The fight against child exploitation is evolving rapidly, and financial transactions are increasingly at the centre of these crimes. In our last INHOPE Expert Insights webinar of the season, Henry Adams from Resolver Trust & Safety, alongside Megan Gonzales and Sally Frank from Block Inc., explored the growing role of financial intelligence as a critical tool in protecting children online.

The Ecosystem Shift

The child online safety field is undergoing a gradual shift. With the increasing commercialisation of this crime and the growing prominence of financially motivated child sexual abuse and exploitation, the involvement of financial service providers and institutions is more critical than ever. What was once primarily image-for-image trading is slowly evolving into increasingly organised, financially driven abuse.

“While we know that the volume of CSAM trading, grooming or other related harms that are transacted for financial reasons remains a relatively small proportion of the overall child safety and CSAM challenge, it is nonetheless a growing and incredibly pernicious challenge.”– Henry Adams, Director at Resolver Trust & Safety

Sally Frank, Block's Anti-Human Exploitation Programme Manager, pointed to this relatively recent shift as one of the reasons for the major knowledge and information gaps that still exist across sectors working to combat commercialised crimes against children. This fragmentation of intelligence across platforms and sectors represents both the core challenge and the greatest opportunity for disrupting financially motivated child exploitation.

A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Detection

As financially motivated abuse continues to evolve, financial services providesr are increasingly developing targeted strategies to detect and disrupt it. Block Inc. – a technology company building tools to increase access to the global economy – is taking a particularly proactive, multi-layered approach. Its brands include Square, Cash App, Afterpay, TIDAL, and bitcoin-focused products Bitkey and Proto. Megan Gonzales, Global Head of Financial Crimes at Block, explained how financial intelligence is integrated across their platforms to identify and prevent harm.

“Financial intelligence essentially is the information that we can leverage when it comes to trying to detect this type of activity... it has to be multi-dimensional in order to address the risks that are associated with CSAM, both on and off the platform.” - Megan Gonzales, Global Head of Financial Crimes at Block.

Their system combines upfront product controls, real-time machine learning evaluations, and post-transaction monitoring, all supported by teams who continuously adapt to emerging threat patterns. It is a sophisticated blend of technology and human expertise. Machine learning models analyse transactions, logins, and activity patterns, while investigators piece together the human story behind the data. The approach goes well beyond traditional compliance requirements, with dedicated monitoring specifically targeting high-risk typologies associated with child exploitation, including child sex trafficking and CSAM distribution.

“Every success, every disrupted network, every prevented transaction means that real people are protected, and I am very passionate about those efforts.” – Megan Gonzales, Global Head of Financial Crimes at Block.

As bad actors evolve to evade detection, Block's team stays agile, building new detection capabilities and adjusting their strategy to counter emerging threats. This includes addressing how offenders are incorporating CSAM into broader scamming business models, essentially using child exploitation as another element in their criminal enterprises.

The Translation Challenge

Despite powerful tools developed by financial institutions like Block, a significant gap remains between their work and traditional child protection approaches. Sally Frank, who previously spent a decade working in image-based child safety before joining the financial sector, brings a unique perspective on this divide.

“Financial institutions and child safety are, I think, running in the same direction but not always communicating in the same language.”– Sally Frank, Anti-Human Exploitation Programme Manager at Block

This communication barrier creates practical challenges that go beyond simple terminology differences. When Block reports suspicious financial activity, law enforcement often struggles to understand how transaction data can serve as actionable evidence. The sophisticated machine learning models that power these detections - comparable to platforms that detect grooming language - are frequently dismissed as inadequate.

“You made a guess that it's a CSAM transaction. A guess is not enough to help me in my investigation,” is a common response. This represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the underlying science, where transaction-based intelligence is often treated as speculation rather than the product of sophisticated analytical models.

Critical System Gaps

These missing links complicate cooperation. Many law enforcement agencies lack direct access to financial intelligence databases, hindering investigations. Even when access exists, training gaps mean officers tend to prefer image-based evidence over financial data.

The exception, Sally noted, seem to be investigators working on child trafficking cases - who tend to understand financial evidence better due to greater experience and training. This suggests a valuable opportunity to transfer that knowledge to the broader child protection field.

“As this crime becomes more financially motivated, are we training law enforcement how to access financial intelligence? Are we training law enforcement how to action it and how to follow it?”– Sally Frank, Anti-Human Exploitation Programme Manager at Block

Addressing these gaps requires better knowledge sharing and structured collaboration - not just between sectors, but also across organisations within the same field.

Sharing Signals & Intelligence

Leading by example, Block has become one of the first financial institutions to join Project Lantern, an initiative by the Tech Coalition that allows companies to securely share signals and data about accounts or activities linked to CSAM violations. Since joining in August 2024, this private-to-private sharing has helped Block uncover threats they might otherwise miss, providing important context that strengthens detection and prevention efforts.

“These collaborations are critical to us continuing to understand how people are changing their behaviours and allowing us to adjust our internal controls in line with that.” – Megan Gonzales, Global Head of Financial Crimes at Block.

Henry Adams echoed this sentiment, emphasising how formal structures like Lantern complement existing efforts. At Resolver Trust & Safety, analysts regularly share alerts directly with impacted platforms as part of their daily operations, and structured programmes like Lantern build on this foundation to improve the consistency and speed of information flow. This leads to stronger law enforcement referrals and more effective disruption of exploitation networks.

Toward a Unified Ecosystem

As financially motivated abuse continues to grow, financial intelligence must no longer be seen as a niche focus but as a vital component of the broader child protection landscape. It offers a unique lens into offender behaviour, one that complements image-based evidence and deepens our understanding of how exploitation is facilitated and monetised.

Meaningful progress will require closer collaboration across sectors, improved translation of intelligence into action, and alignment on regulatory and investigative standards. When financial institutions, child safety experts, law enforcement, and tech providers work together, they can paint a fuller picture of offending networks and intervene sooner.


This was the last webinar of the Expert Insights Webinar Series 2025. Want to continue the conversation? Join us at the upcoming INHOPE Summit 2025, where we will explore how cross-sector collaboration is essential to disrupt evolving digital crime networks. All relevant stakeholders are invited to join the discussion.