{"id":454579,"date":"2026-02-05T02:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T02:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/454579\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T02:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T02:42:08","slug":"australia-blasts-big-tech-for-child-sexual-abuse-failings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/454579\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia blasts big tech for child sexual abuse failings"},"content":{"rendered":"

This file picture taken in Moscow on Oct 5, 2021 shows the US online social media and social networking service Facebook’s logo (right), the US instant messaging software Whatsapp’s logo (left) and the US social network Instagram’s logo (center) on a smartphone screen. (PHOTO\/AFP)<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s online safety regulator blasted major technology companies including Meta Platforms Inc, Apple Inc and Google for failing to stamp out child sexual exploitation and abuse on their services, even after repeated calls to address shortfalls.<\/p>\n

Key failings include inadequate detection of live abuse during video calls and insufficient efforts to find newly-created material, Australia\u2019s eSafety Commissioner said Thursday. The regulator criticized a lack of language analysis tools to pick up sexual extortion of Australian kids, even after companies were provided with common online indicators. \u00a0<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Spain, Greece weigh teen social media bans, drawing fury from Elon Musk<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt beggars belief that these have not yet been deployed,\u201d eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement. \u201cWe have been engaging with these companies for a long time on these issues. It\u2019s disappointing to see so little progress being made.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Sri Lanka mulls restricting social media access for minors<\/a><\/p>\n

Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Google didn\u2019t respond to requests for comments. Snap Inc, the owner of Snapchat, said it will continue to work with eSafety on \u201cthis critically important issue.\u201d The company welcomed eSafety\u2019s recognition of faster response times to concerning content, but didn\u2019t address specific allegations of inadequate steps to stamp out sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

Global watchdogs are increasingly holding the world\u2019s largest tech companies responsible for abuse on their platforms. Inman Grant said it was a matter \u201ccorporate conscience and accountability.\u201d Australia late last year also enacted a world-first social media ban for under-16s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This file picture taken in Moscow on Oct 5, 2021 shows the US online social media and social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[186717,186713,49,48,186725,186721,186724,186723,186718,186719,186720,186716,186727,186714,186722,186726,61,186715],"class_list":["post-454579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-apple-inc-online-safety","tag-australia-esafety-commissioner","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-child-safety-online-initiatives","tag-corporate-conscience-in-tech","tag-enhancing-digital-platform-safety","tag-global-tech-regulation-trends","tag-google-child-safety-measures","tag-inadequate-detection-technology","tag-language-analysis-tools-online","tag-meta-platforms-inc-criticism","tag-online-exploitation-prevention","tag-online-safety-regulations","tag-social-media-regulations-australia","tag-tech-industry-safety-partnerships","tag-technology","tag-technology-company-accountability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}