The Intervention Journey A Roadmap to Effective Digital Safety Measures 2025

–Length of interaction time with chatbot –Number of LFF URL clicks –Number of individual visits to helpline –Number of individual visits to “get help” info pages As an outcome of the analysis, the warning message and chatbot were displayed approximately 2.8 million times between March 2022 and September 2023. In total, 82% of users only saw a single warning and then desisted from searching for CSAM terms. Interactions with the chatbot by users resulted in 1,656 responses asking for more information and Stop It Now! services, and there were 490 recorded click-throughs from the chatbot to the Stop It Now! website. A total of 68 calls or chats made to the Stop It Now! helpline were identified as likely being prompted by the reThink chatbot and/or warning page on the online adult entertainment platform in the UK. Prior to the chatbot’s launch in March 2022, the warning message was displayed an additional 2,208,864 times, totalling 4,400,960 times over the length of the project. This outcome demonstrates that there has been a clear benefit in the reThink project, as individuals have requested the support of the Stop It Now! service because of the intervention. The evaluation also shows a clear deterrence effect, with a reduction in CSAM search volume on the adult entertainment platform. However, reThink’s impact diminished over the length of the intervention and most markedly after the first three months. The evaluation demonstrated that some users who interacted with the chatbot with typed messages had a negative experience or did not gain the support needed. Future versions of the chatbot should aim to be more complex and less one-size-fits-all, enabling them to be empathetic and adaptive without being therapeutic in unexpected situations. 2.6 Global Signal Exchange: combating online scams and fraud The Global Signal Exchange (GSE) is a new collaborative, industry-led project between the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), the DNS Research Federation (DNSRF) and Google (as first founding member).14 The GSE aims to become a global clearing house for online scams and fraudulent bad actor signals. Identification The core abuse types this project targets are scams and fraud. Scams have been increasing in volume and complexity.15 They are often carried out by transnational crime organizations; bad actors who operate at scale constantly adapt their methods and combine online and offline activity to lure people into their fraudulent schemes, making it difficult to track these and intervene effectively.16 The GSE is set up to be expanded to more abuse types, making it extremely fungible and adaptable to future focus areas. Combating scams is challenging because each organization and sector can only be aware of a small portion of the scam life cycle. In addition, bad actors innovate at a rapid pace, which is actually increasing with the adoption of AI, making traditional abuse fighting ever more challenging. Existing solutions and efforts have been either fragmented, segregated by geography, abuse type or sector, or very narrow in scope and reach, which together make it hard to connect them at a global level and responses less versatile when responding to new types of scams. Google’s experience shows that effectively combating scams and the criminal networks behind them requires robust collaboration among industry, businesses, civil society and governments to thwart bad actors and safeguard users. The GSE overcomes these challenges and limitations, allowing the exchange of bad actor signals globally in real time. Design The GSE was born out of the partnership between the GASA, the DNSRF and Google. It is designed to be global, cross-sectoral and multistakeholder – a concept that has not existed before. In order to be successful, it relies on broader adoption among key ecosystem players from various sectors including banking, telecommunications and law enforcement. The collaboration harnesses the strengths of each partner: –GASA’s extensive global network of members and stakeholders –The DNS Research Federation’s robust data platform with over 40 million signals –Google’s experience in combating scams and fraud, as well as it its AI capabilities and funding support for the GSE Combating scams is challenging because each organization and sector can only be aware of a small portion of the scam life cycle. The Intervention Journey: A Roadmap to Effective Digital Safety Measures 24