Australia’s online safety regulator has told the largest technology companies in the world that the tools to stop sexual extortion already exist, and that they are not using them. In a transparency report published on Tuesday, eSafety said companies including Apple, Meta, and Google have “significant gaps” in how they detect and prevent child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The specific failure named is language analysis. Sexual extortion offenders work from recognisable scripts, the same coercive phrases repeated across thousands of approaches, and the report says platforms are not deploying the technology that would spot them.
“In several cases, we have provided these platforms with evidence of how their services are being colonised by criminals to devastating impact, with clear guidance on how to stem the abuse,” said eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant.
“Even when we’ve laid this out, we haven’t seen adequate responses, despite the technology being readily available.”
Google, Meta, Snap, Microsoft, and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
