Over 300 Million Children are Victims of Online Sexual Exploitation
May 27 2024 - 9:00AM
More than 300 million children are victims of online sexual
exploitation and abuse annually, according to the first global
estimate of this crisis. With sexual images of minors reported
every second, authors said children worldwide are suffering from
this "hidden pandemic."
The report by Childlight Global Child
Safety Institute at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland,
indicates the United States is high-risk.
It estimates that 12.6% of the world’s
children have experienced past year non-consensual exposure to
sexual images and videos, affecting about 302 million young people.
Additionally, 12.5% of children globally have been subjected to
online solicitation, such as unwanted sexual talk and
non-consensual sexting.
Offences include "sextortion" and the
use of AI deepfake technology to create false sexual images.
Survivors of abuse say the findings highlight the need for stronger
regulation to hold social media platforms accountable, especially
as end-to-end encryption makes offenders harder to detect.
The report indicates the USA has
enough male offenders (14 million) to fill a Super Bowl stadium 200
times over, with one in nine men admitting to online sexual
offending against children. Surveys found 7% of men in the UK and
7.5% in Australia admit the same. North America and Western Europe
are hotspots, with 23% of children in the USA and 19.9% in Europe
experiencing past year non-consensual exposure to sexual images and
videos. Meanwhile, in the USA alone, over 1.1 million cases of
files containing sexual images of children were among 36 million
reported by US-based NCMEC last year.
Coco Lammers of US-based Childfund
International urged the USA to show leadership, as part of a
worldwide drive to improve online safety: “So many children of all
ages, nationalities, religions, and cultures suffer from sexual
exploitation and abuse. Childlight’s findings underline why we need
a global response to the problem.”
Grammy award-winning singer Gloria
Estefan, who survived childhood abuse, wants “concrete steps” at an
intergovernmental summit in Colombia in November. In a new message
for survivor group Brave Movement, she said: “As someone who
survived sexual abuse by my music teacher as a child, I know too
well the lifelong impact and deep challenges that experiencing
violence at a young age can impose from childhood into
adulthood.”
She added: “We need concrete steps to
safeguard our children and ensure their future. Let's commit to a
world where every child and adolescent is safe, supported, thriving
and loved.”
Childlight CEO Paul Stanfield called
for the “staggering” problem to be treated as a global health
emergency like COVID-19 and for tech companies to prioritise child
safety over offenders' privacy and corporate profit. “This is a
global health pandemic that has remained hidden for far too long.
It occurs in every country, is growing exponentially, and requires
a global response. We need to act urgently and treat it as a public
health issue that can be prevented,” he said.
Interpol’s executive director, Stephen
Kavanagh, said: “Online exploitation and abuse is a clear and
present danger to the world’s children, and traditional law
enforcement approaches are struggling to keep up. We must do much
more together at a global level.”
Welcoming the report, survivor and
activist Grace Tame, who leads the Grace Tame Foundation, said:
“Like countless child sexual abuse victim-survivors, my life was
completely upended by the lasting impacts of trauma, shame, public
humiliation, ignorance, and stigma. A centralised global research
database is essential to safeguarding children.”
Childlight's report, based on original
research and analysis of 125 studies and over 36 million reports to
main watchdog organisations, reveals:
- The Middle East and
North Africa have the highest Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)
alerts per capita.
- North America and
Western Europe also report high rates of CSAM.
- Eastern and Southern
Africa report the highest online solicitation rates, with
significant past-year experiences of online sexual extortion.
- Eastern Europe and
Central Asia have high rates of non-consensual exposure to sexual
images and videos, second only to North America.
If you or someone you know needs support for child
sexual exploitation and abuse, or if you’re concerned you might
hurt a child, please visit Child
Helpline International or brave movement or Stop
it now
Notes to editors
A copy of the full report, video clips, photos and an
infographic (all free to use) are available at this Dropbox link
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/0pty9kmxhe1w59d40kfvr/ANTWduJsRUje1lHKKu39_2c?rlkey=yo453zr3klnrangcspf6jc7ye&st=7tguck3i&dl=0
Contacts:
Jason Allardyce
Childlight Interim Head of Communications
Jason.allardyce@ed.ac.uk