JAKARTA - Recent research reveals that more than 300 million children are victims of online sexual exploitation and harassment every year. In the first global estimate of the scale of this crisis, researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that one in eight children in the world, or 12.6 percent, had been victims of conversations, sharing, and exposure to images and sexually unapproved videos in the past year, totaling around 302 million young people.
In addition, 12.5 percent of children worldwide (300 million) are thought to have experienced unwanted online sexual requests, such as unwanted sexual conversations that could include sexting without consent, unwanted sexual questions, and requests for sexual acts by adults or fellow teenagers.
This violation can also be in the form of'sextortion', where predators demand money from victims to keep images private, to misuse of deepfake AI technology. Even though this problem exists around the world, research shows the United States is a very high-risk region.
The University's Childlight initiative 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 (nearly 14 million) admitting to online abuses against children at a time.
The survey found seven percent of men in the UK, or 1.8 million, admitting the same thing, as did 7.5 percent of men in Australia.
Research also found many men admitting they would try to sexually abuse children if they believed it would be kept secret.
"The scale is very surprising, in England alone the number of male perpetrators can form ranks that stretch from Glasgow to London or fill Wembley Stadium 20 times. Child abuse material is so widespread that files are reported to supervisory organizations and the police on average once every second," said Childlight CEO Paul Stanfield.
"This is a global health pandemic that has been hidden for too long. It happens in every country, develops exponentially, and requires a global response. We need to act immediately and consider it a preventable public health problem. Children cannot wait," he said.
Professor of International Child Protection, Debi Fry, at the university said the issue affects children 'in every class, in every school, in every country'.
"This is not a harmless image, it is very damaging, and harassment continues with every view and failure to remove this harassment content," Fry said.
"Eksploitation and online harassment are real and current dangers for children around the world, and traditional law enforcement approaches have difficulty following developments," said Interpol Executive Director Stephen Kavanagh.
"We have to do more together at the global level, including specialized investigative training, better data sharing, and equipment to combat this pandemic and the losses it causes in millions of young lives around the world," he said.
Frida, whose name has been changed, is an online child abuse and sexual exploitation survivor who has been targeted through social media from the age of 13 to 18 by a man in his 30s.
"This is a very isolated experience. I feel ashamed and feel I have done something wrong. Childlight numbers show that I'm not alone in my experience, but more and more children are being abused and exploited online every day," Frida said, a pseudonym.
"Our current understanding of harassment is often limited to what technology platforms are willing to share, not the reality of being exploited online," he said.
"To understand and prevent losses, we need to look at ambitious regulations to hold this platform accountable and see regulators equipped to work with millions of people affected by this danger year after year," he added.
Grace Tame, another survivor, leads the Grace Tame Foundation which works to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse.
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"Child sexual harassment is a global public health crisis that is getting worse thanks to increasingly advanced technology that allows for instant production and distribution without limits on child exploitation materials, as well as unregulated access to children online," said Tame.
"Bases of centralized global research data are essential for protecting children. Narratives and knowledge are often used by perpetrators of child sexual abuse to trick, commit violations, and avoid justice. Childlight will limit their ability by restoring power to other communities," he said.
"Protecting children and adolescents from sexual harassment and exploitation is very important for the Scottish Government and we are working with key partners to increase our knowledge and response to this very concerning issue," said Scottish Child and Youth Minister Natalie Don.
"This is a global problem that requires a global solution and I welcome Childlight's important work of utilizing data around the world to help develop concrete actions to protect children," he explained.
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