Australia's digital landscape presents extraordinary opportunities — and significant risks. Cyberbullying affects approximately 20% of young Australians. Online grooming and child sexual exploitation are growing threats. Scams cost Australians over $3 billion annually. Misinformation spreads rapidly across social platforms. The eSafety Commissioner is Australia's world-leading online safety regulator — but the scale of online harm requires community education, workforce training, and targeted programmes that reach the most vulnerable. Grant funding supports digital literacy for safety, cyberbullying prevention, scam awareness, children's online safety, and the advocacy that improves online safety policy.
The harms
Who is most at risk
Australia's regulatory approach
eSafety Commissioner
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
AFP (Australian Federal Police)
eSafety Foundation
Educational arm of eSafety Commissioner.
Google Australia
Digital literacy and online safety education.
Meta Australia
Online safety programmes (as part of corporate responsibility).
Commonwealth Bank Foundation
Scam awareness and financial online safety.
Telstra Foundation
Digital inclusion and online safety.
Children's online safety
Cyberbullying prevention and response
Scam prevention
Online grooming prevention
Image-based abuse
Digital literacy for safety
Older Australians
Multicultural communities
Mental health and online harm
Research and evidence
Australia has the world's most comprehensive online safety regulatory framework:
- Independent Commissioner with powers to require platform action
- Complaints scheme for harmful content
- Basic Online Safety Expectations for major platforms
- World-first regulatory powers for image-based abuse
Despite this, education and prevention remain essential — regulation alone doesn't protect individuals, particularly children. Community-based online safety education is essential.
Children's digital literacy
Children use the internet from an increasingly young age — often without the knowledge to stay safe. Applications for age-appropriate, school-based digital literacy with online safety components are foundational.
Scam awareness for older adults
Older Australians lose the most money to scams — partly due to unfamiliarity with digital security and partly due to targeting by scammers. Applications for scam awareness programmes for older adults are high-value.
Multicultural communities
Online harms reach across language communities — and misinformation and scams are often specifically crafted for non-English-speaking communities. Applications with language-specific online safety education are addressing a gap.
Evidence-based programmes
eSafety Commissioner has evaluated many online safety programmes — applications building on demonstrated evidence are more credible than generic digital literacy.
Tahua's grants management platform supports online safety funders and digital wellbeing organisations — with programme reach tracking, knowledge outcome measurement, harm prevention data, and the reporting tools that help online safety funders demonstrate their investment in protecting Australians in digital spaces.