which helped direct them to a house in Oaklands Park. This led to the arrest of psychopath and global kingpin Shannon Grant McCoole a Families SA and Nannies SA carer. He was a world leader, extolling the virtues of raping pre-verbal children for ones own protection. In 2015 he was sentenced to 35 years.
While this was a major success, there is a tsunami of material appearing daily on the web. Another villain is Mark Zuckerbeg and his Facebook organization which publishes this material for profit and benefits from the production and free flow of child exploitation images. It is the internet which has provided a massive market that didn't previously exist. Parents particularly will find this chilling film useful in understanding the ever-present danger to their children from their mobile devices and online quote friends unquote. Other citizens need to see this film to properly understand the modern world.
