The FBI reported that sextortion cases of minors rose by 59%, reaching 54,000 cases in 2024, up from approximately 34,000 in 2023, often perpetrated by international sextortion rings. Creating fake nude photos has become remarkably easy; on October 2, 2023, 14-year-old Elliston Berry of Aledo, Texas, woke to a torrent of messages from friends saying nude images of her were circulating among classmates, though the teen had never taken the pictures. Generative AI allows endless permutations of deepfake pornographic content, and victims are usually alerted by a flood of text messages once fabricated material begins circulating.
When a child wakes to peer harassment over fabricated images already in wide circulation, the harm has occurred; Guardii's anti-sextortion and anti-CSAM detection intercepts the coercive message or image before it reaches the victim or the victim's peer group. The platform monitors direct-message channels across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and Roblox, blocking both the initial demand ("send nudes or I'll share this") and the fabricated image itself if an offender attempts distribution. For the 54,000 sextortion cases the FBI documented, Guardii offers upstream prevention: surface the threat to a parent or school counselor the moment the first coercive contact is made, enabling adult intervention before the child is isolated by fear, shame or the viral spread of deepfake material, and ensure rapid escalation to the FBI if the threat originates from an international actor.
