Australia eSafety finds big tech gaps in tackling online sexual extortion

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the regulator’s July 14 transparency report shows “significant gaps” in how major platforms – Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Snap, Discord, WhatsApp and iMessage – address online sexual extortion. The report recorded more than 2,000 complaints between July and December 2025, with young men aged 18‑24 accounting for about 800 reports and adolescents under 16 also targeted. Platforms are failing to deploy available language‑analysis tools and often lack clear reporting categories for extortion, despite technology that can detect coercive scripts and livestreamed abuse. Some improvements were noted: Google and Snap have begun proactive detection of child sexual abuse material, Discord blocks abusive links, Meta uses new grooming‑detection tools and Microsoft detects live abuse in video calls. The regulator highlighted that Australia introduced legislation in June giving eSafety greater enforcement powers and was the first country to ban social‑media use for under‑16s, a measure now being considered elsewhere. Grant warned, “Even when we’ve laid this out, we haven’t seen adequate responses, despite the technology being readily available,” and called for a digital duty of care to compel tech firms to protect young users.

The findings underscore ongoing risks for youth, the need for stronger platform safeguards, and the government’s push for tighter online‑safety regulations.