A chilling trend has emerged in the dark corners of the internet, where vulnerable young men are being targeted by ruthless criminals using online sexual extortion. According to a recent transparency report from Australia's eSafety regulator, major technology platforms – including Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Snap, Discord, and WhatsApp – have been found wanting in their efforts to combat this scourge.
Between July and December 2025, eSafety received over 2,000 complaints specifically related to sexual extortion. This heinous form of blackmail involves thugs threatening to share intimate images or videos unless victims comply with their demands. Alarmingly, young men aged 18 to 24 made up the largest group of complainants, accounting for approximately 800 reports – a stark reminder that this is not an isolated issue.
The report identified Instagram and WhatsApp as the platforms most frequently cited in these complaints, appearing in over 1,300 reports combined. For users under 18, Apple's iMessage and Snapchat were the services most commonly linked to threats of sexual extortion. Examples of messages cited by the regulator included: "I have everything to ruin your life" and "only money can help you now to end this peacefully," highlighting the severe psychological impact on victims.
eSafety's findings, derived from the platforms' mandatory safety reporting, revealed "persistent safety gaps in the detection and prevention" of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. The watchdog specifically pointed to a lack of effective detection technologies, such as language analysis that could identify common coercion scripts used by offenders. Furthermore, a significant "lack of proactive detection tools" was observed in live-streaming features, with most platforms failing to implement mechanisms to identify abuse during video calls and live streams. Microsoft was noted as the only company reporting the use of both these technologies.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant expressed frustration, stating that despite readily available technology, "adequate responses" from platforms have not been seen. She emphasised that offenders are exploiting design flaws, weak detection systems, and inconsistent safeguards to move between services and escalate harm. Dr Joanne Gray, an academic from the University of Sydney, echoed these concerns, criticising the platforms' reactive rather than preventive approach. She argued that while content is removed once identified, insufficient effort is made to prevent its initial appearance, urging greater integration of safeguards into service design.