Online networks have exploded in the last 20 years in Australia.
With this increased interconnection between people, there have been
innovations in the way law enforcement identify crime and arrest
suspects.
The use of online aliases is an increasingly common tactic
utilised by police, particularly in investigations for terrorism,
drug-related and child sexual abuse offences. You really never can
be sure who you are talking to online.
The following outlines the growth of online undercover
operations, provides a questionable recent example of their use and
concludes by outlining the legal limits of police pretending to be
somebody else on the internet. This also then raises issues of
entrapment and unfairness in Australia.
