All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not originally generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
The eSafety Commissioner’s latest periodic transparency report1 reveals big tech companies have made little progress in detecting live online child abuse in video calls, including in encrypted environments, in the first half of 2025.
eSafety found that tech companies did not apply tools across these widely used platforms or services to proactively detect live or new online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Unfortunately, Australia’s demand for livestreamed child sexual abuse is chilling. A recent report2 published by IJM in partnership with Childlight East Asia & Pacific Hub reveals that of 1,939 Australian men surveyed, 6.5% of respondents have or would livestream child sexual abuse.
eSafety’s first periodic notice report on child sexual exploitation and abuse revealed in August 2025 that Microsoft was piloting AI-powered detection tools for Teams designed to identify and prevent potential new child sexual exploitation and abuse from being created or transmitted on live video calls. Surprisingly, no further progress on this trial is reported in this latest report.
IJM Australia CEO, David Braga, said “The technology exists to stop this crime before it even happens. We’re calling on the Albanese Government to continue its commitment to child safety and to prioritise introducing a digital duty of care, which it announced it will legislate back in November 2024. A robust digital duty of care will require technology companies to act to prevent this harm on their platforms.”
Source: Live Online Child Abuse… | International Justice Mission Australia