The internet is central to how children in Australia learn, play and connect—but the digital risks are growing.
As online child abuse reports rise sharply, the call to legislate a digital duty of care has become urgent, with voters, experts and advocates demanding accountability from tech companies.
According to a YouGov poll of 1,526 Australian voters conducted in March, a staggering 96% agreed that the government should require technology platforms to take active steps to prevent their services being used for child sexual abuse.
It’s a strong message from the public: protecting children online, especially on social media, is not optional.
The data paints a disturbing picture. In 2023, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the US received 36.2 million reports of suspected child sexual abuse—up more than 12% from the year before.
In Australia, the situation mirrors this alarming trend. The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation received over 58,500 reports in the 2023–24 financial year, averaging 160 a day. That’s a 45% jump on the previous year.
Public relations efforts alone cannot shift the scale of the problem. A comprehensive response must include legislative change and accountability.
“An overarching duty of care would place responsibility on service providers to take reasonable steps to address and prevent foreseeable harms on their services,” said Delia Rickard PSM, who led the independent review of the Online Safety Act.
Read more: UNSW survey reveals public demand for action on child safety in digital spaces
“It shifts much of the burden for remaining safe online away from individual users and onto those most capable of identifying and addressing harms – the service providers themselves.”
The risk is not confined to anonymous corners of the internet. A 2023 study of nearly 2,000 Australian men found that 2.5% had knowingly viewed child sexual abuse material. Some admitted to even more disturbing behaviours, including live-streaming or paying for abusive content.
These actions have real consequences not just for children in Australia, but also abroad. Between 2020 and 2022, Australia had the highest per capita rate of sending suspicious transaction reports to the Philippines linked to child sexual exploitation.
Implementing a digital duty of care would help prevent this content from circulating in the first place. It would also strengthen safeguards against sextortion—a form of abuse that now affects one in ten Australian adolescents.
Tech companies must act, not only in the interests of global safety but for the immediate protection of children here at home.
Adrianne Saplagio is a Content Producer at Comms Room, where she combines her passion for storytelling with her expertise in multimedia content creation. With a keen eye for detail and a knack for engaging audiences, Adrianne has been instrumental in crafting compelling narratives that resonate across various digital platforms.
