Hey Baby You Up? A Solution To Early Online Sexual Predator Detection

Name: Haley Bloom
Major: Computer Science 
Minor: Data Science
Advisor: Thomas Montelione; Heather Guarnera (second reader)

Humanity is in an age of technology where children have grown up with iPads, computers, and cell phones as part of their daily life. With the increased technology and communication, online grooming is a significant risk. Online grooming is when an adult instigates and escalates an emotional and often sexual relationship with a minor. Previous works have investigated methods to catch such predators, but often these solutions detect predators after the grooming process has begun. In this work, the sexual predator detection problem is examined to identify predators early in the grooming process. This work utilizes the preexisting early sexual predator detection (eSPD) framework by Vogt et al., where the goal is to catch a predator as early and accurately as possible, along with the BigBird model to complete that goal. This work matches the current state-of-the-art results with an F₁ score of 0.89 or 89 percent.

Posted in Comments Enabled, Independent Study, Symposium 2023 on April 13, 2023.

One response to “Hey Baby You Up? A Solution To Early Online Sexual Predator Detection”

1. Lily Barnett says:

   April 21, 2023 at 3:29 pm

   Your topic is incredibly relevant and well presented. I am continually stunned by your creativity and hard work, both of which shine through your presentation. I cannot wait to see all of the incredible things you will accomplish following graduation. So proud of you!!