Tech trends and challenges
As Australia’s independent online safety regulator and educator, eSafety is committed to understanding and anticipating tech trends and emerging challenges.
To make sure our content and programs reflect current information, technological developments and global trends, we continually scan for new research and policy, as well as legislative and technical updates. This information informs and underpins our work.
We have captured our approach to selected tech trends and challenges in these position statements.
On this page:
Age assurance
This issues paper deals with age assurance – an umbrella term covering technologies used to determine a user’s age. It expands and updates eSafety's previous work on age verification.
(2 July 2024)
End-to-end encryption (E2EE)
This statement provides an overview and eSafety’s position on end-to-end encryption (E2EE) – a method of secure communication that allows only the people communicating with each other to read the messages, images or files being exchanged.
(17 October 2023)
Generative AI
This statement provides an overview of eSafety’s position on generative AI, a type of machine learning that can create new text, images, audio and multimodal simulations of experiences using artificial brain-like networks.
(August 2023)
Recommender systems and algorithms
This statement provides an overview and eSafety’s position on recommender systems, which prioritise content or make personalised content suggestions to users of online services.
(7 December 2022)
Decentralisation
This statement provides an overview and eSafety’s position on decentralisation – where the control of online data, information, interactions and experiences of users is widely distributed across the internet.
(29 July 2021)
Anonymity and identity shielding
This statement provides an overview and eSafety’s position on anonymity and identity shielding, which can make it difficult to hold people responsible for what they say and do online.
(22 January 2021)
Immersive technologies
This statement provides an overview and eSafety’s position on immersive technologies that enable 3D interaction with digital content – including augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and haptics.
(10 December 2020)
Online harmful sexual behaviours
This statement provides an overview and eSafety’s position on online harmful sexual behaviours among children and young people under 18 years old – it refers to developmentally inappropriate sexual behaviours that involve use of the internet.
(21 September 2020)
Sexual extortion
This statement provides an overview and eSafety’s position on sexual extortion – a form of blackmail that involves threatening to share an individual's intimate image or video online unless they comply with certain demands.
(4 August 2020)
Doxing
This statement provides an overview and eSafety’s position on doxing – the intentional online exposure of an individual's identity, private information or personal details without their consent.
(29 May 2020)
Last updated: 01/07/2024