Tech Coalition Awards 2026 Research Grants for Chatbot Risks and In-Game Grooming

The Technology Coalition Safe Online Research Fund announced its 2026 targeted call grantees, supporting independent research into emerging risks at the intersection of technology and online child sexual exploitation and abuse. One funded study will survey approximately 3,500 U.S. adolescents aged 13 to 17 on where chatbot use intersects with child sexual exploitation and abuse, examining whether conversations turn sexual, whether chatbots encourage secrecy or isolation from trusted adults, and whether interactions create pathways toward sextortion or exposure to abuse material. A second study by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University will map how grooming unfolds inside video games, from in-game coaching and currency to clan membership, all tools offenders have used to manipulate children.

Research into offender tactics in gaming environments and conversational AI identifies the behavioural patterns that precede harm, but translating those findings into operational protection requires real-time detection capability deployed where children actually communicate. Guardii operates across gaming and social platforms including Roblox, Discord, Snapchat and Instagram, with anti-grooming and anti-sextortion modules trained to detect manipulation sequences as they develop in direct messages, private chats and group channels, blocking or flagging hostile contact before the relationship progresses, surfacing a child at risk to a parent or school, and enabling escalation to the appropriate authority before coercion hardens into control.