UK communications regulator Ofcom published a global research report conducted by Protect Children surveying over 20,000 individuals who searched for CSAM on the dark web, with fieldwork completed in January 2026. The study found that by age 18, 65 percent of respondents had seen pornography and 59 percent had encountered CSAM, with 24 percent first encountering CSAM accidentally. Perpetrators reported using both the dark web and open web at nearly equal rates, and 34 percent recalled that warning messages prompted them to reflect on or change their behaviour.
The research underscores that exposure and access occur across multiple unsupervised digital environments, including the direct-messaging channels where Guardii deploys its grooming and anti-CSAM detection modules. By monitoring children's private messages in real time across platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Discord, the world-leading AI safety platform identifies predatory contact patterns before they escalate, intercepting solicitation and blocking hostile images at the moment of delivery rather than relying on retrospective content moderation or age-gating alone.
