Our chatbot is a first-of-its-kind piece of technology to prevent online child sexual abuse. It aims to deter and redirect people looking for sexual images of children online, by engaging them in conversation and signposting them to help to stop, or not start, offending.
Does the chatbot work?
The evaluation of an 18 months test using the chatbot and warnings on Pornhub UK showed:
- there was decrease in searches for sexual videos of children
- just one warning from the chatbot was enough to deter users in 82% of sessions from continuing their searches for illegal videos
The chatbot began as an experimental collaboration between us, the Internet Watch Foundation and Aylo, the owners of Pornhub UK. Read more in our Faithfull Paper, Chatbots and Warning Messages – Innovations in the Fight Against Online Child Sexual Abuse.
How will we develop the chatbot?
- A generative AI-powered upgrade: can we make our chatbot smarter? The original chatbot was programmed with pre-written responses and was limited in the scope of the help it could offer. Could we develop a smarter, more responsive chatbot that drives more people to seek help?
- Expansion to other adult websites: building on our success with Pornhub UK, we would like to be able to deploy the chatbot across a range of adult websites to broaden its reach.
- Adaptation to other platforms: illegal content is sought and shared on a wider range of sites and platforms than might be expected, from music and file- sharing sites to dating, social media and gaming. We are exploring ways to make the chatbot adaptable for use on as many digital platforms as possible.
- Multilingual support: to extend our impact globally, we plan to develop versions of the chatbot in multiple languages.
- Targeting resistant users: the chatbot evaluation found that a very small subsection of users ignored our warning messages and continued to search for illegal videos of children. Future chatbot experiments could target this group.
Find out more
We are always interested in hearing from any tech platforms that would like to know more about how the chatbot could work for them.
Ready to be part of something meaningful? Discover how you can contribute to to Project Intercept and join us on our journey to deter child sexual abuse online.
Together, we can make a lasting impact.
