Researchers use AI to make children safer online – Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics

One in three users of the internet is a minor. Virginia Tech researchers want to use artificial intelligence to help prevent a range of online abuses of this vulnerable population. Adobe Stock illustration.

A teenager sends some explicit pictures requested by a new online love interest, only to get a blackmail threat from someone in another country.

A tween goes to meet a teen girl who bought her jewelry online, but she’s greeted by a man she doesn’t know.

From the threat of “sextortion” to cybergrooming, children and teens face a growing range of online crimes, and three Virginia Tech researchers are working to make the digital world safer for them.

Under the auspices of a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, Jin-Hee Cho and collaborators Lifu Huang and Sang Won Lee in the Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science want to develop a technology-assisted education program to prevent online sexual abuse of children and teens.

Huang, assistant professor of computer science and core faculty at the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, will work on various aspects of the AI that powers the bots.

“I have a very strong interest and a strong belief in using AI techniques to solve social problems,” Huang said.

He will leverage his previous research in conversational AI, which uses Large Language Models to make the educational bots believable as humans interacting with one another.

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