Why this matters
Online child sexual exploitation and abuse is increasingly enabled by cross-border financial networks and digital payment infrastructure. Threats such as financial sextortion, the sale and commercial distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and other forms of monetized abuse often span platforms, services, jurisdictions, and industries. As offenders continue to exploit the interconnected nature of the digital ecosystem, stronger collaboration between the technology and financial sectors is essential to disrupting this activity and protecting children online.
Financial institutions from any jurisdiction can now be considered for participation in Lantern—our cross-platform signal-sharing program designed to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA). Previously, financial sector participation had been limited to US-based companies.
This expansion builds on the success of Lantern’s initial financial pilot, which involved Block, MEGA, Meta, PayPal, Snap, and Western Union. The pilot demonstrated the value of cross-sector signal-sharing in supporting efforts to detect and disrupt financially motivated child exploitation activity.
How Lantern works
Lantern supports participating technology companies to securely share signals related to violating activity, helping other participating companies identify and take action against offenders who attempt to move across platforms and services. These signals can include information such as usernames, payment identifiers, URLs, or other indicators associated with confirmed abusive activity, enabling companies to investigate potential violations of their own policies and terms of service.
As part of this expansion, qualifying financial institutions will participate in Lantern on a receive-only basis, meaning they can ingest relevant signals shared by participating tech companies but will not contribute signals into the system.
By expanding Lantern eligibility internationally, the Tech Coalition aims to strengthen coordinated efforts to detect and prevent the misuse of financial services connected to OCSEA globally.
A measured approach to expansion
We are taking a measured and risk-based approach to this expansion. Each institution will be evaluated individually to ensure it can lawfully receive signals and comply with Lantern participation requirements. We are also continuing to assess operational considerations across different types of financial institutions, including banks, payment providers, and crypto platforms, as well as the relevance of Lantern signals to their specific use cases.
Next steps
In the near term, our focus will be on institutions that support peer-to-peer payments, which represent the clearest and most immediate use case for participation.
To arrange an exploratory meeting, contact our Lantern team.
