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A Queensland man faces 596 charges of child abuse for grooming boys online. His crimes span multiple countries, with 23,000 images recovered and 259 victims identified, as police allege he targeted children through social media and gaming platforms.
A man in Australia's Queensland has been charged with 596 cases of child abuse offences in which he used fake online identities in order to groom children, mainly boys, aged from seven to 15 in both Australia as well as other countries.
The 27-year-old accused, Ethan Mitch Burns-Dederer, was arrested in February 2025. The investigation into Burns-Dederer's crimes were ongoing for the past 12 months, in which 23,000 photos and videos were recovered from his hard drive.
The probe has identified 259 victims of child abuse, but police allege there were 200 more victims.
Burns-Dederer has been charged with 244 counts of producing material that is deemed child abuse, 163 counts of procuring persons under 16 using a carriage service, as well as 87 counts of sexual activity with a child.
As per the police, they will allege that the accused “actively targeted children on social media and gaming platforms between 2018 and 2025," The Guardian reported.
“Police will allege the man self-produced the child abuse material that was found on the electronic devices,” the publication quoted a Queensland police statement as saying.
“Police will further allege the man created multiple online profiles, posing as both males and females and that the child exploitation material was collected by the offender directly from victims through grooming and coercion," the statement also read.
The dangers of gaming platforms
Like social media platforms, gaming platforms have similar features like chats and messaging, something parents do not realise, as per Chad Gallagher, Child Exploitation Squad, FBI, who spoke to internetsafety101.org regarding this issue.
Gallagher said that "Using an Xbox, you can receive messages from any of the major platforms. Even if you’re in the game, somebody who has your game ID or screen name can send a text message to you and it will pop up on the screen and you can chat just like you do on a computer." He believes while parents try and restrict social media access for their children, gaming platforms, which offer similar features, go unnoticed.
The platform reveals that in many popular games, users can disguise their voices. This can lead to predators targetting kids by making themselves sound younger.
The platform lists grooming, solicitation of explicit content, luring offline, financial exploitation as some of the dangers children may face while playing online games.
How to protect children from dangers of online gaming
Cybersecurity company Kaspersky says that the best way for parents to ensure their children's safety from the dangers of online gaming is for them to regularly play the games with their children.
Kaspersky says that this strengthens the bond between the parent and child and opens up communication. internetsafety101.org also asks parents to review games along with their children, encourage them to block or report suspicious activities, and continuously monitor their well being so that they do not become addicted to gaming or become aggressive or feel isolated.
English (US) ·