Record number of UK under 18s facing 'sextortion' online as experts say no time to lose on nudity blockers for teens' phones
Guardii Analysis
The Internet Watch Foundation and Childline reported on 9 October 2026 that by the end of June 2026, 462 sextortion reports from UK children had been confirmed as containing child sexual abuse imagery through the Report Remove service, 17 percent higher than the total for all of 2025, with 95 percent of victims being boys. The charities called for urgent deployment of nudity-blocking technology on children's devices as criminals continue to target young people through social media and messaging platforms.
Guardii's anti-sextortion detection module identifies coercive patterns in direct messages before imagery is shared or threats are issued, blocking hostile contact at the point of approach and surfacing a child at risk to a parent or school without needing to examine every message. Where a device-level blocker responds to attempted transmission, Guardii intercepts the conversation escalation itself, identifying manipulation tactics in real time across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and other platforms and enabling rapid escalation to the right authority when extortion begins.