eSafety Report Exposes Industry-Wide Failures, report by the International Justice Mission Australia

The Australian Government is being urged to deliver on its promise to legislate a digital duty of care, following a damning new report from the eSafety Commissioner.
Transparency notices released in August 2025 reveal that major tech companies are failing to meet basic child protection standards, allowing child sexual abuse to be livestreamed and shared on their platforms.

Despite available technology to detect livestreamed child exploitation, companies are still “turning a blind eye,” said eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant. “This is illegal content. This is literally the rape, torture of children, and they’re enabling it.”

Livestreamed Abuse: A Growing Threat

The Australian Institute of Criminology has identified video calling services as a central vector for livestreamed sexual exploitation. International Justice Mission (IJM) research with the UK’s Nottingham Rights Lab revealed nearly 500,000 children in the Philippines have been abused to create new material, often through livestreams.

Survivors from the Philippines have urged governments to hold digital services accountable: “We specifically ask that digital services be held accountable for livestreaming child sexual abuse – that such criminal activity be proactively detected and disrupted.”

Tech Companies Ignoring Available Tools

According to eSafety’s findings, many platforms:

• Fail to use tools to detect new child exploitation images and videos

• Lack of effective user reporting for abusive material

• Avoid hash-matching to detect known content

• Do not apply language analysis to identify sexual extortion

IJM’s John Tanagho stressed that AI and machine learning can already detect and disrupt livestreamed child abuse. “The wealthiest, most powerful tech companies in the world are doing nothing to protect children,” he said.

Urgent Need for Digital Duty of Care

IJM Australia CEO David Braga said the findings prove self-regulation has failed. “These companies have the resources to stop illegal activity. They must be required by law to do better,” he said.

The Government announced in November 2024 its intention to legislate a digital duty of care, a key recommendation of the Online Safety Act review. This would force digital platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harms, backed by risk assessments and safety-by-design principles.

“Laws must be fit-for-purpose in the digital age,” Braga said. “Protecting children online cannot wait any longer.”