Reports of "sextortion" to the eSafety Commissioner have tripled in the first quarter of 2023, with victims most likely to be young men.
Sextortion involves criminals soliciting sexual images and videos from victims to use to blackmail them and extort money.
The platforms on which the most incidents reported to the commissioner occurred were Instagram and Snapchat.
Incidents involving child sexual abuse material also rose during the January to March period.
Reports of sextortion to the commissioner jumped in the first quarter of 2023, with more than 1700 from January to March this year compared to 600 over the same period in 2022.
Of the 1700 reports, the bulk were from young people, with 1200 victims aged between 18 and 24 coming to eSafety for help.
Of all the complaints, 90 per cent came from men, who eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said were particularly at risk of being approached by sextortion criminals.
"We need to educate young people, especially young men, to be very wary of attractive strangers approaching them out of the blue who get sexual straight away," she said.
"There's a big risk it's an impersonator account being managed by organised crime, looking to blackmail that young person once they share sexual content."
Reports of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are also on the rise.
In the first quarter of 2022 the commissioner received 3000 reports, but this year that number jumped to 8000.
"That's almost a threefold increase in reports of the most damaging, most harmful [types] of online content," she said.
The increase in reports comes after a spike in reports of sextortion to the commissioner during COVID lockdowns, with incidents rising by 200 per cent in 2020.
Commissioner Grant says the increase in reporting could only be partly attributed to more people knowing they can approach eSafety for help.
"We believe it's predominantly being driven by increased global demand and supply of this horrific material," she said.
What should I do to protect myself?
Commissioner Inman Grant said it was important victims not respond to blackmail threats, as it tends to result in further extortion.
"If you pay once, they keep coming back," she said.
"Because they're mainly based overseas it's virtually impossible for people to get their money back."
Aside from being wary of approaches from strangers seeking sexual interactions online, Commissioner Inman Grant said victims can approach eSafety for assistance.
"They should not engage or pay," she said.
"Take screenshots of the threats and user profile and record the user profile URL, then report it to the platform before you block the account."
"In cases where these images or videos are shared, report it to esafety.gov.au. Our investigators can help get that content quickly removed through our image-based abuse scheme."
In instances of victims under 18, which automatically constitute child sexual abuse, victims can report the crime to investigators at the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.
