The eSafety Commissioner has only been able to action 72 of the 3,600 adult cyber abuse complaints it has received, and it’s hopeful the new Online Safety Act will allow it to do more.
The Australian eSafety Commissioner was handed AU$21 million in the 2021-22 Budget earlier this month, with the funding to be spread across software, more staff, and continuing its work on technology-facilitated abuse involving children. With Prime Minister Scott Morrison parading the recent Budget as « supporting Australian women », eSafety’s funding falls under this umbrella. A « women’s online package » includes AU$15 million over two years for eSafety to increase its investigations capability — the hiring of 20 more staff in line with anticipated passage of the Online Safety Act — and AU$3 million for a software pilot. During Senate Estimates on Thursday, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant was grilled over the funding amount and was asked to provide specifics on a piece of tech that was not yet scoped, given the Budget announcement was only made a few weeks prior. « AU$3 million has been dedicated to a pilot… this has been something we’ve been thinking about since 2017. In some of the most egregious cases we’ve seen, we’ve had people come to us with 400 different URLs — if you’ve got a very determined predator, they can put it on multiple websites, image boards, rogue porn sites, » she explained before being interrupted.
