The eSafety Commissioner's latest transparency report reveals live online sexual exploitation of children persists in an enabling environment on most popular video calling platforms.
eSafety's third periodic transparency report reveals a continued lack of tools to detect and prevent livestreamed child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) across Apple's FaceTime, Discord's GoLive and Video Calls, Google Meet, Facebook Messenger live calls, Snapchat and WhatsApp video calls—despite having the technology to do so.
Only Microsoft reported using proactive detection tools to detect and disrupt live child sexual abuse in video calls: "On some of our services, we also deploy tools to detect and disrupt the misuse of video-calling capabilities to produce and share child sexual exploitation and abuse imagery by high-risk users . . . using "artificial intelligence to determine whether a live video call contains CSEAI [child sexual exploitation or abuse], in near-real time. If CSEAI is detected during the call, video capability in that call is disabled."
eSafety's report details findings from eSafety transparency notices issued to Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Skype, Snap and WhatsApp for the 1 July 2025 to 31 December 2025 reporting period. eSafety asked online service providers about steps they are taking to improve the safety of their services, including by addressing child sexual abuse material, in line with the Basic Online Safety Expectations Determination 2022 (Cth).
The ineffective responses from many tech companies to these serious issues are a perennial cause of concern.
In eSafety's second periodic report covering the first half of 2025, the regulator remained "particularly concerned by the lack of action by industry to … stop live online CSEA from occurring in video calls."
Similarly, in the first periodic report covering the prior six months, eSafety noted that "despite the availability of technology to help detect child sexual exploitation and abuse livestreaming or video calls, no providers were using it on all parts of their service(s)."
Under the Basic Online Safety Expectations Determination 2022 (Cth), service providers are expected to take "reasonable steps to proactively minimise" unlawful or harmful material or activity (s 6(2)) and to take "reasonable steps to minimise" the provision of class 1 material (s 11(d)), including child sexual abuse material.
CEO of International Justice Mission (IJM) Australia David Braga said: "What we continue to see from eSafety's periodic transparency reports is that the Basic Online Safety Expectations and Unlawful Materials Codes have been largely ineffective in moving big tech companies to detect and block child sexual abuse videos in live video call services."
This runs afoul of what survivors expect from government and big tech. In her address to political leaders at Australian Parliament House in 2024, Philippine Survivor Network Leader, Barbie, stated, "I believe that our shared goal is a future where no child will ever have to experience what I, and so many others, went through. A future where online sexual exploitation of children is prevented because online safety laws prevent offenders from demanding the online sexual abuse of children, including in live streamed video."
"Now is the time Australia must step up to be a world leader in requiring companies to detect and prevent illegal child sexual abuse from spreading online, including in video calls, by mandating that companies deploy mandatory safeguards against child sexual abuse at every layer of the tech stack, including device-wide protection," Mr Braga said.
The Australian Government is expected to legislate a Digital Duty of Care later this year.
"It is likely that without substantially stronger provisions that require service providers to detect and prevent videos and images of child sexual abuse from being streamed and watched on their platforms and devices, backed by effective enforcement powers, we will continue to see the same pattern of company behaviour emerge under the Digital Duty of Care," Mr Braga said.
"Tech companies are among the most well-resourced and influential companies in the world. If, after all this time, these companies still aren't willing to lift their game and ensure their platforms are child- friendly, then they must be compelled to do so through legislation."
IJM's Scale of Harm prevalence study found that in 2022, 1 in 100 Filipino children were trafficked to produce new child sexual abuse materials for paying online offenders.
Suspicious transaction report data analysis from the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council shows that Australia consistently ranks as the #2 or #3 purchaser of this content. A report by IJM and Childlight revealed 1 in 15 Australian men surveyed either webcammed sexually with a child or had a desire to do so.
The eSafety report is available here: https://www.esafety.gov.au/industry/basic-online-safety-expectations/child-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse-material-and-activity/periodic-notice-report-3-snapshot
About International Justice Mission (IJM)
IJM partners with local authorities in 34 field offices in 20 countries to combat slavery, violence against women and children and police abuse of power. IJM's mission is to protect people in poverty from violence by rescuing victims, bringing criminals to justice, restoring survivors to safety and strength, and helping local law enforcement build a safe future that lasts.
IJM is working in partnership with local authorities to protect six million children in the Philippines from online sexual exploitation by strengthening the local justice system and advocating for stronger online safety laws in demand-side countries that protect children online.
The Philippine Survivor Network is a survivor-led advocacy network in the Philippines made up of people with lived experience of sexual abuse and exploitation, particularly children.
