Technological giants ignore child protection from abuse

• The Australian regulator has called out technology companies for their lack of action.
• Google and Apple have not been able to provide data on incidents of abuse.
• Proposed measures may threaten the privacy of users.

The Australian internet regulator has called out technology companies, including Google and Apple, for their failure to address problems of sexual abuse against children on their platforms.

In a statement, published on September 6, 2025, Commissioner for Electronic Safety Julie Inman Grant noted that these platforms do not implement measures to protect children, including scanning harmful content for known materials of abuse and using language analysis tools to detect instances of sexual exploitation in messages.

Grant also emphasized that Apple and YouTube, which are owned by Google, have not been able to track the number of reports of sexual abuse against children and have not provided information on how long they need to respond to these reports.

She stated that "when these companies are left to their own devices, they do not prioritize child safety and, it seems, ignore crimes that occur on their platforms."

In response to the statement, a Google representative rejected her claims, asserting that they base their metrics on transparency rather than safety indicators on the internet. Google also reported that over 99% of abuse materials on YouTube are automatically removed before they can be identified.

Additionally, the Australian government has decided to include YouTube in its first global ban on social media for minors following the eSafety recommendations.

According to the statement, platforms must implement better measures to combat child exploitation, however, it was revealed that some of them have not made any improvements since previous recommendations in recent years.

Critics point out that some proposed measures, such as scanning private messages, could violate human rights and user privacy.

Tags: Technology