Advisories and blogposts

AI chatbots and companions designed to simulate personal relationships are growing in popularity, but they pose some very serious risks – especially to children and young people.

AI chatbots and companions – risks to children and young people

If we want to disrupt the swirling tide of harmful narratives online being forced on young people, we need to do something different.

Young people

A way forward: Disrupting the darker forces impacting young men online

The commencement of Australia’s world-leading industry standards marks a significant stride forward in the online protection of children

Australia leads the world in setting new standards for online child safety

It’s never too early to encourage good online habits, including by modelling consent when taking and sharing photos.

Early and often still the best advice when it comes to online safety

Thank you Chair for the opportunity to update the Committee on some important recent developments involving the eSafety Commissioner.

Senate Estimates opening address

Given the powerful role algorithms play in further amplifying content, we would see volumes of mis and disinformation, alongside other forms of online harm, as important indicators of a platform’s overall health.

Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Inquiry - Opening statement

Children standing on play equipment under a shade cloth

We can no longer accept “risky by design” as the operating principles of our children’s online worlds.

Learning from the past to safeguard children’s online future

The risks to our children from unsafe online spaces can no longer be ignored.

Coordinated approach critical to protecting kids online

We urgently need Big Tech to come to grips with how tech-facilitated gender-based violence is playing out across devices, platforms and services.

Domestic violence

Big tech, address violence against women and girls

This National Child Protection Week, I have one message to the parents and carers worried about how to keep their kids safe online: I hear you loud and clear.

We need to talk

Image-based abuse

The growing prevalence of this insidious practice – known as sextortion – together with its potentially devastating impact on those affected has prompted some renewed thinking at eSafety about ways we can better respond.

Lifting the veil on sextortion

This is a sector built by and dominated by men, and that blinds companies to the ways to ways their products can be weaponised against women and girls.

Eight to two: The abysmal ratio we must factor into gendered violence

Image-based abuse

Addressing deepfake image-based abuse

There is compelling and concerning data that explicit deepfakes have increased on the internet as much as 550% year on year since 2019.

Today, I had the opportunity to address the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society, as part of its inquiry into the influence and impacts of social media

Helping Aussie kids swim between the flags online

In the transformative digital landscape of 2023, we sought to achieve unity and leadership across the domain of online safety regulation

The Global Online Safety Regulators Network: An inaugural year of growth, building trust, and collaboration

Education

The future of health and wellbeing: AI, the metaverse, and beyond

Welcome to a world where the lines between science fiction and reality blur. A world where AI integrates with the metaverse.

It might be difficult for most of us to confront, but the world is facing an unprecedented explosion in online child sexual exploitation and abuse

Tech companies must do more and do better if we are to stem the tide of online child sexual exploitation and abuse

Cyberbullying

eSafety is urging parents and caregivers to learn about cyberbullying and take on advice as kids head back to school in Term 3.

Protecting our (increasingly younger) children from cyberbullying

Education

Better online experiences for First Nations people

The internet brings both benefits and risks, and Australia’s First Nations people know its paradoxical nature better than most.

The May Budget marks the start of a new era for eSafety, by providing baseline funding certainty to take us into the future.

Strong new powers and secure funding allow us to tackle online harms

Women

On International Women’s Day, I call on industry, governments and communities everywhere to join us in working towards a safer online space.

Building a better online world for women and girls

As we mark the 20th Safer Internet Day, we reflect and learn from lessons of the past to stop future dangers becoming real-world harms.

Having lived Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, what should we expect from Web 3.0?

A few ways to kick start online safety chats with your kids using our Safer Internet Day theme Connect. Reflect. Protect.

Young people

Back-to-school: Ideas to keep kids safe online

Before eSafety completes its Age Verification Roadmap for online pornography, it is worth reflecting the principles guiding its development.

Education

A matter of principle: guiding the Age Verification Roadmap

eSafety asked the world’s biggest technology companies to reveal what they are – and are not – doing to tackle child sexual abuse.

Compelling safety disclosures from the world's biggest tech firms

Why virtual reality headsets, haptic gloves and metaverse environments should be on every parent's watchlist before they go on the gift list.

Knowing your AR, VR and MR: Today’s tech and what it means for parents

Women

Domestic violence

Gender-based online abuse: 6 things you can do to prevent it this 16 Days

To support 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence, we’re calling on Australians of all ages and backgrounds to help us.

Cyberbullying

Evidence shows cyberbullying is increasing, and fortifying families against the harm it can cause should be one of our highest priorities.

Strength in numbers to stop cyberbullying

Another year of fighting the threats we know and preparing well for the ones we know are coming.

Tackling individual harms and systemic reform in 2021-22

New research released shows just how much we still have to learn when it comes to understanding how online harms affect the most targeted groups.

Our most at risk believe they must endure the harms

Platforms themselves must join the community developing online protections, the same way our scientific community developed vaccines.

The online world needs a 'vaccine' of its own

The metaverse offers the potential for enormous good alongside great harm. It all depends on the architecture we create to enable and govern it.

Will the peril outweigh the promise of the Metaverse?

Parents and educators can help arm young people against online challenges that show participants being harmed or humiliated.

Dangerous or damaging online challenges are never funny

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve experienced a veritable tsunami of child sexual exploitation material washing across the internet.

Shadow pandemic of child sexual exploitation requires concerted global effort

Women