Tech Giants Failing to Stop Online Sexual Extortion of Young Men, Australian Regulator Warns
Australia's online safety watchdog reviewed Apple, Meta, Google and others and found serious gaps in how they handle child exploitation and 'sextortion' complaints, even as reports keep climbing.
Key points
- Australia's eSafety Commissioner received more than 2,000 sextortion complaints in just six months last year.
- eSafety's transparency report found "significant gaps" in how major platforms tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse.
- Platforms reviewed include Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Snap, Discord and WhatsApp.
- Young men make up the largest share of sextortion victims among age groups tracked by the regulator.
- Reports of online child sexual exploitation continued to rise during the period examined.
Australia's online safety regulator, eSafety, has published a transparency report with a clear verdict: the world's biggest tech platforms are not doing enough to stop sextortion and child sexual exploitation, and the problem is getting worse.
Sextortion is a form of online abuse where criminals pressure someone, usually by threatening to share intimate images unless money or further images are handed over. It is not a niche crime. In just six months last year, Australians filed more than 2,000 complaints about it with eSafety alone.
Young men reported it more than any other age group. That finding, first reported by The Guardian Technology, challenges the common picture of who these crimes target.
How do these crimes actually happen?
Criminals typically build a fake online identity, befriend a target, persuade them to share a private image, and then use that image as a weapon. The whole process can take less than an hour. Platforms where people meet strangers, including social apps, gaming services and messaging tools, are the common entry points.
eSafety examined how Apple, Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), Google, Microsoft, Snap, Discord and WhatsApp handle reports of this abuse. The regulator found "significant gaps" across the board. Platforms varied widely in how quickly they responded to reports, whether they removed content, and how much information they shared with regulators.
None of this is an authentication or login problem in the narrow technical sense. No password reset would fix it. The gaps are in content moderation, reporting tools and corporate transparency.
What would help? Faster removal of flagged content. Clearer, easier reporting buttons for users. Consistent sharing of data with safety regulators. These are design and policy choices, not technical impossibilities.
If you or someone you know receives a sextortion threat, do not pay. Payment almost never makes the threats stop. Report the account directly on the platform, contact eSafety if you are in Australia, and tell a trusted adult or a helpline. Keep records of the messages.
Parents should know that young men, particularly teenagers, are a primary target group. An honest conversation about how these scams work, before an incident happens, is genuinely protective.
