Writing · Child safety and age assurance

Financial sextortion moves in hours, so start with what the teen sees

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Most grooming detection is built for patterns that play out over weeks. Financial sextortion doesn't give you weeks. An account posing as another teenager makes contact, asks for an image almost right away, then demands money and threatens to send it to the teen's friends and family. It can happen inside a day.

NCMEC received an average of 137 financial sextortion reports a day in 2025, many involving teenage boys. It knows of at least three dozen teenage boys in the US who died by suicide after being targeted. If I were setting priorities, I'd start with what the teen sees in that first conversation.

Defaults first. Either under-18s can't get messages from accounts they aren't connected to, as Ofcom's UK codes already expect of higher-risk services, or new accounts get a hard cap on how many minors they can message. Then a notice when the sender is a stranger or seems to be in another country. Some real friendships will start slower, and messages from new accounts to minors they don't know will drop, which is the point. I'd take that trade, and agree with product up front how we'll measure it.

When a teen reports, they need a fast, shame-free answer: this isn't your fault, don't pay, and NCMEC's Take It Down can help get images removed. Staff it like the urgent queue it is, with someone on call at 2am who can make an emergency referral. In the US it's also a mandatory CyberTipline report, so flag any suicide risk in it.

#TrustAndSafety #ChildSafety #OnlineSafety #SafetyByDesign

In the handbook

6. Child safety and age assuranceHow do you keep children safe on a product adults use too?
12. Severe harm escalationsWhat happens in the first hour after you find child sexual abuse material, a threat to life or a request from law enforcement?

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