Australian regulator reports 2,206 online sexual extortion cases in six months

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner received 2,206 complaints about online sexual extortion between July and December last year. Eighty-five percent of the reports came from men, and men aged 18 to 24 formed the single largest group. The regulator examined data that Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft are required to provide under Australia's Basic Online Safety Expectations.

It found that major platforms are not using available tools to detect text-based extortion scripts or to monitor video calls for exploitation. Instagram accounted for 695 complaints and WhatsApp for 612. WhatsApp was the platform where threats most often occurred after initial contact on other services.

Platform monitoring gaps Apple's safety features detect nudity but do not flag text-based extortion, and the service offers no in-app reporting option when an intimate image is not detected. Google and Microsoft do not apply language analysis or proactive detection on Google Meet, Google Chat, Google Messages or Microsoft Teams.

Discord discontinued a trial of language analysis tools and has not recommitted to their use, even though most of the service is non-encrypted. The regulator noted that reporting tools on several platforms are difficult to use or lack a dedicated category for sexual extortion.

Recommended measures The report lists several steps platforms could take immediately, including text analysis to recognise known extortion scripts, monitoring for sudden geographical shifts in accounts, and one-click in-app reporting. For encrypted services, the regulator suggested on-device detection that flags content to the user without affecting privacy.