Children and vulnerable users are facing increasingly complex, transnational, and persistent online harms. These threats no longer fit traditional labels such as extremism, cybercrime, child exploitation, or online abuse. Resolver, an online risk consultancy, has produced a new public‑interest briefing exposes how decentralised online ecosystems exploit vulnerability to target children at scale online.
Children and vulnerable users are facing increasingly complex, transnational, and persistent online harms. These threats no longer fit traditional labels such as extremism, cybercrime, child exploitation, or online abuse. Instead, they emerge at the intersections where online cultures, cross‑platform behaviors, and multi‑layered vulnerabilities combine.
Resolver’s Critical Harm Intelligence Briefing: Weaponised Loneliness examines a decentralised online harm ecosystem often referred to as “the Com.” In this report, the term is used as a functional, though imperfect, descriptor for a loose constellation of online subcultures, behaviors and dynamics associated with multiple forms of harm. Activity linked to this ecosystem spans platforms, jurisdictions, online and offline environments.
Drawing on multiple years of global intelligence work, the briefing provides a systems-level perspective intended to support safety, policy and governance teams in recognising emerging patterns earlier and strengthening coordination across organisations and regulatory environments.