Researchers at Purdue Polytechnic Institute have developed a tool to identify potential sex offenders in online chat rooms.
The “Chat Analysis Triage Tool” (CATT) particularly recognizes those who most likely want to have personal meetings with children.
Word usage in the check
CATT allows operators to analyze large volumes of chat conversations, using algorithms to examine suspects' word usage and conversation patterns. The underlying data comes from real chat conversations that US law enforcement authorities voluntarily made available to the researchers.
“We tried to identify language-based differences and factors such as self-disclosure. If we can detect language differences, the tool can identify these differences in the chats to provide a risk assessment and a probability that this person will attempt to contact the potential victim in person,” explains teaching assistant Kathryn Seigfried-Spellar.
Trust through compassion
According to the experts, self-disclosure usually occurs when suspects try to create a basis of trust with other users by sharing a personal story, which is usually negative - such as abuse by parents. By specifically generating compassion, a personal basis with other users could be quickly created. Until now, this risk factor could often only be identified by chat moderators reading along.
The algorithms working in CATT only examine the conversation factors in the chat and do not take into account the gender of a suspect or victim at this time.
“Conversation analysis also provides the basis for future law enforcement tools,” said Seigfried-Spellar.
According to the researchers, the tool will soon be able to accurately detect whether a chat partner is only pretending to be a minor. This is possible by analyzing emojis, language and abbreviations used.
Source: pte
If you enjoyed this post and value the importance of well-founded information, become part of the exclusive Mimikama Club! Support our work and help us promote awareness and combat misinformation. As a club member you receive:
📬 Special Weekly Newsletter: Get exclusive content straight to your inbox.
🎥 Exclusive video* “Fact Checker Basic Course”: Learn from Andre Wolf how to recognize and combat misinformation.
📅 Early access to in-depth articles and fact checks: always be one step ahead.
📄 Bonus articles, just for you: Discover content you won't find anywhere else.
📝 Participation in webinars and workshops : Join us live or watch the recordings.
✔️ Quality exchange: Discuss safely in our comment function without trolls and bots.
Join us and become part of a community that stands for truth and clarity. Together we can make the world a little better!
* In this special course, Andre Wolf will teach you how to recognize and effectively combat misinformation. After completing the video, you have the opportunity to join our research team and actively participate in the education - an opportunity that is exclusively reserved for our club members!
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

