As technology evolves, so do the ways exploitation of children happens online. Keeping pace with these evolving threats requires independent research that helps the tech industry better understand emerging risks and develop more effective approaches to prevention, detection, and response.
To better understand these threats, the Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund, entering its fifth year, took a more targeted approach in 2026. Working with Tech Coalition members, Safe Online identified three priority areas where online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) intersects with emerging risks across the digital ecosystem:
These are areas where the evidence base is thin and the risk of harm is escalating. The result was a narrower call than in past years, asking applicants to go deep on one problem and build industry engagement into independent research itself.
Proposals went through structured scoring, weighing methodological rigor and novelty alongside feasibility for real-world uptake. We are now pleased to announce three new projects, backed by over $240,000 in combined funding.
Led by Dr. Sameer Hinduja and the Cyberbullying Research Center at Florida Atlantic University, this project builds on the Center’s 2025 survey of more than 3,400 US teenagers. The survey found that most respondents had used a conversational AI chatbot and a meaningful share described the relationship in romantic terms, alongside early signals of manipulation and pressure to keep secrets.
The new study goes further: a fresh survey of roughly 3,500 US adolescents aged 13 to 17, built around a dedicated set of questions on where chatbot use intersects with child sexual exploitation and abuse. Do conversations turn sexual? Do chatbots encourage secrecy or isolation from trusted adults? Do interactions create pathways toward sextortion or exposure to abuse material? The team will then use machine learning to turn the results into plain-language risk profiles that platform trust and safety teams can act on directly, rather than statistical output that needs a data scientist to translate.
Dr. Oliver Merry and Dr. Kate Whitfield at Sheffield Hallam University have spent the past two years mapping how grooming actually unfolds inside video games, from in-game coaching and currency to clan membership—all tools offenders have used to manipulate children. Their most recent work produced the first model of how child sexual exploitation and abuse plays out specifically in social VR games.
This project applies that model out of VR, testing it in games far more children play day to day: titles like Roblox, Minecraft, and Among Us. The team will analyze player reviews for signals of harm, interview adults who experienced grooming through gaming as children, and run a large international survey to validate what they find.
Behavioral Health Global with a team led by threat researcher Alex Slotnick alongside forensic psychologist Dr. Stacy Cecchat and psychologist Dr. Pev Bansal, is tackling one of the least understood threats in this space: sadistic online exploitation networks that target vulnerable youth not out of ideology, but because inflicting harm is the point.
Working from a corpus of 1.6 million messages collected from these networks, the team will refine a detailed harm classification framework with input from forensic psychology. Then they will train and openly release a machine learning classifier built to catch the layered, escalating patterns that define this kind of exploitation—patterns existing moderation tools aren’t designed to see. The classifier will be tested against new messages collected after training ends, and shared publicly so trust and safety teams anywhere can evaluate and pilot it.
Across all three projects, the throughline is the same: independent research that doesn’t stop at describing a problem, but hands industry something usable, whether that’s a risk profile, a safety-by-design framework, or an open-source detection tool. As the projects progress, all three teams will engage Tech Coalition members to help inform practical applications while maintaining full independence over their research. We’re excited to share findings as they come in over the year ahead.
Our grantees Justice and Care Understanding Traffickers and Pathways to Offending: Analysis and Recommendations to Better Detect, Deter, and Prevent Online Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Philippines Countries involved:The Philippines Justice and Care is a United Kingdom-based non-governmental organisation that works with law enforcement officers to rescue victims of
Kenya’s National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) has launched a training handbook on the investigation and prosecution of online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA) in Kenya.
Our grantees Thorn Bringing Light to the Dark Web Countries involved:United States of America The Fund is supporting Thorn’s Bringing Light to the Dark Web project, a global initiative that will use a new tool to help law enforcement identify children who are victims of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. Thorn
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We are here to ensure every child and young person grows in to the digital world feeling safe, and is protected from harm.
We support, champion, and invest in innovative partners from the public, private, and third sectors working towards the same objective.
We believe in equipping guardians and young people with the skills to understand and see danger themselves once accessing digital experiences without supervision.
