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International Justice Mission (IJM) is pushing the Australian Government to introduce a Digital Duty of Care that would require technology companies to detect, disrupt and prevent livestreamed child sexual abuse on their platforms and smart devices.
The anti-slavery organisation held an online safety forum at Parliament House in Canberra, bringing together parliamentarians, the eSafety Commissioner, online safety experts, children’s rights advocates and policymakers to address what it describes as a rapid rise in livestreamed child abuse across Australia and the Asia Pacific region.
Australia identified as a top demand-side country
IJM Australia CEO, David Braga, warned that Australian men are among the primary drivers of global demand for livestreamed child abuse.
“Livestreamed child sexual abuse is one of the fastest growing and least detected forms of child abuse globally. There is strong evidence that Australian men are driving the global demand, as one of the top three consumers in the world of child abuse material from the Philippines,” Braga stated.
The Brisbane Supreme Court heard this month how an Australian man paid to direct and watch the live online sexual abuse of 25 children in the Philippines aged between three and 15, with the abuse including incest and bestiality.
A report by IJM and Childlight found that one in 15 Australian men surveyed either webcammed sexually with a child or had a desire to do so.
Research by IJM and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab estimated that almost half a million children in the Philippines were trafficked to produce new child sexual abuse materials for paying online customers in 2022 alone.
Online Safety Act described as outdated
Braga argued that Australia’s current Online Safety Act is no longer adequate for the scale of the problem.
“Australia’s Online Safety Act is no longer fit-for-purpose. Most tech companies are not preventing offenders from using everyday apps like Facebook Messenger, FaceTime and WhatsApp to access and direct the live sexual abuse of children in their video call services – often in countries like the Philippines,” he noted.
The eSafety Commissioner’s transparency reporting regime has found that most tech companies are still not detecting and disrupting live online child sexual exploitation and abuse, despite years of warnings, industry regulations and the existence of technology capable of doing so while preserving user privacy.
“A robust Digital Duty of Care should hold all tech companies accountable for their platforms and smart devices by mandating that they proactively detect, disrupt and prevent child sexual exploitation and abuse on their products and services – all reasonably foreseeable harms,” Braga added.
He pointed to the government’s age verification changes for social media platforms as evidence Australia can take a leading role on online safety reform.
“The Australian Government has made significant progress in advancing online safety reforms, such as the recent age verification changes for social media platforms. They can continue to lead the world by now protecting children from livestreamed sexual abuse.”
IJM has also heard directly from survivors that preventing images and videos of child sexual abuse from being created and circulating online is essential to protecting their privacy, which Braga argued is currently being violated by tech companies that ignore the privacy rights of victim-survivors.
On-device detection technology demonstrated
At the forum, child safety technology pioneer and SafeToNet Co-Founder, Sharon Pursey OBE, demonstrated the company’s HarmBlock technology, which is designed to block child abuse material on smart devices without compromising user privacy or encryption.
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“We are no longer dealing in the abstract. We have a proven technology that can block child abuse material on any smart device. And that does so without impacting user privacy or encryption,” Pursey explained.
“HarmBlock is embedded into operating systems of devices, by design. It therefore cannot be circumvented or removed. Once built into a device, it uses AI to detect illegal content in images, video and livestream and blocks it from being seen, shared or recorded. It maintains privacy and end-to-end encryption by running entirely on-device. When it detects child abuse material, it simply stops the image from being rendered to the screen, stored or transmitted.”
Calls for prevention over remediation
John Tanagho, Executive Director of the IJM Center to End Online Sexual Exploitation of Children, called for a shift in approach from detection after the fact to prevention at the source.
“Child abuse material is like a virus: we can’t only focus on those already infected – we must go upstream to stop the spread of child abuse images and videos through a digital vaccine,” Tanagho argued.
“Never before has something been so illegal and yet so readily available and easy to commit online. That’s why it’s time for a paradigm shift centered on preventing the creation of child abuse material in the first place. Instead of mopping up the mess, let’s turn off the tap.”
Survivor voices back Digital Duty of Care
A Philippine Survivor Network leader identified as Barbie also addressed the forum, calling on tech companies to take responsibility.
“Tech companies are turning a blind eye to children being repeatedly sexually abused live on their platforms, apps and devices by their users for other users to watch in real time,” Barbie told the forum.
“A Digital Duty of Care in Australia’s Online Safety Act should ensure that tech companies must protect children on their platforms from online sexual exploitation on Australian screens.”
About IJM
International Justice Mission operates 34 field offices across 20 countries, partnering with local authorities to combat slavery, violence against women and children and police abuse of power. The organisation is working with local authorities to protect six million children in the Philippines from online sexual exploitation by strengthening the local justice system and advocating for stronger online safety laws in demand-side countries.
Last Updated on April 5, 2026 by Nick Ross
