Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has warned that major technology platforms are still falling short in detecting and disrupting sexual extortion, grooming and child sexual exploitation online.
The regulator’s latest transparency report examined Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap and WhatsApp between July and December 2025.
Complaints remain high
eSafety received 2,206 sexual extortion complaints during the six-month period, with men accounting for 85% of cases.
Instagram was the most frequently cited platform, followed by WhatsApp and Telegram, highlighting how offenders often move victims between services.
Detection remains inconsistent
The report found uneven use of tools designed to identify abusive images, grooming behaviour and extortion language.
Microsoft was the only provider using technology to detect live child sexual exploitation during video calls, through Microsoft Teams.
Apple relied largely on nudity-blurring features in iMessage, while Google used language analysis on YouTube but not across Meet, Chat or Messages. Meta used detection tools across its platforms, although encrypted messaging limited their reach.
Some progress, but more needed
eSafety noted improvements, including stronger link blocking, image and video matching, grooming detection and cross-platform intelligence sharing.
However, the regulator said available protections were not being deployed consistently enough and called for stronger collaboration to prevent offenders shifting between services.