Lowdown: Australian regulator finds major gaps in platforms’ detection of child sexual exploitation

Major online platforms continue to have significant gaps in detecting child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) and sexual extortion, particularly by relying on user reports instead of proactively identifying harmful activity, according to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner.

 In its third periodic transparency report, the regulator said providers still fall short in detecting newly created child sexual abuse material, preventing grooming, disrupting abuse during video calls, and tackling sexual extortion on their services. 

The report covers the period from July 1 to December 30, 2025, and examines how Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap and WhatsApp complied with Australia’s Basic Online Safety Expectations (BOSE). It focuses on providers’ responses to child sexual exploitation, grooming and sexual extortion involving both children and adults.

Findings summarised:

• Proactive detection remains limited: eSafety said providers continue to have significant gaps in proactively detecting new child sexual abuse images and videos before users report them, despite the availability of technologies that can identify such material earlier.
• Video call protections remain weak: Only Microsoft uses tools to detect and disrupt live online CSEA during video calls proactively. No other provider covered by the report uses proactive detection technologies in video-calling services.
• Grooming detection requires improvement: The regulator said providers should strengthen tools that detect and prevent online grooming, which can lead to children producing abuse material or meeting offenders in person.
• Encryption presents challenges: eSafety acknowledged that end-to-end encryption makes proactive detection more difficult but said providers should continue developing technologies and adopt layered approaches to detect unlawful activity while implementing reasonable safety measures.
• Some progress has been made: The report noted that several companies invested in improving or expanding detection tools during the reporting period while emphasising that significant safety gaps remain across the industry.

Key numbers and statistics:

• 2,206 complaints: eSafety received 2,206 individual complaints of sexual extortion during the reporting period.
• Most complainants were men: 85% of complaints came from males. Men aged 18–24 submitted the highest number of complaints (803), followed by men aged 25–39 (574).
• Most referenced platforms: Instagram appeared in 695 complaints, followed by WhatsApp (612) and Telegram (558). A single complaint could reference multiple services.
• Where threats occurred: Adults most commonly reported threats occurring on WhatsApp, Telegram and Instagram, while children most commonly identified Telegram, iMessage and Snapchat.
• Encrypted messaging: The report said threats often move to encrypted or ephemeral messaging services after initial contact. It stated that end-to-end encryption…