POLICE are warning parents about “catfishing” with figures revealing more than 800,000 sex offender accounts on the dark web and encrypted apps sharing child abuse material since the beginning of the pandemic.

As school returns, the AFP is launching a week-long “ThinkUKnow” campaign with safety tips to help keep parents and students stay a step ahead of online predators, some who are posing as children to extract sexually explicit images.

Police will focus on “catfishing”, in which predators can create online social media personas of children or celebrities to make it easier for them to contact children.

Hilda Sirec, AFP Commander for the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) said the start of the school year is an exciting time for pupils, with many receiving their own tablet or mobile phone.

She said parents must educate their children about the dangers of sharing personal details and private photos with people online.

“It’s perfectly natural for kids and young teens to wish to interact with people their own age online, but predators prey upon this to gain access to children, and can pose as children themselves,” Commander Sirec said.

Research conducted by the ACCCE in 2020 revealed only about half of parents talked to their children about online safety.