A University of Hull academic has been presented with a prestigious award for his remarkable contribution to the field of information systems and cybersecurity. 

Dr Dionysios Demetis, a Senior Lecturer at the Hull University Business School and Programme Director for the online MSc Digital Transformation has been awarded an Association for Information Systems (AIS) Senior Scholar Best Information Systems (IS) Publications Award for his research into online child exploitation. 

The award ceremony, which recognises the outstanding work of leading voices from all areas of the information systems community, took place at the annual International Conference in Information Systems (ICIS). More than 1,600 guests attended, travelling to Copenhagen from over 50 countries to present papers, celebrate the awards, and discuss IS innovation in business, research, and the wider society. 

What is digital transformation and why is it important? Read our quick guide:

Dr Demetis received the accolade for Senior Scholar Best Information Systems Publications Award for the paper Online Child Sexual Exploitation: A New MIS Challenge, which he published with Jan Kietzmann from the University of Victoria in the Journal of the Association for Information Systems (JAIS).  

The award-winning study explores how technology impacts online child exploitation – both to perpetuate the growing phenomenon and to combat it. Grounded by secondary data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, alongside primary data from a cybercrime police unit in the UK, Dr Demetis and Kietzmann posit a combined model for online CSE, the technology and imagery dimension model.  

When it comes to online child exploitation, technology is a double-edged sword. From false identities, deepfakes, and bots used to lure and then extort young victims, to the dissemination and gamification of illegal images used as ‘currency’ on forums and the dark web, it’s tech that drives this wave of crime. 

But similar methods are used by the undercover agents pursuing the offenders, this time using virtual identities to earn the perpetrators’ trust. And by monitoring networks and creating databases of images, cybercrime teams are able to unearth new cases of exploitation and prioritise their cases. 

Dedicating his award to the teams at Law Enforcement, Cybercrime Team, and Digital Forensics, and thanking those involved in the peer review, Dr Demetis said, “I am grateful to all for their support! I am of course forever grateful for the full support of Hull University Business School at every step of the way, from conference funding to attending the award ceremony.” 

Congratulations to Dr Demetis on his fantastic success. The University of Hull’s academics are leading the way to a fairer, brighter, and safer future. Join a community of pioneers from around the globe with Hull Online.  

Dr Demetis is Programme Director of Hull Online’s MSc in Digital Transformation. If you’re fascinated by disruptive technologies and their implications in the business landscape and wider world find out more about our fully online and part-time Masters programme: