Report adult cyber abuse

Harmful content can often be removed by the online or electronic service or platform that was used to send, post or share it. In the most serious cases, if a service or platform does not help you, eSafety can direct them to remove the harmful content.

Even if we can’t investigate your particular case, eSafety still has lots of information to help you protect yourself, deal with adult cyber abuse, and find counselling and support.

On this page:

• What you can report
• Who can report
• Steps to report adult cyber abuse
• Checklist
• What eSafety does next

‘Serious harm’ means that the content is likely to have a severe negative impact on the physical or mental health of the person targeted. The impact can be temporary, long lasting or permanent. It includes serious distress that goes beyond ordinary emotional reactions such as anger, fear or grief.

The ‘serious harm’ threshold for adult cyber abuse investigations is set deliberately high so that it balances freedom of speech, or legitimate expressions of opinion, against the need to protect everyone’s ability to participate online. The Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme is not intended to regulate hurt feelings, purely reputational damage, bad online reviews, strong opinions or banter.

Harmful adult cyber abuse content can be sent, posted or shared in many ways. For example, it can be a post, comment, text, message, chat, livestream, meme, image, video or email. It can use:

• a social media service, or
• a relevant electronic service such as an email service, chat service, instant messaging service or an online game where users play against each other, or
• a designated internet service such as a website.

Find out more about adult cyber abuse and how it is defined under the Online Safety Act 2021.

Examples

Types of adult cyber abuse that are likely to meet eSafety's threshold for investigation include:

• being harassed and threatened with violence because of your physical appearance, religion, gender, race, disability, sexual orientation or political beliefs
• finding your personal contact details have been made public on a social media service or other online platform in order to scare, harass or attack you
• being threatened with serious harm and other people online being encouraged to join in
• being stalked and threatened online, particularly in the context of domestic and family violence
• being encouraged to harm yourself, especially if you are known to be at particular risk (for example, if you have a mental health condition)
• repeatedly being sent obscene and threatening messages as part of ongoing harassment.

Many of these examples form part of coercive control - a pattern of abusive behaviour used to control someone through manipulation, pressure and fear.

A complaint about adult cyber abuse may be reported by the person targeted by the abuse, or another person who is authorised to report it on their behalf.

The harmful content must target a person who is 18 years or older, who ordinarily lives in Australia. eSafety cannot help people who live in other countries.

Also, the harmful content must target one specific person, not a broad range or group of people. For example, eSafety cannot act on behalf of an organisation that is experiencing racist or misogynist abuse online, as this abuse is directed at a group rather than a specific person. In cases like this, the Australian Human Rights Commission may be able to help you.

For help for children and young people under 18, you may be able to report a cyberbullying complaint.

One of eSafety’s investigators will be assigned to handle your complaint. They will assess your report to see whether it fits the legal definition of adult cyber abuse and meets the threshold for further action. We will contact you as quickly as possible once your report has been reviewed, especially for the most serious forms of adult cyber abuse.

If you are worried about your immediate safety or are at risk of harm, contact police immediately by calling Triple Zero (000). If it's not an emergency contact your local police station or Police Assistance Line (131 444) instead. If you need support in the meantime, there are many services offering free and confidential counselling and support.

When we have completed our review of your complaint, we will notify you of our approach using the contact details you supplied. You may be asked to provide further material to assist our investigation. We will also notify you if we decide not to investigate your report.

If we can investigate

When helping to have adult cyber abuse content removed, eSafety may make informal requests or take formal actions.

Informal requests

eSafety will often approach the online or electronic service or platform informally to ask them to remove the adult cyber abuse content. We have found this generally results in faster removal of harmful content, especially when it breaches their own terms of service.

We may also report the accounts of the person who targeted you to the online service or platform to take appropriate action – this could result in deletion of the person’s accounts. 

Formal actions

We generally adopt a graduated approach to formal actions, starting with the least severe.

• Service provider notification – this puts the service or platform on notice, letting them know that eSafety is aware adult cyber abuse content is available on their service.
• Removal notice – this can be sent to the person responsible for the adult cyber abuse and/or the service or platform. It requires the recipient to take all reasonable steps to remove the adult cyber abuse content within 24 hours (or a longer timeframe specified by eSafety).
• Enforcement action – we can issue a formal warning to the person responsible for the adult cyber abuse, fine them or seek a civil penalty order against them if they do not comply with a removal notice. If the service or platform does not comply with a removal notice, we can take legal action such as requesting an enforceable undertaking or court injunction.

Find out more about the full range of actions eSafety can take by reading about the Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme.

If we can’t investigate

We will notify you if we decide we can’t investigate your report, and we will try to help you in other ways such as:

• providing tips and information for avoiding or minimising the impact of abusive content
• directing you to resources and other organisations or agencies that may be able to provide further support.

Find out more about other options if eSafety can't investigate.

Can I have eSafety’s decision reviewed?

You can request a review if eSafety decided not to issue a removal notice for content that meets the definition of adult cyber abuse. This review will be handled in the first instance internally, by another staff member of eSafety. If you are still dissatisfied, you can seek review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal

Find out more about review rights, including who can seek a review.

If the content is seriously harmful and the service or platform does not help, you can report it to eSafety using our online form.

Report now