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Live: Gaming giants told to 'lift their game' on child safety

Read the original at ABC News (AU) ↗
Cite

Boscaini, J. (2026, October 1). Live: Gaming giants told to 'lift their game' on child safety. ABC News (AU). https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-02/federal-politics-live-blog-october-2/107219460

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

ABC News (AU) · collected 2026-10-01 · by Joshua Boscaini

Quick Summary

Australia's eSafety Commission has criticized major gaming companies like Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, and Steam for insufficient protections against harmful content and child exploitation. The commission found significant differences in how these platforms handle serious issues such as grooming and violent extremist content. It highlighted gaps in their systems related to detecting harmful content, preventing repeat offenders, and sharing information, while also noting that age verification remains a weak point, particularly with Fortnite and Minecraft relying heavily on self-reported user ages.
Written by AI on 2026-10-02, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

In a recent report, Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant criticized popular gaming platforms Steam, Steam Chat, and Fortnite for significant child safety gaps. The report, compiled using data from October 2025 to March 2026, highlighted that these platforms lack effective methods to detect harmful content, leaving children vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and exposure to violent extremism. Specifically, the Valve Corporation, which runs Steam and Steam Chat, was singled out for not proactively using industry-standard tools to identify child sexual exploitation or violent material in chats. Professor Michael Salter from UNSW emphasized that companies should take responsibility rather than relying on parents to ensure children's safety online.

Written for “Child Safety In Online Gaming” on 2026-11-01, grounded in this article and the 3 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Child Safety In Online Gaming
Technology · 4 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 10% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Hedges 6 of 35 claims Outlet record 61/100
BBC News
Hedges 1 of 15 claims Outlet record 68/100
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 61/100
The Sydney Morning Herald
Hedges 3 of 32 claims Outlet record 61/100
“The articles describe related concerns but different specifics: one focuses on general safety gaps for children, while the other discusses specific predatory behavior and abuse through gaming platforms.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
29
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
10%
3 of 29 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
68/100
ABC News (AU)'s corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
4
Technology
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-02 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

ABC News (AU) · 4547 article(s) · 10 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 10 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Joshua Boscaini
12 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
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🔮 Albanese heads to pre-COP meeting in Fiji Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will attend a pre-COP meeting in Fiji today with Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen.
2026-10-04 · assertive framing · Live: Albanese heads to pre-COP meeting in Fiji
🔮 Submit a comment or question Live updates New: Filters Choose what information you see below by using filters Cutting corporate tax rate could help lift productivity, Productivity Commission says The Productivity Commission says its proposal to cut the company tax rate would help with Australia's productivity challenge.
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Also by Joshua Boscaini
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 12 articles by Joshua Boscaini →

Topics

Australia Fortnite Indigenous Australians The Productivity Commission The eSafety Commission

Subjects

Leeser PERSON · 3× Australia GPE · 2× Indigenous Australians NORP · 2× The Productivity Commission ORG · 2× The eSafety Commission ORG · 2× Angela Jackson PERSON · 1× Jackson PERSON · 1× Michele Bullock PERSON · 1× Productivity Commission ORG · 1× Reserve Bank ORG · 1×

Narrative

" Leeser calls on PM, minister to visit WA over child protection concerns Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister Julian Leeser has called for federal agencies to get involved in cases of unsupervised children in WA in state care.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-02
🔮 Submit a comment or question Live updates New: Filters Choose what information you see below by using filters Cutting corporate tax rate could help lift productivity, Productivity Commission says The Productivity Commission says its proposal to cut the company tax rate would help with Australia's productivity challenge.
2026-10-02 · ABC News (AU)
Live: Gaming giants told to 'lift their game' on child safety · assertive framing

Claims (29 extracted, 3 hedged)

Gaming giants told to 'lift their game' on child safety The eSafety Commission says it has identified gaps in harmful content detection, repeat-offender prevention and information-sharing initiatives in some gaming platforms. asserted
it → tell → platforms
Submit a comment or question Live updates New: Filters Choose what information you see below by using filters Cutting corporate tax rate could help lift productivity, Productivity Commission says The Productivity Commission says its proposal to cut the company tax rate would help with Australia's productivity challenge. uncertain
proposal → submit → challenge
The commission has previously called for a 20 per cent tax rate on profits for companies with revenue of up to $1 billion, but it was never adopted in May's federal budget. uncertain
it → call → budget
On Tuesday, Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock said productivity was "doing nothing", and that stronger productivity would allow more to be produced without adding to inflation. asserted
more → say → inflation
Angela Jackson, from the Productivity Commission, says cutting corporate tax rates is one of the easiest ways to lift productivity. asserted
cutting → say → productivity
"We want to ensure that all the settings are encouraging business investment," Jackson says. " asserted
Jackson → want → investment
We did look at the real drop-off that we've seen since the GFC [Global Financial Crisis] in business investment and what we could do to lift that. uncertain
we → look → that
Company tax reform is one of the sort of the easiest ways, if you like, pathways to doing that. asserted
you → like → that
" Leeser calls on PM, minister to visit WA over child protection concerns Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister Julian Leeser has called for federal agencies to get involved in cases of unsupervised children in WA in state care. asserted
agencies → call → care
Up to 15 Aboriginal children, some as young as five, were living unsupervised in a state-owned home in South Hedland. asserted
children → live → Hedland
Speaking to ABC Radio National Breakfast, Leeser says services across the state and federal government have failed to coordinate. asserted
services → speak → government
He says there has been a failure of welfare checks, and has called on the PM and the federal Indigenous Australians minister to visit the area. asserted
He → say → area
"The state government now has set up a coordination committee. asserted
government → set → committee
It doesn't include the federal agencies. asserted
It → include → agencies
I'd like to see the federal agencies involved as well. asserted
agencies → like → ?
And I'd like to see the federal minister and the prime minister visit there too," Leeser says. asserted
Leeser → like → ?
Key Event Gaming giants told to 'lift their game' on child safety Australia's online safety watchdog has taken aim at some of the world's biggest gaming companies, telling them to step up their protections for children. asserted
watchdog → tell → children
After reviewing their submissions, the eSafety Commission found big differences in how Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft and Steam deal with serious harms including grooming, child exploitation, and violent extremist content. asserted
Roblox → review → grooming
It identified gaps in harmful content detection, repeat-offender prevention, and information-sharing initiatives. asserted
It → identify → detection
Age checks remain a big issue, with both Fortnite and Minecraft largely relying on users to declare their ages, making it harder to apply age-based protections. asserted
it → remain → protections
Valve was singled out as the only platform not using hash-matching, a technology that helps to quickly detect and identify child sexual abuse material. asserted
that → single → material
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says while there's been some improvement to prevent serious harms, she expects services to "lift their game". " asserted
services → say → game
Australian children have a right to play online without being exposed to predators, sexual extortionists, violent extremist content or other harmful material," Inman Grant says. asserted
Grant → have → predators
"Service providers should leverage systems that actually detect and disrupt serious harms before children are exposed to them. asserted
children → leverage → them
This is the first time a gaming audit has taken place under the Online Safety Act, with the proposed Digital Duty of Care bill shifting further emphasis to how platforms prevent harm. asserted
platforms → take → harm
It's great to have you join us for the final day of the working week!! asserted
you → have → week
I'm Josh Boscaini joining you live from Parliament House in Canberra, here and ready to bring you all of today's federal politics news. asserted
I → join → news
The eSafety commissioner has told gaming giants to lift their game and step up protections for children on their platforms. asserted
commissioner → tell → platforms
Let's get right into the day and see what happens! asserted
what → let → day
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