Police officers from across the Pacific Islands have gathered on the Gold Coast to improve their skills in protecting children from online predators, and fighting cyber crime.
The Australian Federal Police warns as internet use in the Pacific increases, so does the risk, particularly for children.
The first cyber safety "train the trainer" course was launched on Wednesday at the Gold Coast Titans rugby league headquarters by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the National Rugby League (NRL) and police chiefs from the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and the Federated States of Micronesia.
The course is part of the Cyber Safety Pasifika program, which will use a number of high-profile Pacific Islander NRL players to help young people understand the risks they face when they go online.
The AFP's Commander Grant Edwards says teaching children throughout the Pacific Islands about the dangers of the internet is a big job.
"Astonishingly, the Pacific area has the highest uptake penetration rates of internet usage in the world - it's approximately double the global average, sitting at about 60 per cent," he told reporters.
Commander Edwards said the Pacific is relatively untouched by cyber crime at the moment, and the new program will help prevent predators and criminals establishing a foothold in the region.
"Samoa has a phenomenal rate of internet uptake.
"Over the past 10 years their uptake has been somewhere in the vicinity of 1700 per cent - that's astounding.
"Niue has the highest rate of any country in the Pacific, and that includes Australia, at 85 per cent," he said.
Commander Edwards said the old maxim that crime follows opportunity is no truer anywhere than in the digital world.
"What we've seen in Australia in recent times is a huge increase in the number of offenders who use the internet to exploit children.
"We can't afford to underestimate the impact cyber crime has on us as a society," he said.
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