Australia's eSafety regulator finds Big Tech inadequately addresses child sexual abuse online
Australia's internet regulator found that major technology platforms have significant gaps in detecting and preventing child sexual abuse and online sexual extortion, failing to use available technologies to identify coercion scripts despite receiving guidance from the regulator. The eSafety Commissioner released a compliance report on July 14, 2026, noting over 2,000 complaints about sexual extortion between mid-2025 and end-2025.
What happened
Australia's eSafety Commissioner released a transparency report on July 14, 2026, finding that Big Tech companies including Apple, Meta, Google, Snap, and Microsoft have 'significant gaps' in tackling child sexual abuse and online sexual extortion.
The report states that online platforms are failing to use available technologies that can identify well-known coercion scripts used by sexual extortion offenders. The eSafety Commissioner said the regulator had provided these platforms with evidence of how their services are being exploited by criminals and clear guidance on how to prevent the abuse, but has not seen adequate responses despite the technology being readily available.
Reported impact
The eSafety Commissioner received more than 2,000 complaints about sexual extortion between July and December 2025, with young men aged 18 to 24 being the most affected demographic.
Index analysis
eSafety in 2024 directed eight technology platforms to report every six months on their compliance with Australia's 'Basic Online Safety Expectations' rules, focusing on detecting and preventing child sexual exploitation and abuse. The July 2026 report is the third in a planned series of four.
Governance controls
The Australian government introduced legislation in June 2026 to give eSafety more power to pursue tech giants in court for failing to comply with its ban on social media for under-16s. Australia became the first country in the world to impose such a ban, with other countries including Britain and several European nations now taking similar measures.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.