Testimony

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant: Senate Estimates Opening Statement (February 2026)

Feb 2026 🇦🇺 Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee (Estimates), Parliament of Australia

Suicide and self-harm are complex and never caused by one factor alone. Problematic screen use, cyberbullying, harmful content, and online exploitation may increase risk or intensify existing distress. If someone is in immediate danger or emotional crisis in the United States, call or text 988.

Outside the U.S.? Find your local helpline at findahelpline.com.

Speaking to a Senate Estimates hearing on Safer Internet Day, Julie Inman Grant updated senators on enforcement of Australia's under-16 social media law roughly two months after it took effect. She said a transparency report the week before had found eight major platforms still failing to prevent weaponisation of their services for child sexual exploitation and sextortion, noted a preliminary EU finding that TikTok had failed to mitigate risks from its own addictive design, and criticized YouTube's move to loosen limits on monetizing content related to self-harm and suicidal ideation. She credited engagement with Apple with removing, or issuing warnings on, more than 100 'chat roulette'-style apps pairing adults with children. TechKids Foundation includes this statement as Grant's most recent on-record account of platform-accountability work tied to the law her office enforces.

8 platforms named

Inman Grant said a transparency report released the week before the hearing found eight major tech platforms continuing to fail to prevent their services being weaponised for child sexual exploitation and sextortion.

100+ apps

She said Apple had removed or issued warnings to more than 100 'chat roulette'-style apps, and terminated dozens of developer accounts, following eSafety's engagement with the company.

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CITATION

Inman Grant, Julie. "eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant: Senate Estimates Opening Statement." Statement to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee (Estimates), Parliament House, Canberra, February 10, 2026. Published by eSafety Commissioner. https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/blogs/esafety-commissioner-julie-inman-grant-senate-estimates-opening-statement

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