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)On their own, the nine images appear innocuous. In fact, it is hard to immediately tell exactly what all of them show.
One is clearly of a child's shirt. Another looks to be a cap.
But Australian Federal Police believe these everyday items, like sheets, logos and cabinets, hold clues that are key to cracking cold cases of child sexual abuse.
The objects have been directly lifted from disturbing videos or pictures then digitally enhanced.
From today, they will be posted online for the first time.
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)Officers hope that members of the public will recognise something and report it, eventually helping them catch paedophiles and people profiting from child exploitation.
"These images, they're innocuous but they're particular enough that it might trigger a memory from someone out there," Hilda Sirec, the AFP Commander of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, said.
AFP specialists trawl through child abuse videos frame by frame searching for anything that might reveal the location or identity of the victim or offender.
It could be a power socket, a vase, a reflection, a logo, a TV show in the background or even a piece of clothing. It is gruelling, yet vital work.
But the images that are being released today come from cases where there are no further leads.
Some are months old and others several years old.
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)"These images came from the Australasian region, most likely Australia," Commander Sirec said.
"[The images] form part of a puzzle and we're asking the community to help us with that puzzle."
The nine images are the first released as part of the Australian arm of the 'Trace an Object' program, which will be formally launched by the AFP today.
It will run in partnership with Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency. It has had some success since establishing the scheme four years ago.
The Europol website currently features several images of objects like socks, wrist bands and a hotel room in South-East Asia.
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)Questions about each item are posed underneath and information can be provided anonymously.
"They've saved 10 children and have had over 20,000 members of the public provide tips to them," Commander Sirec said.
"Child exploitation is a huge problem in Australia. We receive more than 21,000 reports from our partners in relation to child abuse images.
