eSafety commissioner welcomes new iMessage safety feature

Australia’s eSafety chief says a new iPhone feature is a good step toward protecting children from “sexual extortion or grooming”.

Australia’s eSafety chief says a new iPhone feature is a good step toward protecting children from “sexual extortion or grooming”, but is calling on Apple and other tech giants to do more.

Apple is rolling out a new iMessage feature that would let children report nude content directly to the firm.

Upon review, it could then forward the reported message to police.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said on Thursday it was “a positive initiative that will help protect children from receiving unsolicited nudes using Apple devices.”

“This is particularly important as we continue to see the targeting of Australian children for sexual extortion or grooming on a range of services, through a range of approaches,” she said.

“It can only take one report to ensure an offender is banned, and significant ongoing and future harm to multiple children prevented.”

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says the new iPhone feature is a good step toward protecting children from ‘sexual extortion or grooming’. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The eSafety Commissioner has welcomed a new iMessage feature that lets children report nudity. Picture: NewsWire/Nicholas Eagar

The new safety measure will be automatically applied to underage iPhone users.

It builds on other features that detect nude imagery and throws up a content warning for the user.

But Ms Inman Grant said there was more work to be done.

“While we welcome this new feature, we continue to call for Apple to broaden its approach, including by introducing measures that help further protect children and all users from the full range of online harms, including terrorist content, technology-facilitated abuse and re-traumatisation through the hosting and sharing of child sexual exploitation material,” she said.

“Other services without these key safety features must follow-suit.”

Apple will first apply the new feature for Australian users before taking it global.