Australia's internet safety regulator has accused some of the world's biggest technology companies of failing to do enough to combat child sexual abuse and the growing threat of online sexual extortion.

Significant gaps identified

Australia's internet safety regulator has accused some of the world's biggest technology companies of failing to do enough to combat child sexual abuse and the growing threat of online sexual extortion.

In a transparency report published on Tuesday, the country's eSafety Commissioner said companies including Apple, Meta and Google had "significant gaps" in their efforts to detect and prevent abuse on their platforms.

The regulator said many online services were not making full use of existing technology capable of identifying coercive language commonly used by offenders to manipulate victims in sexual extortion scams.

"We have provided these platforms with evidence of how their services are being colonised by criminals, with clear guidance on how to stem the abuse," Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.

"Even when we've laid this out, we haven't seen adequate responses, despite the technology being readily available."

Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft and Snap did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Government expands regulator's powers

The regulator's report comes after the Australian government introduced legislation in June to give the eSafety Commissioner greater powers to pursue technology companies through the courts for failing to comply with the country's ban on social media access for under-16s.

Australia was the first country in the world to introduce such a ban, with other countries, including Britain and several European nations, now pursuing similar measures.

In April, the regulator asked several online gaming platforms to explain how they protect children from grooming by sexual predators.

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Rise in sexual extortion complaints

Between July and December 2025, eSafety received more than 2,000 complaints about sexual extortion, with young men aged 18 to 24 the most affected. A separate study found that more than one in 10 Australians aged 16 to 18 had experienced sexual extortion, with more than half of victims first targeted before the age of 16.

The regulator said investigators had identified repeated patterns in offenders' tactics but found companies were not consistently using available tools, such as language analysis, to detect them. It also highlighted shortcomings in reporting systems on services including WhatsApp, iMessage, Discord and Google Messages.

The report noted some improvements, including Google and Snap taking steps to proactively detect known child sexual abuse material, Discord blocking links to abuse content, Meta introducing new tools to detect grooming, and Microsoft detecting live abuse during video calls.

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