Research
KIFOV Briefing, October 2026: children’s safety online, where things stand
A compact reference for journalists, policymakers and professionals: the latest data on harm to children online, what courts and regulators now require of platforms, and verified routes to help.
Sexual extortion
Blackmail using sexual images, often by organised groups, and what a young person can do if it happens to them.
Research
KIFOV Briefing, October 2026: children’s safety online, where things stand
A compact reference for journalists, policymakers and professionals: the latest data on harm to children online, what courts and regulators now require of platforms, and verified routes to help.
Explainer
The Take It Down Act is now enforced: how to get an intimate image removed in the United States
Since 19 May 2026, platforms in the US must remove reported intimate images, including AI-made fakes, within 48 hours. Here is how the process works, and how it fits with the services young people already use.
Analysis
What a New Mexico court has ordered Meta to change for teenagers, and what it left out
The first court to hold a social media company liable for endangering children has set five years of supervised changes to Facebook and Instagram. The list is long; the gap in it is telling.
News
21.3 million reports in a year: what NCMEC’s 2025 CyberTipline data shows about risks to children
Reports of online enticement rose 158% and child sex trafficking reports 323%. The figures are a record of what was reported, which is not the same as a measure of how often children are harmed.
News
AI-generated abuse videos rose more than 260-fold in a year, the Internet Watch Foundation reports
The UK hotline confirmed 3,443 AI-generated child sexual abuse videos in 2025. Its data also shows sextortion cases more than doubling, almost all of them against teenage boys.
Guide
A child is being blackmailed with sexual images: what to do in the first hour
Stop, keep, report, remove, support. The advice of specialist services, in the order it matters, for the young person and for the adults around them.
Explainer
Take It Down, Report Remove and NeedHelpNow: how services that remove young people’s images actually work
Hashing, hotlines and platform requests are three different mechanisms. Knowing which one you are using tells you what it can and cannot do.