The eSafety Commission has warned of a surge in sexual extortion targeting young Australian men, with sophisticated criminal networks using technology to blackmail victims.

A third transparency report reveals 85% of sexual extortion complaints involved male victims aged 18-39, with younger victims also increasingly affected.

Julie Inman Grant, eSafety Commissioner, highlighted that criminals are leveraging generative AI, face-swapping, and voice cloning to create deceptive personas.

Social media platforms like Instagram, Tinder, WhatsApp, and Telegram are often the starting points for these crimes, with victims coerced into sharing intimate content before being extorted for money.

Despite Australia's world-first youth social media ban, the report notes only a modest reduction in underage accounts, with platforms failing to enforce age verification rigorously.

The issue has sparked calls for stricter regulations, as the Commission warns of severe mental health impacts and potential suicide linked to these crimes.

The report also underscores the need for better platform accountability, as current measures are deemed insufficient to protect young users from exploitation.