SINGAPORE, Sept 22 — Singapore’s Online Safety Commission (OSC) received more than 500 reports of online harm in its first two months of operations, with the youngest victim being a seven-year-old subjected to doxxing.
The figures, covering June 29 to August 31, were reported by CNA, which cited the commission and Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo.
Of the eligible reports received during the period, 44 per cent involved doxxing while online harassment accounted for 38 per cent.
Intimate image abuse made up 8 per cent of cases, followed by online stalking at 7 per cent and image-based child abuse involving victims below 16 at 3 per cent.
More than 90 per cent of eligible reports were resolved, although the commission did not disclose how many of the more than 500 reports received were eligible.
An eligible report must be made by a victim or on their behalf and involve online harmful activity covered by the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act.
An OSC spokesperson said a case is considered resolved when the harmful content is removed, whether through flags to online platforms, directions, communication with those responsible or restrictions on a perpetrator’s account.
Cases in which platforms, websites or communicators fail to comply with the commissioner’s directions by the specified deadline are treated as unresolved and investigated as non-compliance cases.
“However, this does not mean that the victim is left hanging. OSC will consider other options in our toolkit, such as to issue an access blocking order to block a website that failed to comply with a direction issued by the commissioner.”
The commission was established under the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act 2025, which was passed by Parliament in November last year to give victims a faster avenue to seek relief.
Victims can report harmful content when platforms fail to remove it within 24 hours, after which the Commissioner of Online Safety can direct platforms to remove the material, restrict perpetrators’ accounts or allow victims to publish replies.
Speaking on the gov.sg podcast Let’s Table It, posted on Tuesday, Teo said placing the commission on a statutory footing helped give it credibility and authority.
“That’s why we passed the law, so they can refer back to the law and say that the law says that there are these categories of harms. This is how these categories of harms are defined,” she said.
Commissioner of Online Safety Francis Ng said the commission had introduced a statutory mechanism for victims to report harmful content and seek its removal, while Teo said the early figures showed there was a need for stronger support for victims.
“Very often when we speak to these victims, their immediate need is clear and straightforward. They really want the harmful content to be removed as soon as possible,” she said.
“The platforms remain the first port of call. They have a responsibility to act on reports of harmful content. But when the victims need more support, today they have the Online Safety Commission to turn to.”
Young people accounted for 17 per cent of eligible reports, with the youngest victim a seven-year-old subjected to doxxing, while online harassment made up 51 per cent of cases involving victims below 18.
In one case, a victim was subjected to sustained online sexual harassment from 2022, including unsolicited explicit material and AI-generated deepfake nude images and videos, with more than 1,000 posts published across multiple platforms.
The commission issued a direction and the harmful content was removed, while in another case involving prolonged harassment and stalking, a victim’s stalker created multiple social media accounts, approached the victim’s friends and impersonated the victim and people in their network.
The latter case also involved death threats and a parallel police investigation, with the commission flagging the accounts for removal and referring the victim to SHECARES for counselling and guidance.
In a separate doxxing case, the commission ordered a forum to disable an original post and a comment after a victim was targeted with negative allegations and personal information, including the names of the victim and her partner.
The OSC currently handles five categories of online harm — online harassment, including sexual harassment, doxxing, online stalking, intimate image abuse and image-based child abuse — and will gradually expand its remit to all 13 categories covered by the law.
The commission said it follows a “no wrong door” policy for reports outside its current scope and will refer such cases to other agencies or third-party partners that may be able to assist victims.
