DHS Know2Protect Reports 75 Victim Disclosures and 77 Investigative Leads from Fiscal Year 2024 Prevention Programme

The United States Department of Homeland Security released results from Fiscal Year 2024 for Project iGuardian, the in-person educational component of the Know2Protect national awareness campaign against online child sexual exploitation. Homeland Security Investigations special agents delivered 1,100 presentations to 122,000 people, generating approximately 75 victim disclosures and 77 new investigative leads, according to Assistant Director Robert Hammer. The programme, relaunched in October 2023 with updated content on emerging threats including AI-generated abuse material, provides law enforcement case studies and preventative strategies for parents, children, educators and community members.

Awareness programmes equip adults to recognize warning signs; algorithmic detection identifies the threat in real time as it unfolds in a child's inbox. Guardii's anti-grooming and anti-sextortion filters monitor direct-message traffic across platforms for the sustained targeting, isolation tactics, and escalation patterns documented in HSI case files, surfacing a child in acute distress to a parent or school safeguarding lead before a disclosure is necessary and enabling immediate escalation to Homeland Security Investigations when conversation analysis indicates an imminent offline meeting or financial coercion. Educational outreach builds community vigilance; behavioral AI closes the operational gap between a parent learning to recognize grooming in theory and the system that flags the actual predatory conversation reaching their child's Snapchat account tonight, reporting the shape and seriousness of the threat rather than handing anyone the message content itself.