Options if eSafety can't investigate

Children and young people can be sexually abused online through the sharing of sexual content, comments or conversations, or through livestreaming sexual or sexualised activity or conversations. Usually they are tricked or persuaded to trust the person first, so it is easier to abuse them – this is called ‘grooming’.

Both sexual abuse and grooming a child for sexual abuse are crimes and should be reported to police immediately.

Stay safe

If you are in Australia and someone is in immediate danger, call Triple Zero (000) now or contact the police in your country.

Online child sexual exploitation, including online grooming and inappropriate contact, should be reported to the Australian Federal Police-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE). If you think a child is at risk, report it at accce.gov.au or via this internationally recognised Virtual Global Taskforce logo button.

Reports can also be made in confidence to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or at crimestoppers.com.au.

Note: If the sexual abuse of someone under 18 is recorded, that recording is illegal and restricted online content called 'child sexual exploitation material'. Content that encourages or instructs people to sexually or physically abuse a child or exploit or groom them is also 'child sexual abuse material'. Report this material to eSafety immediately so it can be removed. You do not have to identify yourself. Reports can be made anonymously.

eSafety can investigate online hate speech and racist or discriminatory content only if it meets the threshold for one of our regulatory schemes. For example, when investigating adult cyber abuse we will consider whether the person has been targeted because of their racial or cultural background.

Adult cyber abuse can involve hate speech including misogyny, racism, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism and islamophobia, but for this abuse to meet the definition in the Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme, it must target an individual rather than a group of people and it must be menacing, harassing or offensive and intended to cause serious harm. 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.

The Australian Human Rights Commission investigates complaints of discrimination, harassment and bullying based on a person’s sex, disability, race or age. Find out more on their complaint information page.

If your personal safety is at risk, please contact your local police. If you are in immediate danger call Triple Zero (000).

You may also wish to seek independent legal advice to determine other avenues of action.

eSafety can help with sexual extortion: when someone threatens to share intimate images or videos of you unless you give in to their demands.

All other scams can be reported to SCAMwatch, which provides information about how to recognise, avoid and report online scams. If fraudulent, incorrect, inaccurate or misleading online content seems to have originated from an Australian business, contact the Fair Trading organisation in your state or territory. These are listed on the SCAMwatch website.

If you are concerned about cybercrime, you can find more information, including about how to report, at www.cyber.gov.au. Cybercrime includes computer hacking, malicious software, phishing, identity theft and fraud.

Complaints about the mishandling of personal details by a Commonwealth or ACT government agency, or a private sector organisation can be made to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. You may be able to contact the administrators of the website and request that the content be removed. Once notified, website administrators may take action.

If your personal safety is at risk please contact your local police. If you are in immediate danger call Triple Zero (000).

You can report spam received by junk email, instant message, text or image-based mobile phone message via the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s spam complaint form.

eSafety is not able to deal with purely reputational damage, bad online reviews, strong opinions or banter. As explained in the explanatory memorandum to the Online Safety Act 2021, our legislation is not designed to assist in cases of reputational harm caused by the posting of defamatory material online.

In Australia, defamation is dealt with by the legal system, and for this reason, we suggest you seek legal assistance about your concerns. Most Community Legal Centres and Legal Aid Commissions are not able to advise on defamation matters, so you may need to engage a private lawyer.

You may be able to contact the administrators of the website and request that the content be removed. Once notified, website administrators may take action. For more information see report directly to online service providers.

In general terms, the intention of eSafety’s Image-Based Abuse Scheme is not to address the sharing of explicit images or videos created for a commercial purpose. We consider whether you had a 'reasonable expectation of privacy' when your images were published online, as this helps us determine whether we can take action to remove your images from online locations.

You may be able to pursue these types of issues under copyright law. The Australian Copyright Council provide a free online legal advice service for eligible people and also have user-friendly fact sheets about copyright.

If you have concerns about the copyright theft of a film or television program, you can report the matter to the Australia New Zealand Screen Association.

You may also wish to seek legal assistance or hire a private lawyer.