Scott Morrison's government is working on a plan to enlist the Australian Signals Directorate to help domestic law enforcement track down online paedophiles, terrorists and serious criminals, the ABC reported on Thursday.

The cyber intelligence agency is restricted to only spying on or hacking systems based outside of Australia at the moment.

Mr Morrison believes the rules that govern the real world should apply in the digital world too.

"If I thought someone was abusing a child somewhere, I would kick the door down, I would go and try to rescue that child," he told reporters in Sydney.

"So those who want to abuse children shouldn't get to be able to hide in the internet and if they are doing it, I am going to use every tool at my disposal to try to protect that child."

Asked what tools security agencies lacked, he said: "They will get what they need to protect the kids."

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says police should be able to get a warrant and access to a person's online life in the same way as for a physical home.

"There should be a public debate about whether we think it's acceptable for our society to tolerate the presence of these criminal networks right next door to us and yet we have no ability to do anything about it," he told the ABC.

Australian Associated Press