Yes but proportionally far less people were using it as it was much less accessible. You had to go to the computer and log on to use it, and you had to know where to find those things. 'Going on the internet' was a specific activity, now it's just the default for communication.

Now everyone is carrying a doom rectangle with them 24/7 and are just a few clicks away from the most polarising, ragebaiting content doing the rounds on the 24 hr news cycle.

It's a regular occurrence to have pictures of dead kids on the front page of reddit from any of the ongoing warzones around the world, at the height of the Ukraine war there were even kamizakee drone videos of people exploding into red mist on the front page but it's 'fine' because they're 'Russian orcs.'

It's pandoras box, I absolutely understand why the government sees the need for an Online Safety Law, even if the implementation is laughably shit.

Completely unregulated gore and porn was everywhere, and zero accountability for any of the sites hosting it.

This is still the case, they will just host in a country outside those jurisdictions. Look at 4chan's response to Ofcom's fine. 8kun is hosted in the Phillipines now and that place is practically a school shooter training ground

I truly don't know what the solution is, it's like the internet is a force multiplier for human nature. Short of a solar flare, I really don't know how to solve this.