Australia’s online safety regulator says young men aged 18 to 24 are reporting more cases of sexual extortion than any other age group, while warnings are also growing about teenagers being increasingly targeted. The report argues that major technology companies are still not doing enough to prevent this abuse, despite having access to tools that could detect coercive behaviour earlier. That matters because sextortion can quickly escalate into blackmail, emotional harm and child sexual exploitation across multiple services.

Between July and December 2025, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner received 2,206 sextortion complaints, including about 800 from men aged 18 to 24. Instagram and WhatsApp were mentioned in more than 1,300 complaints combined, while iMessage and Snapchat were most commonly linked to cases involving under-18s. The regulator found major gaps in platforms’ use of language-analysis tools and live-streaming detection systems, with Microsoft the only company reported to be using both; Julie Inman Grant said companies should be doing far more, and academic Joanne Gray criticised their mainly reactive approach.