by Over 300 million children a year are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse, according to research.
In the first global estimate of the scale of the crisis, researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that one in eight, or 12.6%, of the world’s children were victims of non-consensual speech, sharing and exposure to sexual images and videos. in the past year, which amounted to approximately 302 million young people.
In addition, it is estimated that 12.5% of children worldwide (300 million) have been subjected to online solicitation in the past year, such as unwanted sexual speech that may lead to involuntary sex, unwanted sexual questions and requests for action unwanted sex from other adults or young people.
Offenses can also take the form of “sex stories”, where predators demand money from victims to keep images private, to abuse fake AI technology.
Although problems exist in all parts of the world, the research indicates that the United States is a high-risk area.
The university’s Childlight initiative – which aims to understand the prevalence of child abuse – includes a new global index, Into The Light, which found one in nine men in the US (almost 14 million) have admitted to online offending in children’s face at some point.
Surveys found that 7% of British men, or 1.8 million, admitted the same thing, as did 7.5% of men in Australia.
The research also found that many men admitted that they would try to commit physical sexual offenses against children if they thought it would be kept a secret.
Paul Stanfield, chief executive of Childlight, said: “This is on a massive scale equivalent in the UK alone to creating a line of male offenders that could stretch all the way from Glasgow to London – or fill Wembley Stadium 20 times over.
“The subject of child abuse is so common that files are reported to watchdog and police organizations on average once every second.
“This is a global health pandemic that has been hidden for far too long. It happens in every country, it is growing exponentially, and it demands a global response.
“We need to act urgently and treat it as a preventable public health issue. Children cannot wait”.
Debi Fry, professor of international child protection at the university, said the issue affects children “in every classroom, in every school, in every country”.
She added: “These are not harmless images, they are very damaging, and the abuse continues with every attitude and failure to reduce this offensive content.”
Stephen Kavanagh, executive director of Interpol, 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 need to do much more together at a global level, including specialist training of investigators, better data sharing and equipment to effectively fight this pandemic and the harm it is causing to millions of young people across the world The world.”
Frida, whose name has been changed, is a survivor of online child sexual abuse and exploitation who was targeted by a man in his 30s via social media from the ages of 13 to 18.
She said: “It was an extremely isolated operation. I felt ashamed and that I had done something wrong.
“The Childlight figures show that not only am I not the only one in my own experience, but more and more children are suffering from horrific abuse and exploitation online every day.
“Currently our understanding of abuse is often limited to the technology platforms that are willing to share, rather than the reality of online exploitation.
“To understand and prevent harm we need to see ambitious regulation to hold these platforms accountable and to see regulators able to work with the millions affected by this harm year after year”.
Grace Tame, another survivor, heads the Grace Tame Foundation which works to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse.
She said: “Child sexual abuse is a global public health crisis that is steadily worsening due to advancing technologies that enable the instant production and unlimited distribution of child exploitative material, as well as uncontrolled access to children online.
“A central global research database is essential to protect children. Child sex offenders often weaponize narrative and information to incite, convict and evade justice.
“Childlight will limit their power by giving power back to the rest of the community.”
Scottish Minister for Children and Young People Natalie Don said: “Protecting children and young people from sexual abuse and exploitation is vital for the Scottish Government and we are working closely with key partners to ensure our and greatly improve our response to these. issues.
“These are global problems that require global solutions and I welcome the much-needed work at Childlight to harness global data to help develop tangible action to protect children.”
