Key facts
- Australia's eSafety regulator found significant gaps in tech platforms' handling of online sexual extortion and child sexual exploitation.
- Over 2,000 complaints of sexual extortion were made to eSafety between July and December 2025.
- Men aged 18-24 accounted for the largest cohort of complaints, but younger teens are increasingly targeted.
- Instagram and WhatsApp were the most frequently cited platforms for sextortion incidents.
- The report highlighted a lack of proactive detection tools, particularly for live streaming features.
Australia's online safety watchdog has identified significant shortcomings in how major technology companies address online sexual extortion and child sexual exploitation. The eSafety regulator's latest transparency report reveals that despite rising reports of abuse, platforms are failing to adequately implement available detection technologies and proactive safeguards.
The report, covering July to December 2025, found that over 2,000 complaints of sexual extortion were lodged with eSafety. While men aged 18 to 24 represented the largest demographic reporting such incidents, the regulator noted an increasing targeting of younger teenagers. Sexual extortion, a form of blackmail involving threats to share intimate content, is being perpetrated through various platforms, with Instagram and WhatsApp being the most frequently cited. For users under 18, Apple's iMessage and Snapchat were commonly linked to these threats.
Examples of threats received by victims included statements like "I have everything to ruin your life" and "only money can help you now to end this peacefully." eSafety highlighted "persistent safety gaps" in the detection and prevention of child sexual exploitation, particularly in the use of language analysis to identify common coercion scripts and in the lack of proactive detection tools for live-streaming features. Microsoft was noted as the only company to report using both types of technologies.
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant stated that platforms could and should do more to protect users, emphasizing that offenders exploit design flaws and weak detection systems to move between services. Academic Dr Joanne Gray echoed these concerns, criticizing the platforms' predominantly reactive approach to content moderation, arguing for more robust preventive measures embedded into service design. She suggested that if companies cannot ensure the safety of live-streaming features, they should consider not offering them.