Over 300 Million Children Are Victims Of Online Sexual Exploitation

  • ONE IN EIGHT CHILDREN FACE HARM, WORLD’S FIRST GLOBAL ESTIMATE FINDS
  • SOUTH ASIA HAS MOST CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE MATERIAL REPORTS
  • ONE CASE AROUND THE WORLD REPORTED EVERY SECOND
  • INTERPOL WARNS OF “CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER” TO CHILDREN
  • SURVIVORS DEMAND ACTION ON “GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY”

LONDON, May 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Over 300 million children are victims of online sexual abuse and exploitation annually, with South Asia triggering the highest number of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) alerts. These findings come from the first global estimate of the crisis by university researchers.

With files containing sexual images of children reported every second worldwide, researchers highlighted that pupils “in every classroom, in every school, in every country” are affected by this “hidden pandemic.”

This data appears in a ground breaking report by the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

It indicates that 12.6% of the world’s children, about 302 million, have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past year. Additionally, 12.5% of children globally have been subjected to online solicitation, such as unwanted sexual talk, non-consensual sexting and unwanted sexual act requests by adults or other youths. Offences include “sextortion” and abuse of AI deepfake technology.

One child grooming survivor emphasised the need for stronger regulation to hold social media platforms accountable, especially as end-to-end encryption makes detecting offenders more difficult.

Childlight’s global index, Into the Light, found South Asia accounts for about one-third of all alerts by online watchdogs for CSAM hosting or uploading, followed by East Asia and Pacific, which account for one-fifth of reports. However, these regions also hold 54% of the world’s population.

Standardising findings by population size, North America and Western Europe are in the top three regions for the highest CSAM rate, following the Middle East and North Africa.

Studies in East Asia and Pacific, including Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines, found past year prevalence for online sexual solicitation of children to be 13%. However, data for South Asia is sparse, with researchers calling for urgent efforts to fill this gap.

New data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) revealed 8.9 million alerts for CSAM in India last year, with 2.5 million for Bangladesh and 1.9 million for Pakistan.

Childlight CEO Paul Stanfield said: “This is a global health pandemic that has remained hidden for far too long. It occurs in every country and is growing exponentially. We need to act urgently and treat it as a public health issue that can be prevented. Children can’t wait.”

Debi Fry, professor of international child protection research at the University of Edinburgh, said: “The world needs to know these atrocities are affecting children in every classroom, in every school, in every country. These aren’t harmless images: they are deeply damaging, and the abuse continues with every view and the failure of taking down this abusive content.”

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.”

Frida*, a survivor of online child sexual abuse, said: “It was a deeply isolating experience. I felt ashamed, and that I had done something wrong. Childlight’s figures show that not only am I not alone in my experiences, but that more and more children are experiencing horrific abuse and exploitation online each day. We need ambitious regulation to hold tech platforms to account.”

Grace Tame, another survivor who leads the Grace Tame Foundation, said: “Child sexual abuse is a global public health crisis that is steadily worsening thanks to advancing technologies. A centralised global research database is essential to safeguarding children.”

Based on original research and analysis of 125 studies and over 36 million reports to five main watchdog and policing organisations, the report found:

  • The Middle East and North Africa region receives most alerts about CSAM per head of population (9 reports per 1,000 people).
  • One in four children (25.5%) in Eastern and Southern Africa report experiencing online solicitation at some point, with 20.4% experiencing it in the past year.
  • Eastern Europe and Central Asia report high prevalence of non-consensual sharing and exposure to sexual images and videos (20.2%), second only to North America (23%).

If you or someone you know needs support for child sexual exploitation and abuse, or if you’re concerned that you might hurt a child, please visit Child Helpline International or brave movement or Stop it now

A copy of the 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

*Name changed to protect identity


Contact: Jason Allardyce Jason.allardyce@ed.ac.uk


Over 300 Million Children Are Victims Of Online Sexual Exploitation

THỦ THUẬT HAY

Hướng dẫn tải phim Netflix xuống máy Mac bạn nên thử ngay

Truyền trực tuyến nội dung trên Netflix khá đơn giản trên máy Mac. Nhưng để tải phim trên Netflix xuống máy Mac thì không được hỗ trợ, nếu bạn vẫn muốn thực hiện thì dưới đây là cách thực hiện.

Cách cài đặt và gỡ bỏ phần mềm trên MacBook

Cài đặt và gỡ bỏ phần mềm khá là đơn giản đối với những người đã sử dụng MacBook lâu năm. Tuy nhiên, nếu đối với người dùng mới thì điều này khá bỡ ngỡ. Đừng lo lắng gì cả, bài viết này sẽ giúp bạn có thể làm được điều

7 hàm Excel cơ bản ai cũng nên biết

Microsoft Excel là một phần mềm bảng tính với bộ công cụ toán học, phân tích và trực quan mạnh mẽ. Được giới thiệu từ năm 1987, phần mềm hiện cung cấp hơn 500 chức năng có thể đáp ứng hầu hết mọi nhu cầu toán học hoặc

Cách tạo ký tự đặc biệt trong game và ứng dụng

Ký tự đặc biệt là những ký tự không phải là chữ cái thông thường (a-z, A-Z) hoặc số (0-9).

Windows Subsystem cho Linux chuẩn bị xuất hiện trên Windows Server

Mới đây, Microsoft đã thông báo rằng Windows Subsystem cho Linux (WSL) chuẩn bị xuất hiện trên Windows Server.. Microsoft thêm tính năng này vào Windows Server bởi những lí do tương tự như khi thêm vào Windows: Hãng

ĐÁNH GIÁ NHANH

Đánh giá Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace 2019: Tốt hơn mẫu tiền nhiệm về mọi mặt

“Xe Đức” là dòng xe mà rất nhiều người Việt mơ ước sở hữu. Đã từ lâu, những mẫu xe đến từ Đức được gắn mác sang trọng, đẳng cấp và thời thượng tại đất nước Việt Nam. Cũng đúng thôi,

Đánh giá chi tiết Galaxy A9 Pro: Thiết kế sang trọng, hiệu năng mạnh mẽ, pin “trâu”

Galaxy A9 Pro, chiếc điện thoại cao cấp nhất của dòng Galaxy A 2016, sở hữu thiết kế sang trọng từ chất liệu kính và kim loại, đi kèm bộ vi xử lý mạnh mẽ, pin 5.000 mAh