Exclusive: The tech giants are aiding and abetting cheating at Australian universities by housing advertisements for essay writing companies on their sites.

A News Corp Australia investigation has found Facebook, YouTube and Google routinely tempt our students to cheat on assessments, despite government threats to outlaw the practice.

There are more than 1200 websites — black-listed by some university IT networks — selling cheat essays to university students.

One of them, Oz Essay, tells Facebook users in its spam campaign: “We will get your homework done, no matter how hard or urgent it is”.

Custom Writings uses Facebook to offer students “one free page” if they buy essays from them.

Another site, AussieWritings, which promises “the best grade with the help of our assignment writers”, can turn around papers in “anywhere from 10 days to 3 hours”.

“At our website, you’ll always get 100% unique content with 0% of plagiarism,” the site, found through a simple Google search, boasts.

“We’re aware of the standards and expectations of your school.”

My Assignment Help displays a 4.9-star rating based on 14,000 reviews on Google.

This site boasted “you will score good marks,” on purchased essays.

My Assignment Help is also using YouTube to instruct students on how to pay for essays.

“We are sure to relieve you from academic stress. Trust our assignment writing services,” the blurb under one video reads.

A 2018 survey referenced by the Department of Education and Training found six per cent of 14,086 students from eight Australian universities had engaged in cheating behaviours and 2.2 per cent had submitted an assignment that was not their own work.

In a separate study by Deakin University in 2018, a research team bought and graded 54 assignments from 18 different cheat sites for business, health and science subjects.

The assignments cost an average of $156 and more than half (52 per cent) of them received a fail grade.

Fourteen of the assignments were purchased at a ‘premium’ rate of $178.95, on average, which was meant to guarantee a better writer.

Only 15 per cent of the assignments were usable for assessment.

The government has drafted legislation that would make providing or advertising academic cheating services a criminal offence.

If the bill passes later in the year, the challenge will be to track down the writers behind the essays.

Some services fraudulently claim to have Australian bases and employ writers with top credentials from our universities.

News Corp Australia found one writer, using the name Jane Sima, on the site My Assignment Help that boasted to have helped cheat on 150 assignments.

She claimed to have a Psychology PhD from James Cook University and said she was working as a lecturer for the uni in Singapore.

JCU confirmed they had no record of Jane Sima studying or working at the university.

UK researcher Thomas Lancaster, who coined the term ‘contract cheating’ to highlight the need to crack down on essay writing services found most ghostwriters were operating from Kenya, US, Pakistan and India when he observed them on freelance marketplace Fiverr.

An Education Department spokesman said the law would apply regardless of where in the world the cheat essays came from.

“This would provide capacity for evidence gathering on international actors and even the potential for joint overseas prosecution action with international regulatory partners,” the spokesman said.

Under the new law, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency would have the power to seek federal court injunctions to order internet service providers to block essay-writing websites.

Facebook does allow some ‘cheat’ sites to use their ad service as it’s not currently illegal, according to its ad policy.

“We review all ads that are reported to us and remove ads that either violate our policies or local law,” a Facebook Australia spokeswoman said.

A Google spokesman said their ad policy already banned essay writing as it was dishonest behaviour.

A YouTube spokesperson said: “ … we don’t allow the promotion of products or services that are designed to enable dishonest behaviour such as essay writing.”

“If we find a video that violates this policy, we remove it. Last year alone we removed thousands of violative videos.”

News Corp Australia requested comment from YouTube.

Universities Australia Chief Executive Catriona Jackson said there are already penalties already in place for cheating, which include suspension and expulsion.

“If you cheat, you’ll end up ruining your education and your future career prospects. So our message is clear: Don’t do it.”

Deakin Associate Professor Phillip Dawson found it is possible to train markers to spot cheat essays. He said trained markers had an 82 per cent detection rate compared to non-trained, who still caught cheaters 58 per cent of the time.

“It’s a really foolish move to cheat when such a high percentage can be caught,” he said.

In 2015 Deakin kicked out 13 engineering students for cheating. Since then the university has been proactive in ensuring students don’t meet a similar fate.

Deakin’s Deputy Vice Chancellor for Education Liz Johnson said Australia was in for a challenge in taking on essay writing services.

“That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try,” she said. “I don’t think they’re going away (cheat sites), I think they’re too lucrative and they have a long reach all over the world.”

She felt it was important to focus on training markers to catch cheats and support at-risk students so they don’t consider cheating an option.

“Students who feel unsupported are much more likely to resort to cheating. International students who have less social support are more likely to fall into that category,” Prof Johnson said.

“We know students who are stressed are more likely to cheat (and) if their colleagues think it’s OK they’re more likely to cheat.

“We want to make sure they don’t make that bad decision. We have to help them understand it’s not in their best interest, they could lose their degree over it (and) and it’s dangerous because they could get blackmailed or lose their tuition money.”

Deakin student Jean-Marc Kurban said it was mostly students with foreign surnames that were bombarded via email and social media by essay writing services.

The fourth-year public relations and economics student thought the government’s plan to jail or fine essay sellers and writers was an “ill-researched solution”.

Anyone found to help students cheat through writing essays risks two years jail or a $210,000 fine, under the plan.

Mr Kurban suspected anyone in Australia who was ghostwriting for students was likely to be helping desperate friends or family who were struggling to stay afloat with their studies.

“Laws to punish looks good in headlines but it’s a cheap alternative. If you really want long-term change, invest in a solution. I think that comes from dealing with the underlying issue here,” he said.

“A big source of the problem is cuts to higher education, it makes universities more reliable on income from international students, the students who are more vulnerable to contract cheating services.

“I think contract cheating can be combated but it needs to be done through spreading awareness of the consequences and proper funding for services so students feel they can succeed.

He thought the government’s plan to chase cheat writers across the globe was a waste of time.

“I don’t think it’s a credible argument to lean on other countries’ laws, a lot of the services coming out of India (for example) are freelance opportunities. I don’t really see the government being able to hold them to account, especially when it brings income to these countries.”

Australia’s Department of Education and Training advises that “students should not engage with any website or person that offers to complete any of their assessment for them.”

While the department does not keep a register of black-listed cheat websites, it confirmed a number of Australian universities do have sites that they black-list.

If students attempt to view a black-listed website on a university IT network they are instead confronted with a page warning them they are trying to view a cheating website.

The department said it’s aware of more than 1200 websites that have been added to university black lists for trying to sell cheat essays to students.

Below are some websites that have been known to target Australian students:

• All Australian Essays

• Aussie Writer

• Australian Essay

• Australian Writings

• Essay Roo

• Australian Help

• Oz Essays

• My Assignment Help

• Big Assignments

• Cool Essay

• Custom Writings

• Expert Writing Help

• Grade Miners

• Superior Essay Writers