FAU study finds teen 'sexting' surge, warns of sextortion and privacy risks

A Florida Atlantic University and University of Wisconsin Eau Claire study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health surveyed 3,466 U.S. adolescents aged 13 to 17 and found that nearly one in three teens had received a sext and almost one in four had sent one, up from 23 percent and 14 percent respectively in 2019. Nearly half of those who sent a sext reported later being targeted with sextortion, almost one-third of recipients admitted threatening someone else to secure compliance, and younger adolescents faced the greatest risk with more than 60 percent of 13-year-olds who sent a sext reporting it was shared without permission.

Research documenting the frequency and velocity of sextortion among adolescents establishes the operational gap that Guardii closes at the point of contact. The platform deploys anti-sextortion detection across messaging environments on Discord, Roblox, Instagram and Snapchat, identifying coercive language, escalation toward image solicitation and threats of nonconsensual distribution before a child responds or shares material. Rather than relying on digital literacy education to modify teen behavior under pressure, the system intervenes upstream, blocking exploitative approaches before they reach the target and alerting a parent, school counselor or safeguarding lead to the shape and seriousness of the threat without exposing the content of the conversation itself.