Kochi: In a major initiative, AI-powered investigative tools have been developed in the state to help identify victims of cyber exploitation and track down those behind such crimes. The tools were designed by a team of 30 young hackers during a hackathon organised as part of the cOcOn 2025, Kerala Police's cybersecurity conference.

Crimes such as the distribution of child sexual abuse material, extremist propaganda, drug trafficking, and illegal financial transactions often occur through platforms that conceal personal information, including the dark web and VPN-protected networks.

The newly developed system uses AI-driven crowdsourcing to assist investigative agencies in obtaining information about offenders and removing harmful content.

The crowdsourcing platform publishes evidence collected from uploaded illegal images, videos, or other criminal activity on a dedicated website, helping law enforcement agencies track offenders.

In addition, a hashtag-based content removal system has been developed to quickly curb the spread of abusive videos and images online. Uploaded harmful content is converted into encrypted digital hashtags, meaning the original video or image is not accessible to anyone, including investigative agencies. Authorities can then scan these hashtags to trace the source and remove the content.

The tools were created by hackers from Kerala and other Indian states, selected from over a thousand applicants. They are reported to be on par with international-level tools currently used for dark web investigations.