A longitudinal survey conducted by researchers at the University of Otago and published in the New Zealand Medical Journal reports that twenty percent of adolescents aged thirteen to seventeen received unsolicited sexual messages in the twelve months to June 2026, with the proportion rising to thirty-two percent among fifteen- and sixteen-year-old girls. The study, which sampled 2,400 secondary-school students, found that most incidents occurred on Instagram and Snapchat, that fewer than one in ten recipients reported the contact to a parent or teacher, and that those who experienced repeated contact reported significantly elevated rates of anxiety and sleep disturbance.
When a child does not or cannot disclose, perimeter detection becomes the only reliable intervention point. Guardii's anti-sextortion and anti-grooming filters monitor direct messages on Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and Roblox for coercive sexual solicitation, threat patterns and age-inappropriate advances, surfacing a child in distress to a parent, school counsellor or safeguarding professional before harm escalates, and doing so without requiring the young person to self-report or recognise the interaction as dangerous, directly addressing the under-reporting gap the Otago team documented.
