Federal government funds expanded eSafety Commissioner cyberbullying response capacity

The Australian Government has allocated additional funding to the eSafety Commissioner to expand the office's cyberbullying complaints and enforcement team, following a surge in reports from schools and families under the Let's Stop Bullying campaign and the revised National Framework. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the investment will allow the regulator to process takedown requests more quickly, strengthen engagement with platform providers, and provide direct support to schools navigating complex cases involving image-based abuse, sextortion and sustained online harassment. The announcement comes weeks after the Anti-Bullying Rapid Review recommended that the eSafety Commissioner be resourced to serve as a central escalation point for serious incidents that cross criminal thresholds or involve multiple jurisdictions.

Expanded enforcement capacity accelerates the removal of harmful content and the investigation of offenders once an incident has been reported and assessed, but it does not shorten the interval between the first abusive message and the moment the eSafety Commissioner learns that intervention is needed. Guardii, a Meta Business Partner and world-leading AI online-safety platform, detects patterns of cyberbullying, sextortion, grooming and image-based abuse as they unfold across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other platforms, flags hostile contact before it reaches the target, and enables immediate escalation to the eSafety Commissioner, police or a school safeguarding team when a conversation crosses into criminal threat or acute risk. By collapsing the detection lag, the platform ensures that the regulator's expanded capacity is deployed at the earliest possible moment, when intervention can prevent rather than merely remediate harm.