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Mobile phones with in-built cameras were being used as "do-it-yourself child pornography kits", an academic said.
Professor Bill Caelli from the Queensland University of Technology said children were even taking obscene photos of themselves and transmitting the pictures to paedophiles they met on internet chatrooms.
"It is called 'grooming' children and I can tell you that it is already happening in the UK," Prof Caelli, the head of QUT's School of Software Engineering and Data Communication, said.
"It's a do-it-yourself child pornography kit."
A Queensland man was charged on Friday with indecent treatment of a child after he allegedly took photographs of a young girl in a playground using his mobile phone.
Police said the 20-year-old man allegedly used his phone to take pictures of the girl in a children's play area at the Redbank shopping centre in Brisbane.
Mobile phones were recently banned from changerooms across 300 gyms, pools and sports centres across Australia after the YMCA recommended all of its facilities ban their use.
The Royal Life Saving Society of Australia also advised more than 3,000 public swimming pools to follow suit.
Prof Caelli said the manufacturers of the mobile phones had to accept responsibility for introducing the technology that was being exploited by paedophiles.
"Responsibility for the phone technology is being placed on the users while it never seems to be placed on the manufacturers," Prof Caelli said.
"The computer and IT industry is one of the few industries that is totally unregulated.
"The current spate of incidents is testing the will of governments to leave it alone."
Prof Caelli said it was possible to develop technology to control the functions of mobile phones but the measures could not be applied to the new crop of handsets.
"It could be quite feasible to turn the functions in phones off once they are in a certain precinct,"he said.
"A signal could be sent out to all phones to shut down the cameras but the horse has bolted to a certain extent."
©AAP 2003
Professor Bill Caelli from the Queensland University of Technology said children were even taking obscene photos of themselves and transmitting the pictures to paedophiles they met on internet chatrooms.
"It is called 'grooming' children and I can tell you that it is already happening in the UK," Prof Caelli, the head of QUT's School of Software Engineering and Data Communication, said.
"It's a do-it-yourself child pornography kit."
A Queensland man was charged on Friday with indecent treatment of a child after he allegedly took photographs of a young girl in a playground using his mobile phone.
Police said the 20-year-old man allegedly used his phone to take pictures of the girl in a children's play area at the Redbank shopping centre in Brisbane.
Mobile phones were recently banned from changerooms across 300 gyms, pools and sports centres across Australia after the YMCA recommended all of its facilities ban their use.
The Royal Life Saving Society of Australia also advised more than 3,000 public swimming pools to follow suit.
Prof Caelli said the manufacturers of the mobile phones had to accept responsibility for introducing the technology that was being exploited by paedophiles.
"Responsibility for the phone technology is being placed on the users while it never seems to be placed on the manufacturers," Prof Caelli said.
"The computer and IT industry is one of the few industries that is totally unregulated.
"The current spate of incidents is testing the will of governments to leave it alone."
Prof Caelli said it was possible to develop technology to control the functions of mobile phones but the measures could not be applied to the new crop of handsets.
"It could be quite feasible to turn the functions in phones off once they are in a certain precinct,"he said.
"A signal could be sent out to all phones to shut down the cameras but the horse has bolted to a certain extent."
©AAP 2003