Commodified Sexual Interactions Involving Minors: New data on evolving dynamics in technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation

Introduction

The internet has unlocked opportunities for exploration and connection previously unavailable to many young people. While this can offer significant value, recent research points to a concerning trend: young people are 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 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 child sexual abuse material (CSAM).  However, the apparent commodification of sexual interactions involving minors, at times without a clear third-party facilitator, points to an evolution within technology-facilitated forms of sexual exploitation.

Thorn explored this development as part of its recent Emerging Threats to Young People survey, which examines evolving online risk areas to better understand how current technologies create and/or exacerbate child safety vulnerabilities and to identify areas where solutions are needed. To read the complete research and explore its findings in greater detail, please download the full report.

From social to transactional: early signals

The internet facilitates wide-reaching exploration and connection; today, it’s commonly used as a tool for romantic and sexual exploration. This is especially true for young people – many of whom have grown up in the digital age. Young people use the internet to find sexual health information, make romantic connections, and foster relationships through texting, video calls, and social media.

However, as much as the internet is used for these purposes, it’s also inherently a marketplace.  Digital technologies have profoundly transformed how goods and services are exchanged — resulting in people being introduced to buying, selling, and trading online at younger ages.

As they navigate these digital environments – which can be at once social and transactional –  young people may encounter offers of financial or social gain in sexual exchanges.

A study by Thiel et al. identified networks of accounts, some of which appeared to be run by minors, openly advertising the “sale” of their self-generated sexual abuse material (SG-CSAM) on popular online platforms. Walsh et al. found that most respondents with technology-facilitated CSEC experiences navigated their exploitation without intermediaries, with a third describing the exchanges (for items like drugs or rides) as “casual in nature.”

In 2023, as part of Thorn’s annual youth monitoring survey, minors (aged 9–17) were asked about their awareness of peers receiving money or gifts from someone they only knew online in exchange for nude imagery or explicit live streams. Among the 1,040 respondents to that survey, 13% reported they believed their friends or classmates had engaged in this behavior, while an additional 7% selected “prefer not to say.”

This report builds on these early studies to assess the scale and nature of commodified sexual interactions involving minors and examine this trend against the backdrop of existing knowledge of young people’s exposure to risky sexual interactions in online environments. Many young people are encountering sexual solicitations and interactions that involve an aspect of commodification or exchange — often involving money (generally recognized as “commercial”) but also including other goods of value (e.g., clothing or drugs) or social capital (e.g., followers and likes).

Exploration alongside risk

While online exploration and communities can foster connection, learning, and self-expression—particularly for those who feel isolated offline—they also create opportunities for experiences considered higher-risk and potentially even illegal in offline spaces. In online spaces, it is easier to encounter mature content or interactions, and trust-building is accelerated and potentially blurred, leading to situations people with harmful intentions actively exploit.

As described in Thorn’s recent report on Deepfake Nudes and Young People, teens are accessing mature content and communities, including dating apps, pornography, and sites dedicated to adult content creators. In addition, some use technology to flirt and exchange intimate content, while even more acknowledge they’ve been asked to share sexual imagery of themselves.

In addition to these youth-driven behaviors, which, while carrying risk, often stem from a place of curiosity and exploration, it is not uncommon for young people to also receive direct solicitations from people they only know online to share SG-CSAM or engage in other technology-facilitated sexual interactions, such as sexual chats or explicit live-streams.

Online solicitations

One-third of young people (36%) have been asked to share sexual imagery of themselves by someone they met online before turning 18. Solicitation risks were more pronounced as teens aged and within some demographic groups. LGBTQ+ youth were the most likely to have received such solicitations (53%), and women/girls were more than 10 points more likely than men/boys (41% compared to 29%).

For the young people who had been asked to share imagery, many reported that the requests happened quickly and from a mixture of adults and other minors. Most (77%) said it happened before they turned 16 and often within the first day of contact with the requestor.

Commodified sexual solicitations and interactions

Many young people are encountering sexual solicitations and interactions that involve an aspect of commodification or exchange — often involving money (generally recognized as “commercial”) but also including other goods of value (e.g., clothing or drugs) or social capital (e.g., followers and likes).

In addition to solicitations for explicit imagery or interactions, the current study finds a concerning number of young people are being offered money or other items of value in exchange for such material. Roughly one-quarter of young people reported they had been offered money or something else of value (such as gaming currencies or social capital like followers or likes) in exchange for a sexual interaction online. LGBTQ+ youth were more likely than their non-LGBTQ+ peers to report having received such a solicitation (33% versus 23%, respectively).

Age of first experience

Among respondents who told us they had a commodified sexual interaction as a minor, 23% said they were 12 or younger at the time of their first experience, half (51%) were between the ages of 13 and 15, and 26% were aged 16 or older. LGBTQ+ respondents were more likely than their counterparts to have had their first experience when they were 12 or younger (+14%).

Buyer profile

We asked the respondents who said they’d had a commodified sexual interaction as a minor about buyer attributes, including how they “knew” them (online or offline) and the buyer’s age. These transactional exchanges include both people they only know online and people from their offline communities. In addition, buyers are not exclusively adults: 42% of respondents believed the buyer was another minor.

Compensation & payment methods

Among respondents who had a commodified sexual interaction as a minor, more than half (58%) said they received money as part of the exchange. Other exchanges included social opportunities (like more online followers or invites to parties), clothing, accessories, or beauty products, drugs or alcohol, a place to stay or housing and/or gaming currency (like Robux, V-Bucks, Minecoins). While the majority of respondents reported receiving a single form of compensation, 40% told us they had received multiple forms (though not necessarily in a single interaction).

Prior studies have documented that third-party intermediaries (e.g., traffickers and individuals with a sexual interest in children) employ a broad spectrum of offers as part of the grooming process, including money, housing, romantic partnerships, promises of a “better life,” fame, or professional advancement. However, these new findings also point to the exchange of social opportunities — such as increased online visibility and invitations to exclusive spaces or parties — for sexual content or activity. Particularly through the lens of solicitations by other minors or social standing in digital environments, these findings suggest an evolution in the commodification of sexualized or explicit interactions and imagery involving minors.

Non-explicit imagery

To better understand the scope of commodified interactions involving minors, the survey also asked about experiences with solicitations for non-explicit imagery — such as photos in a bathing suit, videos of daily routines, or images focused on specific body parts like the feet or stomach.

Nearly 1 in 5 respondents said they had received a request like this while under 18 in exchange for money, gifts, or social capital. Most often, these requests were for images of specific body parts, such as feet; other common requests included images of the minor doing everyday activities such as sleeping, exercising, or “getting ready.” 

While these images or interactions may not be overtly sexual, they may be consumed in fetish contexts or serve as a gateway to future extortion and abuse. Understandably, young people may not recognize the risk in such requests — underscoring the need to educate on how exploitative dynamics can begin before an explicit image is shared.