An incredibly important documentary that dives into the world of child exploitation on the dark web, The Children in the Pictures is a call to arms to fight against an insidious and ever-growing monster that has our children in its sights.

Directed by Akhim Dev and Simon Nasht, The Children in the Pictures explores the work of Task Force Argos, an investigative wing in the Australian Federal Police that goes undercover to rescue children from online sexual exploitation and abuse.

The topic of online child exploitation is not an easy one to broach, and Dev and Nasht deal with the subject with an almost forensic approach, delving into the how’s, what’s, and who’s in this brand of police work. Often the screen is awash with pixelated images that hides the horrors of the online trade in child pornography that has grown in years. The thought of it all is sickening, skin crawling and heartbreaking. Made even worse is the reality that for every image there is a child in danger, somewhere.

It is that helplessness, that desperate need to save these children, that drives the officers in Task Force Argos. Chief among them is Detective Inspector Jon Rouse, who for the last 25 years has investigated and apprehended the monsters that prey on children. You can only imagine the psychological ramifications that exposure to thousands of images of sexually abused children can have on not only Rouse, but other officers under his command. They all share their experiences on camera and do so with a steely resolve. Occasionally the veneer cracks as frustration and disgust bubbles over. It is clear, though, that this fight must be fought with the brain as much as the heart.

This comes to the surprising fact that law enforcement often run the very same child sex message board sites that many of these perverted (mostly) men frequent in picture trading frenzies in a bid to lure in the predators and catch them pedo-handed. It is a tactic that works, but also raises moral questions about whether using child porn for bait is the right thing to do. The answer is simple: how else could you infiltrate the belly of the beast if you cannot pass as a monster yourself?

It is an irksome and ghastly world that Dev and Nasht have documented, yet it is one filled with just as many angels as there are devils. The Children in the Pictures can be a difficult watch, yet it is an essential one.