La Jornada: In one year 20 million children suffered sexual abuse on the Internet

Geneva. Some 20 million children using the Internet in 21 countries were victims of sexual exploitation or abuse on digital platforms in just one year, with the majority of cases occurring on social media, a new report from the UN children’s charity has revealed.

More than one in five children between 12 and 17 years old in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe suffered at least one form of sexual abuse or exploitation on Internet platforms during the year prior to the survey, the Unicef ​​report estimates.

According to the information, approximately 15 million children in the countries studied were exposed to unwanted sexual content, 9 million were pressured into having sexual conversations or sharing sexual images, and 4 million saw sexual images of them being shared without their consent.

The number of boys and girls subjected to this type of abuse worldwide undoubtedly amounts to several tens of millions, according to the report.

The research, which Unicef ​​described as one of the largest studies of its type, was based on representative national surveys carried out between 2020 and 2025 among 21,000 child Internet users in 21 countries, including Kenya, Pakistan, Brazil and Serbia.

Focus on Facebook, Instagam and TikTok

Nearly 60 percent of the reported abuses occurred on social media platforms, primarily Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, while 14 percent took place in online games, according to the filing.

A spokesperson for Meta META.O, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said the surveys date back to 2020, before the company introduced protection measures recommended by Unicef, such as automatically setting private accounts for teenagers by default and preventing adults from sending messages to teenagers they are not connected to. He added that he defines WhatsApp as a private messaging application and not as a social network.

“Although the report does not provide any concrete evidence of abuse, we will continue to vigorously combat child exploitation in all our applications and support law enforcement in pursuing the criminals responsible,” said the Meta spokesperson.

Snapchat SNAP.N referred Reuters to a blog post by the platform’s global chief security officer, Jacqueline Beauchere, who said the company was actively combating online sexual extortion through proactive detection, account deletion, reporting tools for users and security features designed to protect vulnerable users.

TikTok noted that it has established a number of protection measures for minors, including restricting certain features for younger users, setting the accounts of those under 18 years old to private by default, and using technology to detect potentially predatory behavior.

Family and friends

The Unicef ​​report indicates that more than half of the cases involved someone the child already knew, such as friends, family or romantic partners, while 38 percent of infants met the aggressor for the first time on the Internet.

According to the research, less than 1 percent of cases involving minors were reported to the police, a social worker or a helpline.

The report also highlighted growing concerns about artificial intelligence. Across the nine countries where data was collected, an estimated 1.1 million boys and girls reported having created AI-generated sexual images or videos of themselves.

Children who experienced technology-facilitated sexual exploitation were approximately four times more likely to report suicidal thoughts or self-harm, and had significantly higher levels of anxiety than their peers, according to the research.

“These experiences cause deep emotional and mental distress. Many children suffer in silence, not knowing where to turn for help,” said Catherine Russell, executive director of Unicef, in a statement.

UNICEF urged governments and technology companies to strengthen security measures on digital platforms, update legislation to address changing forms of abuse – including AI-generated content – ​​and improve child protection and reporting systems.