Australians made just over 2000 complaints about sexual extortion over six months, with young men aged 18 to 24 the most affected by this escalating form of abuse.
The figure comes from a new transparency report released by the eSafety Office, which revealed major gaps in how online platforms like Apple, Discord, Google, Meta and Microsoft are tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Between July and December 2025, 2,206 complaints of sexual extortion were made to eSafety. Men aged 18 to 24 made the most complaints of any cohort, with about 800 reports.
Sexual extortion, also known as “sextortion” is a form of online blackmail where perpetrators share or threaten to share intimate material unless victims comply with their demands.
“We‘re deeply concerned about the devastating impacts of sexual extortion, which not only target vulnerable individuals but also have profound psychological and emotional consequences for victims and their families,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.
“Sexual extortion often targets young men, with criminals tricking victims into sharing intimate images of themselves before demanding money and threatening to expose the images to family, friends or the general public.
“The goal is often quick financial gain, with perpetrators using high-pressure tactics to force victims into paying. This form of extortion can cause high levels of stress, panic, psychological distress and financial loss.”
Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap and WhatsApp are required to report to eSafety every six months over a two-year period on their efforts to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
In its report, eSafety found platforms including Instagram, WhatsApp, Gmail, Google Messages, Discord and iMessage did not use language analysis to detect extortion attempts.
eSafety found there were gaps in how platforms detect different forms of child sexual abuse material and exploitation, including livestreamed material in video calls. Only Microsoft was using proactive detection tools to disrupt video calls streaming abuse material.
“In several cases, we have provided these platforms with evidence of how their services are being colonised by criminals to devastating impact, with clear guidance on how to stem the abuse. Even when we’ve laid this out, we haven’t seen adequate responses, despite the technology being readily available,” Inman Grant said.
There are also challenges when it comes to detecting harm in private messaging and video environments. Perpetrators are exploiting gaps in platform design, weak detection systems and inconsistent safeguards to move “seamlessly” between services, the report said.
“Technology already exists to better detect livestreamed child sexual abuse and newly created child sexual abuse material, but it is not being consistently deployed,” Inman Grant said.
“These are some of the most innovative companies on the planet with some of the best minds, we would like to see some of this innovation going into the development of new technologies to tackle the worst-of-the-worst online content.
“There are also effective third-party on-device technologies commercially available so it beggars belief that we haven’t seen greater adoption of these interventions.”
The findings come as eSafety launched a new online safety awareness campaign that aims to inform young men about the dangers and tactics used in sextortion and what to do if they fall victim to them.