Closing investigative blind spots
The European Commission’s preliminary findings on TikTok’s protection for minors, alongside Australia’s eSafety findings, highlight that harmful activity rarely remains within one platform, account or jurisdiction, says Duane Rivett.
The first anniversary of the UK Online Safety Act’s children’s safety duties is a marker of progress but also shows how much work remains to turn regulation into real-world protection.
Age assurance, safer default account settings and rapid content removal are key safeguards, but they cannot provide a complete picture.
Australia’s eSafety findings show how offenders exploit weak detection systems and inconsistent safeguards to move between services and escalate harm. Grooming, coercion and sexual extortion can begin on a gaming or social platform, move to private messaging, involve multiple identities and cross borders. Critical connections can be missed when each interaction is reviewed in isolation.
For law enforcement and regulators, the priority is spotting harmful activity across platforms and intervening before it escalates. AI-enabled open-source intelligence (OSINT) can help analysts connect multiple accounts and aliases over time, map networks and detect patterns of coercion or escalation across social platforms, gaming communities, closed forums and the deep and dark web environments.
Ongoing monitoring can help teams prioritise the highest risk indicators and intervene earlier, based on the level of threat.
Platforms must continue improving safety-by-design, detection capabilities and accessible reporting routes. These measures need to be reinforced by intelligence cooperation across the US, Europe and Australia, reflecting the global nature of the online exploitation.
The next phase of online safety should focus on closing investigative blind spots. By connecting and validating signals across online environments, authorities can build a clearer picture of harmful behaviour, make better-informed decisions and disrupt harmful activity sooner.
Duane Rivett is VP Strategic Growth and co-founder, Fivecast
