Using age assurance to prevent self-generated CSAM and sextortion

A September 16, 2026 analysis by the Age Verification Providers Association examined the role of age assurance in preventing self-generated child sexual abuse material and sextortion, noting that self-generated images used to initiate blackmail are themselves treated under law as CSAM because they depict a minor, even where created by the child, and that criminals exploit this legal reality to gain leverage over victims. The analysis identified a structural gap in current age-assurance approaches: most policy discussion focuses on preventing children from accessing age-restricted content by pretending to be adults, while sextortion presents the opposite threat, requiring systems that prevent adults from pretending to be children in order to gain access to minors on messaging platforms. The author noted that while Apple and Google can implement protections within services they control directly such as iMessage and FaceTime, extending equivalent safeguards to independent encrypted messaging platforms such as Snapchat, Signal and Telegram is considerably more complex because those applications control their own software, user experience and communications architecture.

Age assurance that gates entry to a platform cannot detect an adult offender who is already inside the system and has misrepresented their identity, and it cannot observe the conversation itself. Guardii detects the threat as it unfolds in the direct message, identifying manipulation, escalation and coercion in real time rather than relying on a gatekeeper to verify every participant at sign-up. The system operates across platforms including Snapchat, Instagram, Discord and Roblox, analysing the shape and seriousness of the conversation without storing message content, and flags sustained targeting or acute distress before self-generated abuse material is created or shared. By detecting the pattern of predatory behaviour rather than assessing identity at the front door, the platform closes the operational gap identified in the research: it addresses the harm regardless of how the offender entered the service or whether the child complied with an age declaration.