Protecting children in the digital age is an ongoing effort. In the first half of 2026, Thorn and our partners made meaningful progress. Together, we expanded child safety technology and published new research. Both provide solutions to complex problems.
This mid-year update highlights some of that progress and the work still ahead.
How do you measure progress in child safety?
Each number in this update represents a potential instance of protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. Metrics show the scale of our work, but they do not capture everything. Every file processed and every report downloaded is a step toward a safer internet.
2026 Mid-Year Impact (January–June 2026)
- 1,399,479 suspected CSAM files found
- 470,521 suspected instances of child sexual exploitation found
- 1,096,977,567,111 files processed to detect child sexual abuse material
- 86 companies using Thorn’s CSAM detection products
- 4,628 research report downloads
- 1,046 agencies using Thorn’s child victim detection tools
The first half of 2026 shows that protecting children takes teamwork. We see progress in the number of organizations, investigators, researchers, and partners that are ready to take steps to improve child safety.
How do we inform the child safety ecosystem?
To protect children in the digital age, we need to understand how online risks are changing. Research is key. Through it, we develop insights that help everyone in child safety make better decisions. In the first half of 2026, we published research in two main areas of child safety:
- Our 2025 Youth Perspectives Report continued our annual survey of young people and what they experience online. The findings showed new trends in AI use to disclose harm and how minors access age-restricted platforms. This information helps the child safety community see how young people’s online experiences are changing and where protections may need to improve.
- Thorn also released new research on Sadistic Online Exploitation (SOE). The report looked at how violent online networks exploit gaps in child safety systems. This research gives platforms, researchers, and caregivers a better base for spotting and dealing with this new threat.
How does innovation strengthen child safety?
Threats to children continue to evolve, which means safety technology must evolve with them. Thorn works to equip platforms with tools that help them detect abuse and exploitation earlier and respond more effectively.
In the first half of 2026, Hive announced the integration of Thorn’s Grooming Detection technology into its moderation platform. By making these capabilities available through Hive, more platforms can detect patterns of online grooming behavior and strengthen protections against child sexual exploitation. Expanding access to these tools helps extend our impact across a broader range of platforms and services.
Thorn also introduced Context Labels into our Safer platform. This new feature gives safety professionals more information about suspected abuse content. This allows safety teams to prioritize higher-risk content and improve the quality of reports shared with investigators and other trusted partners.
By building technology that detects child sexual abuse and exploitation across more organizations, we’ve helped more platforms strengthen their ability to protect children online.
How do we turn awareness into action?
Real progress takes more than just technology. In the first half of 2026, Thorn shared research and expertise in discussions about the biggest issues in child safety today. These talks help the public and policymakers understand new threats.
Wired covered the growing problem of AI-generated nudes in schools, quoting our director of research and insights as a source. This article drew more attention to the scale of abuse and exploitation that generative AI can enable. As AI technologies become easier to use, raising awareness is an important step to help schools and families respond.
Policy collaborations were also key to moving child safety forward. Thorn worked with partners to highlight the dangers of nudifying tools. We also joined a global group asking policymakers to fix gaps in European child sexual abuse detection laws. The Guardian’s coverage helped bring more attention to this shortfall in regulation.
Why does collaborating with the child safety community matter?
No single group can solve child sexual exploitation in the digital age alone. The challenges children face keep changing. Real progress depends on bringing together people and organizations with different views.
In the first half of 2026, Thorn joined conversations with the global child safety community. We shared research and practical advice in talks about the future of child protection. These meetings helped build stronger partnerships among those addressing the problem.
2026 Community Engagement Highlights
- UK Safer Internet Centre Sextortion Roundtable (March 5, 2026)
- Trust & Safety Summit (March 25, 2026)
- Skoll World Forum and Marmalade Festival (April 22, 2026)
- INTERPOL Child Exploitation Technology Gathering (June 16, 2026)
- TrustCon 2026 (July 20-22, 2026)
Each event brought together different groups, but all had the same goal for Thorn: strengthening the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation. By staying active in the community, Thorn helps create momentum to protect children in the digital age.
What’s next for child safety?
The first half of 2026 brought real progress:
- Innovative technology reaching more organizations
- Research sharpening our understanding of emerging threats
- Partnerships and policy building momentum across the field
But the threats are evolving, too. The work ahead requires all of us — individuals, tech companies, trust and safety teams, researchers, law enforcement, and policymakers — to do our part.
Thorn remains committed to that work, alongside our partners and the broader child safety community.
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