Our operating model

Our mission

To help safeguard Australians from online harms and promote safer, more positive online experiences.

Our vision

Through prevention, protection, proactive systemic change, and partnerships, Australians are supported and empowered to engage more safely online, while industry is guided and monitored to meet legislated safety expectations.

Our values

We work with innovation, empowerment, compassion, fairness, collaboration and excellence.

Our remit

We support Australians through complaints investigations, education and advice that builds resilience and encourages safer online behaviours. We also regulate parts of the digital ecosystem through laws, safety expectations, and codes and standards.

We cannot reduce online harm on our own. We work with government, regulators, law enforcement agencies, the education sector, frontline services, community organisations and experts, and the online [service] industry.

We also listen to people with lived experience, including children and young people, parents and carers, and victim-survivors.

We conduct research, horizon scanning and technology analysis to build an understanding of current and emerging online harms and digital trends and to support evidence-based regulation.

These objectives connect. Progress in one area often depends on progress in another.

Address the most serious online harms

Focus regulatory effort where the risk and impact of harm to Australians, particularly children and young people[DR9.1], is highest, using proportionate and targeted compliance and enforcement.

Drive sustained compliance across regulated services

Improve industry compliance and accountability through risk-based regulation, effective enforcement, and strong regulatory oversight of high-impact services and gatekeepers.

Empower Australians and shape the online safety ecosystem through engagement and collaboration

Deliver trusted, people-centred education and support that enables Australians to prevent and respond to online harm, while engaging with stakeholders to build shared capability and shape the online safety eco-system.

Be a mature, trusted, and future-ready regulator

Build organisational capability, systems and culture required to operate as an effective, evidence-led regulator in a rapidly evolving digital environment.

eSafety’s Corporate Plan sets out more details on our strategic direction for the 2026-2027 financial year and beyond. It outlines how we will measure our performance and the targets we aim to achieve to meet eSafety’s purpose.

Find out more about our Corporate Plan.

We work to achieve our purpose through four connected pillars. We use all of them because no single lever addresses harm on its own.

Prevention: reduce the likelihood of harm

Prevention reduces harm before it escalates. We do that through education, early intervention and practical tools.

We build the capability of Australians through education, training and awareness. We equip them with the confidence and resilience to stay safe, and to know where to get help when needed. We design resources with communities, so they work in real situations. We use evidence and evaluation to improve what we deliver.

Protection: reduce the impact of harm

When harm happens, people need practical support and timely action.

We use our powers under the Online Safety Act to provide tangible, rapid and compassionate help. Our complaints schemes allow us to investigate and take action to remove certain types of content, including:

• adult cyber abuse
• child cyberbullying
• image-based abuse (sharing, or threatening to share, intimate images or videos without consent of the person shown)
• illegal and restricted content (including child sexual exploitation material and material advocating terrorist acts).

People who come to us usually want the material removed. We prioritise the highest-risk and highest-harm matters. We monitor and enforce compliance with removal notices, directions and end-user notices.

We also expand our response as harms change. We have strengthened support for technology-facilitated domestic, family, sexual and gender-based violence, including coercive control.

Our Technology-Facilitated Abuse Support Service provides trauma-informed guidance for frontline workers. It focuses on helping victim-survivors use technology more safely, not restricting access to it.

Proactive systemic change: reduce risk across industry

We drive systemic change across industry by strengthening transparency, accountability and safety practices. This includes:

• the Basic Online Safety Expectations, which set out reasonable steps the Australian Government expects online service providers to take
• transparency tools that allow us to ask for, or require, information about how services manage risk
• the Online Safety Codes and Standards, where they apply
• Safety by Design approaches, so services build safety into products, features and settings from the start.

Mandatory age restrictions for certain social media services, which came into effect in December 2025, intersect with each of these activities. eSafety will take a coordinated approach to make sure they are mutually effective.

This work lifts safety expectations across the ecosystem and supports lasting change inside the digital industry.

Partnerships: extend reach and impact

Collaboration with strategic partners can support prevention, strengthen support pathways, and improve industry outcomes.

We work across Australia with government, law enforcement agencies and community partners. We also work internationally to share information, align approaches where possible, and support more consistent expectations of online platforms and services to address harms.

As a co-founder of the Global Online Safety Regulators Network, we help foster regulatory coherence and international capacity building.

We take a risk-based approach to regulation. We focus on the harms that matter most and match our response to the harm.

Anticipatory regulation with responsive capability

We draw on research, intelligence, insights, technology advice and trends analysis to anticipate how emerging technologies may change online safety risks. We use that foresight to guide our decisions and support future regulation.

Risk-based prioritisation

We prioritise our work in a transparent, proportionate way. We focus our resources on the most urgent risks and the most serious forms of online harm, including illegal content and abuse.

Outcomes focused

We aim to achieve the best outcomes for people who report abuse to us, recognising different needs across cases. We also look for opportunities to deter wrongdoing and improve safety practice across online services.

Established and trusted

We provide support through our established schemes, programs and guidance. We aim to remain a trusted authority Australians can turn to.

Data-driven

We embed data in our decisions and actions. Insights from our data are used to reduce harm, deter wrongdoing, and improve safety outcomes over time.

Collaborative

We work alongside other agencies and partners in Australia and overseas. Our risks- and harms-based approach complements the role others play in preventing, investigating and prosecuting online harms.

eSafety’s performance framework includes the following documentation.

Corporate plan

This outlines our operating environment, capabilities, and key activities aimed at achieving our vision and purpose.

Each key activity in our corporate plan has specific performance measures with corresponding targets for the relevant financial year. The corporate plan also provides details on the methodology used to objectively measure whether we have met each performance measure and target.

Portfolio Budget Statements

These statements specify the outcomes, performance criteria, and targets for the programs of work we are funded by the government to deliver.

Annual Performance Statements

This provides an assessment of our performance in relation to the key activities and targets outlined in the corporate plan. It also includes an analysis of our performance against our purpose.

Annual report

This contains the Annual Performance Statements and informs the Australian Parliament and the public about our achievements and financial position. The annual report also meets other reporting requirements prescribed in the Online Safety Act 2021.

For the community

You will find clear information and practical tools on our website. If you experience serious online harm, you can come to us for help and action where our complaint schemes apply.

For children and young people, families and educators

We will keep producing guidance that reflects how quickly online spaces change. We will also keep elevating the voices of children and young people and supporting parents and carers with practical advice.

For industry

We will set clear expectations and use appropriate regulatory tools. We will focus on systemic risk and take a proportionate, evidence-informed approach.

We will also keep working with industry on practical steps that support safer services, including Safety by Design.

For government, regulators and partners

We will provide advice grounded in data insights and operational experience.

We will also keep working across Australia and around the world to improve coordination and reduce harm across borders.