By Thorn in partnership with Burson Insights, Data & Intelligence

Since 2019, Thorn has focused on amplifying youth voices to better understand their digital lives, with particular attention to how they encounter and navigate technology-facilitated forms of sexual abuse and exploitation. Previous youth-centered research has explored topics such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — including that which is self-generated (“SG-CSAM”) — nonconsensual resharing, online grooming, and the barriers young people face in disclosing or reporting negative experiences. In recent years, young people have been encountering sexual interactions involving money and other items of value in their digital lives at an alarming rate, and may, at times, be advertising personal imagery. Technology has previously been recognized as a key enabler in the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) — facilitating unprecedented access to minors, enabling novel “advertising” models, introducing new forms of abuse (e.g., live-streamed child sexual exploitation), and strengthening illicit market networks for CSAM. However, the apparent commodification of sexual interactions involving minors, without clear third-party facilitator, points to an evolution within technology-facilitated forms of sexual exploitation.

Thorn explored this new development as part of its recent Emerging Threats to Young People survey, which examines emergent online risk areas to better understand how current technologies create and/ or exacerbate child safety vulnerabilities and to identify areas where solutions are needed. This report sheds light on some of the ways in which the intersection of technology and romantic or sexual relationships impacts young people and increases their risk for exploitative interactions. These risks include commodified and/or commercial exchanges for nude imagery and/or involvement in sexual acts. Other reports from the series address additional issues, including the emergence of deepfake nudes6 and the evolving nature of sextortion.7 Drawing on responses from a survey of 1,200 young people aged 13-20, this report examines their lived experiences with technology-facilitated sexual solicitations and involvement in commodified exchanges. Three key findings emerged from this research:. It’s common for young people to receive sexual solicitations8 online, often after only a brief period of connection between users. One in 3 (36%) young people reported they had received a solicitation to send sexual imagery of themselves from an online-only contact while they were under the age of 18. Most (79%) of these solicitations were received within a week or less of connecting with the other user.

For some young people, technology-facilitated sexual experiences have been commodified, with young people receiving both monetary and non-monetary (e.g., social opportunities) forms of compensation. One in 7 (15%) young people reported engaging in at least one form of transactional sexual experience while under the age of 18. And 33% of those who had indicated they received social opportunities, like invites to parties or more online followers, as part of their compensation. . Markets for the commercial sexual exploitation of children appear to be expanding, driven, in part, by emerging buyer dynamics that capitalize on vulnerabilities linked to technology-facilitated sexual exploration among young people. Among young people who had a commodified sexual experience as a minor, 25% indicated they never received a solicitation to sell their content, 59% indicated they exclusively knew their buyers online, and 42% indicated they had a buyer who was another minor.

El Segundo, CA: Thorn, 2025. 33p.

By Childlight (Global Child Safety Institute)

The sexual exploitation and abuse of children is a global health crisis. This report – presenting a diverse set of studies into the nature of the crisis – underscores the need for urgent action, provides solutions and shines a light on the financial networks that fuel child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). The theme – who benefits? – asks a critical question: who is making money from this vile trade? The answer is as disturbing as it is clear. Organised crime groups profit, of course, but so do mainstream technology companies. 

The report shows that advertising revenue increases when platforms attract high volumes of traffic, including traffic generated by offenders engaging in CSEA. The exploitation of children is not just an atrocity — it is an industry, generating billions of dollars in profits. This is a market, structured and profitable, designed to generate revenue off the backs of vulnerable children. But markets can be disrupted, and that is where change must begin. Governments, businesses and communities must shift to a prevention-focused approach that stops CSEA before it begins.

Key findings

• Offenders are evolving, adapting and exploiting gaps in legislation and regulations.

• Offenders groom single parents via dating apps to access their children.

• Offenders target displaced children in conflict zones like Ukraine.

• Images are traded using sophisticated payment methods, including cryptocurrencies, to evade detection.

Key solutions

• Law enforcement and financial institutions can use tell-tale digital breadcrumbs to track and dismantle CSEA networks.

• Tech companies must be held accountable, pro-actively detect and remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and make more effective use of tried and tested tools, like blocklists, to shut down access to CSAM.

• Policymakers must act decisively, as the United Kingdom has begun to do, by criminalising AI-generated CSAM and banning so-called ‘how-to’ manuals for paedophiles. 

Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Childlight, 2025. 15p.