Back
Technology

Major Tech Platforms Face Scrutiny Over Child Safety Measures in Australia

Generated on: Last updated: 5 sources
View source

Critical Safety Gaps Exposed in Tech Platforms’ Fight Against Child Exploitation

The Australian eSafety Commissioner’s latest transparency report identifies critical safety gaps in how major technology companies detect and prevent child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA).

Regulatory Findings

The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, issued legally enforceable periodic transparency notices to eight major technology platforms: Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Skype, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. The report assessed each platform's actions against several categories of online harm, including real and AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), online grooming, sexual extortion, and livestreamed abuse.

According to the report, these companies possess the necessary resources and technical capabilities to improve safety but have not taken sufficient steps.

While some incremental improvements were noted, the report highlights that platforms are not fully utilizing available technology to detect livestreamed abuse, new abuse material, and sexual extortion. The findings come alongside industry data on the scale of the issue and renewed calls for a legally mandated Digital Duty of Care in Australia.

Specific Safety Gaps

The eSafety report identified the following specific deficiencies across the platforms:

  • Inadequate detection of livestreamed abuse: Meta and Google's video calling services (Messenger and Google Meet) remain unmonitored for livestreamed abuse, despite these companies using detection tools on other platforms. Microsoft Teams and other providers also lack these protections.
  • Limited detection of new CSAM: The report found insufficient proactive detection of newly created child sexual abuse material.
  • Insufficient language analysis: Platforms are not adequately applying language analysis systems to identify cases of sexual extortion. The eSafety Intelligence and Investigations team provided companies with sexual extortion language indicators and common scripts, but noted these tools have not been deployed.
  • Lack of proactive detection: Apple and Discord have not implemented proactive detection technologies, with Apple largely relying on user reports rather than automated safety tools.

Incremental Improvements Noted

The report acknowledged several improvements made since the first transparency notice cycle:

  • Snap (Snapchat) reduced its child sexual exploitation and abuse moderation response time from 90 minutes to 11 minutes.
  • Microsoft expanded its detection of known abuse material within Outlook.
  • Platforms showed improved industry-wide information sharing.
  • Expansion of systems that blur sexually explicit videos and images.
  • Enhanced detection of already identified CSAM and other abusive material.

Scale of the Issue

Data points from multiple sources contextualize the regulatory findings:

  • The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation received nearly 83,000 reports of online CSAM in the 2024-25 financial year, a 41% increase from the previous year.
  • An IJM report in partnership with Childlight East Asia & Pacific Hub found that 6.5% of 1,939 Australian men surveyed have engaged in or would engage in livestreamed child sexual abuse.
  • Data from the Internet Watch Foundation indicates that 73% of CSAM analyzed in 2025 was not self-generated, suggesting much originated from adults.
  • IJM's Scale of Harm study found that in 2022, 1 in 100 Filipino children were trafficked to produce new CSAM, often livestreamed.
  • Australian purchasers rank second or third in buying this content.

Technology and Policy Discussion

David Braga, CEO of IJM Australia, stated that Apple's recent announcement extending Communication Safety features to block violent images demonstrates that tech companies have the technical capability to prevent harm.

He called for a digital duty of care requiring built-in CSAM prevention across all devices.

John Livingston, UNICEF Australia's Head of Digital Policy, described current efforts to police and prevent online child sexual abuse as a "patchwork" approach.

He supported the report's findings and called for consistent, robust safety-by-design measures and legislation to introduce a new duty of care for tech platforms in Australia.

The eSafety Commissioner stated that transparency alone is insufficient and advocated for a shift from merely recording harms to preventing them through improved design. Commissioner Inman Grant indicated that companies have not taken sufficient steps despite possessing the necessary resources and technical capabilities, and warned of severe consequences if safety technologies and practices are not significantly improved.

Industry Response and Future Actions

Tech companies are required to submit further reports to eSafety in March and August 2026. Platforms that fail to comply with mandatory transparency notices face daily fines of up to $825,000.

The eSafety Commissioner launched a new dashboard to track technology companies' progress, monitoring metrics such as detection technologies, data sources for harmful content, volume of user-reported content, and company trust and safety workforce sizes.