What emerging risks mean for platforms, and how to respond

Online platforms are entering a period of rapid change. AI-generated content is scaling faster than existing safeguards. Youth safety expectations are hardening. Fraud and synthetic deception are becoming harder to spot and more damaging when they succeed.

For platform leaders, Trust & Safety is a core strategic capability that cultivates the trust of your users, shapes regulatory exposure, and guides long-term platform resilience.

Our latest ebook brings together perspectives from Webpurify, an IntouchCX company, along with Trust & Safety leadership and senior industry experts to examine the shifts that will define the year ahead and what platforms need to do now to prepare.

Across six in-depth chapters, the report explores:

• How accelerating youth restrictions are forcing platforms to rethink access, design, and accountability.
  
• Why AI companion apps introduce a fundamentally different category of safety risk.
  
• What the rise of synthetic and manipulated content means for authenticity and enforcement decisions.
  
• Why automation alone won’t replace human judgement in moderation workflows.
  
• How non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) prevention is moving from best practice to expectation.
  
• Why AI literacy and public awareness are becoming essential to managing digital harm at scale.

The message becomes clear that those platforms that treat Trust & Safety as core infrastructure, rather than as a bolt-on, will be better positioned to protect their users, maintain trust, and navigate increasing regulatory scrutiny.

Contributors include:

Webpurify, an IntouchCX company, Trust & Safety leadership—Ailís Daly, Head of Trust & Safety for EMEA, and Alexandra Popken, SVP of Trust & Safety and AI Services—alongside insights from industry practitioners and advisors:

• Anna MacCarthy Adams, Senior Director of Case Review, Appeals Centre Europe.
  
• AJ Brown, Founder, Brand Safety Institute.
  
• Dr. Rachel Kowert, Research Psychologist, Psychgeist.
  
• Seyi Akiwowo, Founder and Author.
  
• Sarra Eddahiri, Global Head of Safety, Bolt.
  
• Emily Harman, Trust & Safety Advisor and former industry lead.

“If 2026 is going to be the year of AI everywhere, it also has to be the year we help people understand how that technology is being used and misused.” – Ailís Daly, Head of Trust & Safety, EMEA, WebPurify

What you’ll take away:

• Why prevention is becoming the defining Trust & Safety strategy.
  
• How AI changes both the scale and nature of platform risk.
  
• Where regulatory expectations are converging globally.
  
• Why trust, safety, and user experience are increasingly inseparable.
  
• What leading platforms are rethinking now to stay ahead of harm.