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OSINT Training Log: OFMIN-Led Bangkok Workshop Fights Child Exploitation
Uniting Thailand’s cybercrime, trafficking, and ICAC teams to train cross-border OSINT strategies against online child exploitation.
Bangkok, Thailand — June 2025.
A specialised OSINT training programme brought together Thailand’s frontline cybercrime and anti-trafficking investigators. Their mission? To build their country’s OSINT capabilities against online child sexual exploitation, and better protect Thai kids.
This OSINT training united 17 investigators from several law enforcement divisions: the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau’s Thailand Internet Crimes Against Children (CCIB TICAC), the Central Investigation Bureau’s Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (CIB ATPD), and Department of Special Investigation (DSI).
In delivering this training, OSINT Industries collaborated with France’s Office Mineurs (OFMIN). Created in 2023, OFMIN is a new specialized police unit within the National Police Judiciary Directorate (DNPJ). It acts as a “single point of contact” for crimes against children, including fighting the “pédocriminels les plus à risque” [trans. ‘most dangerous pedophiles’].
Mission Objective: A Tri-Agency Team-Up for Child Protection
The objectives in Bangkok were clear:
- Strengthen Thai ICAC units’ digital investigative capabilities
- Introduce advanced OSINT techniques tailored to child protection cases
- Improve identification probabilities for offenders and victims
- Foster inter-agency collaboration across cyber and trafficking divisions
By combining operational expertise with cutting-edge tools, this OSINT training would unite three crack teams to turn online intelligence into real-world enforcement.
Challenge: Fragmented Networks, Shared Responsibility
“Before, even regular tourists could see small street children flocking around Western men… Intensive intelligence work and tough reactions from local police… have made the open sexual exploitation of small children in countries like Thailand disappear almost entirely. But no one we talk to would say that it no longer exists.” – ECPAT Sweden and Childhood Foundation. [Source: Childhood]
As visible, street-based exploitation in Thailand has declined, abuse has moved decisively online.
A landmark study by UNICEF, ECPAT International, and INTERPOL found that around 400,000 Thai children aged 12–17 — roughly 9% of Thailand’s young people — have experienced online sexual exploitation and abuse. Even worse, only 1–3% reported what happened to them. The vast majority of victims were hidden from formal investigation by the authorities.
This has to change.
Thai authorities routinely face cases involving foreign pedophiles, large-scale CSAM distribution, and the disgusting reality of child sex tourism (CST). At the same time, specific challenges with fragmentation persist within Thailand itself.
Thailand’s challenge is structurally unique in that cybercrime, trafficking, and child protection units must coordinate across overlapping mandates - while policing a crime that thrives in the gaps between jurisdictions. Local victims, local networks, and local reports quickly explode from national casework to international coordination.
Today, Thai agencies face not open street abuse but evidence stored on servers beyond Thai jurisdiction. Integrating OSINT methodologies into collaborative, international workflows is no longer optional to fight an evil that spreads from overseas.
OSINT Training: ICAC Investigation Workshop Bangkok
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Supported by: Office Mineurs (OFMIN)
Organised by: Sophie Bazard, ETI in Cyberpédocriminalité (Conseillère Régionale en Asie du Sud Est-Bangkok-Thaîlande, DCSD)
Guest Trainer: OFMIN’s Lydie Saint Laboue
Duration: 5 days
Participants: 17 Thai law enforcement officers (CCIB TICAC, CIB ATPD, DSI)
With experts at OSINT Industries and OFMIN on hand to provide instruction, participants picked up practical, operational child safety OSINT skills. As with all our training courses, this program in Bangkok combined technical instruction with hands-on investigative work.
Skills and Methodologies Developed
OSINT Fundamentals for Child Protection
The foundations of effective investigation. How to identify valuable open-source data, conduct ethical online research, and maintain operational security (OpSec).
Digital Footprint Analysis
Every offender leaves traces - even across borders. Investigators analysed usernames, activity patterns, and metadata to connect predators’ often-anonymized online personas to real-world identities, and detect exploitation indicators. Trainees also developed strategies for identifying and protecting victims.
Advanced OSINT Tools for ICAC Online Investigations
Cutting-edge investigative support. Trainees were introduced to specialised tools, including OSINT Industries’ platform, to accelerate online investigations and structure open-source intelligence effectively.
Case-Based Team Exercises
Real-world investigations. Trainees worked collaboratively on real national case reports, applying OSINT techniques in real-time to identify suspects and locate victims. This allowed trainees to hone best practices for sensitive ICAC cases in a controlled supportive environment, but waste no time when the most vulnerable are at stake.
Operational Impact: Collaboration as a Force Multiplier
By working on live-relevant material, participants demonstrated what OSINT can do. During the training, officers from three agencies:
- Identified both offenders and victims linked to prioritized ongoing cases
- Developed crucial investigative leads from real reports
- Strengthened inter-agency coordination across three agencies
With unlimited OSINT industries credits and access throughout the program, trainees developed faster and more effective intelligence strategies to keep kids safe from international predators.
A key success of the training was the integration of three specialised units, bringing some of Thailand’s most focussed teams together as one. By fostering an environment of shared expertise and mutual learning, these officers built bridges that will continue to strengthen Thailand’s national response to online exploitation in the long term.
What’s more, the spirit of collaboration extended to the trainers. By assisting overseas organizations, OFMIN bolsters and emphasizes its position as a top child protection agency worldwide; the unit that cracked tough high-profile cases like Pavel Durov.
For OSINT Industries, this was a valuable opportunity to connect with and support those that really make a difference. This was OSINT4Good.
Trainer Evaluation
“Investigators successfully used OSINT tools to identify suspects, locate victims & escalate urgent reports… Thanks to all involved!” — Training Team, OSINT Industries
“The Thai investigators, with their experience and the lessons learned during this week, produced work of the highest quality… Similarly, the complementarity of the participating organizations made this initiative a success.” — Sophie Bazard, ETI in Cyberpédocriminalité and OSINT Training Organizer [Source: Sophie Bazard, trans. OSINT Industries]
Mission Accomplished.
Modern OSINT training plus inter-agency cooperation equals results. As online exploitation continues to evolve, initiatives like this ensure law enforcement teams worldwide remain prepared to meet the challenge.
