Online abuse ‘hits three in four of us’

Almost one-third of us have been sent unwanted, inappropriate content online, such as pornographic or violent material.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant.

Almost one-third of us have been sent unwanted, inappropriate content online, such as pornographic or violent material, with a further 25 per cent reporting having had personal information misused or photos shared without consent in the past 12 months.

New data from the eSafety Commissioner revealed an explosion of harmful online experiences over the past year, with 75 per cent of adults reporting at least one incident in that time, compared to 45 per cent in 2019.

Of almost 5000 people surveyed, 16 per cent had received threats online of real-life harm or abuse, up 9 per cent, with a further 16 per cent having been impersonated online.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the explosion in harm was likely due to the lockdowns between 2019 and 2022. “Over the lockdowns and pandemic, we saw increases in polarisation … and all forms of conflict. We sort of expected that after we returned to relative normalcy that online abuse would plateau,” she said.

“We have not seen that ­happen.”

Ms Inman Grant said she was concerned about not only the mental and emotional harms caused by online abuse but the physical harms experienced by those surveyed. “One in three adults who had a negative online experience said it impacted their emotional and mental wellbeing and one in six said it impacted their physical health,” she said.

“That is an escalation in harm, when it triggers a physical impact. Digital stones can break their bones.”

One in six adults admitted to having “done something negative” to someone online, up from one in eight people reporting doing so in 2019. Of those, almost 70 per cent were young men, with their reasons for doing so including “expressing their opinion” or “amusement”.

Ms Inman Grant said 18 per cent of people perpetrating online harm were targeting friends or someone they knew in real life, while 12 per cent targeted family members, 10 per cent targeted partners and 10 per cent targeted former partners. More than 30 per cent targeted strangers and 11 per cent people they “didn’t personally know”.

“You don’t want it to get to a point where this kind of abuse is normalised and that’s why we have to … talk about this,” Ms Inman Grant said.

The data was released on Safer Internet Day, which urges people to reflect on how they interact with others online.

It follows the eSafety Commissioner revealing that cyber-bullying of children had reached “concerning levels” and in the 12 months since commencement of the Online Safety Act on January 23, 2022, investigators had probed almost 1700 cyber-bullying complaints and made 500 informal requests for online plat­forms to remove content.