New research shows 1 in 5 children experienced online sexual exploitation during pandemic

Research published by Thorn on 28 August 2024 found that one in five children aged 9 to 17 experienced online sexual exploitation during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the study of over 2,000 young people in the United States revealing that 19 percent reported being asked by an adult to engage in unwanted sexual conversation or to share sexual images, and that these approaches most commonly occurred on social media platforms and gaming services with direct messaging features. The research identified a gap between the prevalence of exploitation and parental awareness, with fewer than half of affected children disclosing the contact to a parent or trusted adult, citing fear of losing device access or disbelief as barriers to reporting.

Closing the disclosure gap requires technology that surfaces a child at risk without waiting for them to come forward. Detection modules tuned to grooming and sextortion conversational patterns operate independently of a young person's willingness or ability to report, analysing the shape of contact across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other messaging environments to identify sustained targeting, escalation from general conversation to sexual solicitation, and coercion tactics used by offenders. Guardii's platform flags these threat patterns in real time to a parent, school or safeguarding professional, bypassing the barriers to self-reporting the Thorn study documented and enabling intervention at the point harm is occurring, not after a child has been conditioned into silence or already produced material under duress.