And how’s Apple’s form? In 2022 Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram and WhatsApp, reported 27 million instances of child sexual abuse material on its services to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. Compare this to Apple’s performance for the same period. “You know how many Apple reported?” poses Inman Grant. “Two hundred and fifty-six. With billions of iPhones and iPads. And the reason is that they don’t scan for iMessage, they don’t scan for iCloud, they don’t even make public reporting available.”

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The Australian and other governments have asked Apple to set up an in-app reporting system as their industry peers do. “It’s been a year and we’ll see if they actually do that.”

If any of this sounds a bit complex, allow Inman Grant to clarify – these corporations are delivering “the holy grail for paedophiles”, she says. “They can store videos and images of child sexual services for free and with no risk of detection. I can’t tell you how important these end-user managed hosting services are.”

The European Union’s chief enforcement officer has had enough. The EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, in Australia for talks with Inman Grant, is proposing new laws for the EU.

“I think we are failing to protect children today. This is a huge failure of society. Here, in Australia, where we are joining forces, the internet companies have to be responsible for what kind of crimes they are enabling on their platforms.”

Johansson sets out the severity of the suffering that seems so trivial to so many of these corporations. She tells me that reporting in the US shows that 50 per cent of the victims of online child sexual abuse are babies and toddlers: “What Internet Watch Foundation in the UK found last year is that category A violence against children, the worst violence, that doubled in three years. And they also saw that with children under the age of two, it’s 80 per cent category A violence.

“So we’re not talking about teenagers exploring their sexuality. We are talking about severe sexual violence towards small children who cannot report, cannot disclose. We have to protect them. This is our obligation.

“And we have to put this obligation on the companies. Because that is where it is spread, and that is the only way, very often, to find the first clue, and to start doing the investigation to rescue the children.

“These children are silent and these crimes often go on for years and years. And the only way to detect it is when [perpetrators] share the content online with their peers and that’s how police today can rescue the children.

“We are identifying several children every week, and they are able to be rescued. In my view, the companies cannot say that they are not responsible for the kind of crimes that go on their platforms or in their communication.”

Johansson has proposed laws for the EU: “That’s why I have put forward an EU legislation that all companies have to do a risk assessment and, based on that, they have to do mitigating measures – that is safety by design,” a principle advocated by Inman Grant. “And if that is not enough they can be obliged to scan, to use scanning technologies. I’m fighting to have it approved.”

Inman Grant says that the regulatory power of the EU is unmatched and Australia is looking to work with it. But could such laws work? Johansson holds up new laws requiring internet companies to take down terrorist content within an hour, under order by any EU member state. “The good news is that our legislation works. We have so far seen 100 per cent compliance” under threat of serious penalties.

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“The tipping point is, we have to treat internet companies like grown-ups, and stop treating them like teenagers.”

Inman Grant says that “it sometimes feels like we’re using a fly swatter to bat away a swarm of killer bees.” Johansson is seeking to build a much bigger swat and looks to Australia to cooperate. “We’re better working together.”

Peter Hartcher is international editor.

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