Unicef: 20 million children sexually targeted online, social media hotspot for abuse

An alarming new Unicef report has exposed the staggering scale of online child sexual abuse, revealing that some 20 million children with internet access across 21 countries were subjected to sexual exploitation or abuse on digital platforms in a single year.

Most of the cases occurred on social media.

More than 20 percent of children aged between 12 and 17 in parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe reported experiencing some form of sexual abuse or unwanted sexual activity online, according to a Unicef estimate cited by Reuters.

Among those surveyed, about 15 million encountered unwanted sexual material, while around nine million were coerced into sexual conversations or asked to share sexual images.

A further four million children had sexual images of themselves distributed without their consent.

Unicef warned that the figures captured by the study represent only a fraction of the problem, with the worldwide number of children affected likely to reach tens of millions.

Social media, online gaming

Social media emerged as the main setting for online abuse, accounting for nearly 60 percent of reported cases.

Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok were identified as the platforms most frequently involved. Online gaming accounted for another 14 percent of cases.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, said the surveys covered data dating back to 2020, before the introduction of several safeguards recommended by Unicef.

These include making teen accounts private by default and restricting adults from contacting teenagers they have no connection with.

The spokesperson added that Meta defines WhatsApp as a private messaging app and not a social media platform.

“While the report doesn’t provide any specific evidence of abuse, we’ll continue to ‌fight child ⁠exploitation aggressively across our apps and support law enforcement in prosecuting the criminals behind it,” the spokesperson said.

Snapchat said it was taking a proactive approach to tackling sexual extortion online, directing Reuters to a blog post by its global head of platform safety, Jacqueline Beauchere.

Beauchere had said the platform uses measures including early detection systems, removing offending accounts, reporting mechanisms, and other safety tools aimed at shielding vulnerable users.

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TikTok, meanwhile, said it had introduced several measures specifically aimed at protecting children and teenagers.

These include limiting access to certain features for younger users, setting accounts belonging to under-18s to private by default and deploying technology to identify behaviour that could indicate predatory activity.

More than half of cases involve family

Meanwhile, the Unicef report found that the abuse was often perpetrated by people already known to the children, with more than half of the reported cases involving friends, family members or romantic partners.

In 38 percent of cases, however, the child first came into contact with the alleged perpetrator online.

Despite the scale of the problem, reporting remained extremely rare. The research found that fewer than one percent of cases were brought to the attention of police, social workers, or helplines.

Unicef also flagged the emergence of artificial intelligence as a growing threat. In nine countries covered by the study, about 1.1 million children said AI-generated sexual images or videos depicting them had been produced.

The consequences for affected children were severe, with those subjected to technology-facilitated sexual abuse about four times more likely to report suicidal thoughts or self-harm.

They also recorded substantially higher levels of anxiety compared with children who had not experienced such abuse.

“These experiences cause profound emotional and mental distress. Many children suffer in silence, unsure where to turn for help,” Unicef executive director Catherine Russell said.

Unicef urged governments and technology companies to strengthen safety measures on digital platforms, update laws to address evolving forms of abuse including AI-generated content, and improve child protection and reporting systems.

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