Australia’s online safety regulator has sounded the alarm on the way popular gaming platforms protect children. In a report released by eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, the regulator found “significant gaps” in the safety measures of Steam, Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft – platforms that millions of Australian youths use daily.
Key Findings from the eSafety Report
The commission’s investigation, covering the period from October 2025 to March 2026, uncovered several recurring weaknesses:
- Inconsistent age verification: Most platforms rely on users self‑declaring their age. Steam has recently added credit‑card checks, while Roblox introduced stricter age checks in December 2025.
- Limited content‑moderation technology: Valve, the owner of Steam, was the only provider not using industry‑standard tools to detect and remove known harmful content. Its systems mainly flag scams, not child sexual exploitation or violent material.
- Reliance on internal datasets: Both Valve and Roblox train language‑detection models on internal data and do not regularly retrain these models, reducing their effectiveness against emerging threats.
- Fragmented information sharing: While Mojang (Minecraft) and Roblox share expertise on combating child sexual exploitation, Valve does not participate, and Epic Games (Fortnite) failed to share breach instances with other platforms.
According to the report, nine out of ten Australian children aged 8‑17 have played online games, underscoring the scale of exposure to potential harms such as predatory contact, sexual extortion, and extremist content.
Why the Gaps Matter
Commissioner Inman‑Grant emphasized that “Australian children have a right to play online without being exposed to predators, sexual extortionists, violent extremist content or other harmful material.” The identified gaps create pathways for predatory adults to initiate contact, potentially leading to grooming for sexual exploitation or radicalisation.
Platforms that allow users to self‑declare age, like Steam and Minecraft, can inadvertently grant younger players access to higher‑risk communication features. Even where age checks exist, the report notes that they are not uniformly applied or enforced across all services.
Australia’s Broader Online‑Safety Landscape
Australia has been at the forefront of digital‑safety policy, most notably with a ban on social‑media accounts for users under 16 that took effect last December. However, the ban deliberately excluded gaming platforms, a decision now under scrutiny as the eSafety report reveals comparable risks in the gaming sphere.
Recent government initiatives aim to give users the option to opt out of algorithmic content curation on major tech platforms. The new findings suggest that similar regulatory pressure may soon extend to gaming services, especially those that have not adopted industry‑standard detection tools.
Industry Responses
Roblox issued a statement affirming its commitment to safety, highlighting mandatory age checks and ongoing investment in safeguards. The other platforms – Valve, Epic Games and Microsoft – have been contacted for comment, but no detailed responses were included in the source material.
Analysis
The report underscores a mismatch between the rapid growth of online gaming among Australian youth and the lagging safety mechanisms on major platforms. While some companies, such as Roblox, have begun tightening age verification, the reliance on self‑declaration and internal detection models leaves substantial room for abuse. The lack of uniform participation in industry‑wide safety initiatives further fragments the protective net that could otherwise be more robust.
Given the high penetration of gaming – with nine‑in‑ten children having played online games – the identified shortcomings represent a systemic risk that may warrant legislative attention. The eSafety Commissioner’s call for platforms to “lift their game” aligns with broader governmental efforts to curb online harms, suggesting that future policy could target gaming services with similar rigor to social‑media platforms.
Uncertainty
While the report provides a snapshot of platform practices up to March 2026, it does not disclose the exact prevalence of harmful interactions on each service, nor does it quantify the effectiveness of existing safeguards after recent updates (e.g., Steam’s credit‑card age checks). Additionally, the absence of detailed responses from Valve, Epic Games and Microsoft limits the ability to assess any forthcoming changes they might implement.
Further monitoring will be needed to determine whether the identified gaps narrow as platforms adopt more advanced detection technologies and whether industry collaboration improves over time.