New research reveals scale of image-based abuse targeting women and girls online

The WeProtect Global Alliance published its 2024 Global Threat Assessment documenting the intersection of child sexual exploitation, image-based abuse and violence against women online, finding that girls aged 12 to 17 experience disproportionately high rates of sextortion, non-consensual image sharing and coerced self-production of explicit material. The report identified messaging apps and gaming platforms as the primary channels for initial contact and grooming, with offenders exploiting the speed and intimacy of direct-message environments to isolate and manipulate targets before abuse escalates.

Prevention at scale requires detection systems that identify coercion and targeting within the private conversation rather than responding after images have been shared or distributed. Guardii's anti-sextortion, anti-grooming and protection-for-women detection modules operate in real time across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other messaging platforms, recognising sustained targeting, manipulative language and threat escalation as they emerge and flagging the conversation to parents, schools, platform moderators or law enforcement before the victim complies or harm becomes irreversible. The platform surfaces the shape and seriousness of risk without exposing message content to routine human review, addressing the operational challenge the WeProtect Alliance has documented: the need for intervention at the earliest point in the abuse trajectory.