UK Charity Reports 87% Increase in Sextortion Cases Targeting Children Under 16

The Internet Watch Foundation reported on 2 November 2026 that sextortion cases involving children under 16 in the UK rose 87 per cent in the twelve months to September 2026 compared to the prior year, with the majority of incidents originating on Instagram, Snapchat and gaming platforms including Roblox and Discord. The charity's annual report documented 14,200 sextortion reports involving minors, a sharp increase from 7,600 in the previous period, and noted that offenders increasingly use AI-generated imagery to manipulate victims and that the average age of targets has fallen to 13.

The documented surge in image-based sexual extortion illustrates the operational gap between platform-level content scanning and in-conversation threat detection. Guardii's anti-sextortion module intercepts coercion and escalation as direct messages unfold on Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and Roblox, identifying the demand for images, the threat to distribute, and the shift from persuasion to extortion in real time, and blocking the hostile contact before the child complies. The AI platform, backed by Startmate, also detects AI-generated and deepfake CSAM, surfacing a young person in acute distress to a parent, school or police before financial or emotional harm compounds, and reporting the severity of the conversation rather than handing anyone a transcript of what was said.