Child sexual abuse online

People who cyberstalk or cyber-abuse children and teenagers online usually request intimate images within the first few minutes of a conversation. This is demonstrated by a study from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), which has analysed real conversations between the two parties and identified the main linguistic patterns used to obtain such material. The results of this study may contribute to the development of more effective tools for detecting high-risk situations and preventing child sexual abuse online.

The research, carried out by Nuria Lorenzo-Dus, Andrea García-Montes and Carmen Pérez-Sabater, is the first corpus-pragmatic analysis in Spanish focusing on the communicative strategies employed online by abusers when soliciting child abuse and exploitation material (CAEM).

During the first five turns of conversation

One of the study's most notable findings reveals that more than half of the initial requests for images or videos of a sexual nature are produced during the first five turns of conversation. Furthermore, perpetrators do not rely solely on threats or blackmail. They frequently combine direct requests with messages of warmth, affection or apparent trust to present these requests as something normal within a supposed relationship.

The analysis also reveals clear differences between the communicative behaviour of both parties. Whereas children and adolescents mainly discuss personal or everyday matters, perpetrators quickly steer the conversation towards sexual content and use various strategies to reinforce their influence over the victim. These include attempts to foster a sense of trust, commitment, or emotional debt to increase the likelihood that the victim will send images to them.

"Many perpetrators do not start with threats. They first build a seemingly close relationship to normalise behaviours that constitute a form of sexual exploitation," explains Andrea García-Montes, a researcher at the UPV and co-author of the study.

The researchers emphasise that understanding these patterns can help improve both automated detection systems and digital education programmes for children and adolescents, as well as for their families and professionals.

"Our work identifies linguistic cues that can facilitate the early detection of high-risk situations. Understanding how these conversations evolve is essential for designing better prevention strategies," notes Carmen Pérez-Sabater.

Prevention begins with understanding how deception is constructed

The study combines corpus linguistics and pragmatic analysis techniques to examine in detail the evolution of conversations. This methodology enables the identification of communicative strategies that are difficult to detect using other approaches.

"Prevention begins with understanding how deception is constructed. This study demonstrates that requests for child abuse and exploitation material are not isolated acts, but the result of specific and recognisable communicative strategies. Identifying them enables us to move towards more effective detection tools and better-informed digital education," says Nuria Lorenzo-Dus.

This research forms part of the PRECISION project, coordinated by Nuria Lorenzo-Dus at the UPV and funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, which aims to generate rigorous knowledge to anticipate and combat new forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse in digital environments.

Reference

Lorenzo-Dus, N., García-Montes, A. and Pérez-Sabater, C. (2026). Requesting Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Material (CSEAM) in Online Grooming: A Corpus-Pragmatic Analysis. Corpus Pragmatics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41701-026-00241-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41701-026-00241-9