Thorn and All Tech Is Human Release Study on Grooming Tactics in Gaming Platforms

Child safety organisations Thorn and All Tech Is Human have published a study analysing grooming tactics observed in gaming platforms with integrated chat functions, based on analysis of 2,400 reported incidents across Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite. The research identifies a consistent pattern: offenders use in-game chat to establish trust over multiple sessions, transition to private or direct messaging, and then introduce sexual content gradually while normalising inappropriate requests. The study found that 78 percent of cases involved a trust-building phase lasting between one and four weeks, and that the shift to private messaging occurred in 94 percent of cases before any explicit solicitation.

The grooming sequence documented in this research—extended trust-building, migration to private channels, gradual escalation—is precisely the pattern that detection AI is designed to recognise. Guardii's anti-grooming module analyses conversational behaviour rather than isolated keywords, surfacing the sustained targeting, tone shifts and escalation dynamics that characterise predatory contact in gaming and social platforms. By detecting the early warning signs during the trust-building phase and alerting the appropriate adult or authority to the risk before explicit harm occurs, pattern-based detection addresses the operational reality that the Thorn and All Tech Is Human study makes plain: grooming is a process, and it can be interrupted if the system is watching for the right signals.