Nearly 20 million kids between 12 and 17, in just 21 countries, faced at least one form of sexual exploitation or abuse online in a single year. That’s what UNICEF found in a new report pushing for tougher rules on digital platforms.
They called the report “Through Children’s Eyes: How Digital Technologies Enable Child Sexual Abuse.” It relies on surveys of about 21,000 internet-using kids, done between 2020 and 2025, making it one of the broadest sets of evidence about how tech is being twisted to target children sexually.
Over one in five children said they’d experienced at least one kind of abuse or exploitation online in the past year. UNICEF believes the true worldwide number runs far higher, since their data covers only 21 countries.
The scale is staggering. More than 15 million children saw unwanted sexual content. Around nine million were pressured into sexual conversations or pushed to share sexual images. Four million had sexual images of themselves spread without their consent.
Social media platforms were behind almost 60% of incidents. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok led the list. Online games made up about 14% of cases—mostly tied to private messages, voice chats, and other features that let people connect directly.
In over half the cases, the abuser was someone the child already knew—a friend, relative, or romantic partner. Still, 38% of kids said they first met their abuser online, showing how digital platforms open the door to unknown predators.
Almost nobody reports it. Fewer than 1% told police, social workers, or helplines.
The impact goes deep. UNICEF found these experiences brought serious mental and emotional harm. Kids who went through tech-enabled sexual exploitation were about four times more likely to think about suicide or hurt themselves. Anxiety was much higher, too.
“These experiences cause profound emotional and mental distress. Many children suffer in silence, unsure where to turn for help,” said UNICEF leader Catherine Russell.
The risks are evolving fast—and getting worse. In the nine countries where data was available, about 1.1 million kids said people had created sexually explicit AI-generated images or videos of them. That kind of material fuels humiliation, blackmail, and more abuse.
UNICEF isn’t just sounding alarms—they’re calling for action. They want governments to toughen laws and regulation and tech companies to make child protection a basic part of apps and sites.
Here’s what they suggest:
– Platforms should use safety-focused design and better privacy for kids.
– Unsolicited contact between adults and children needs to be blocked.
– Recommendation algorithms shouldn’t steer kids toward harmful content or creeps looking for victims.
– Companies need stronger systems to find, report, and take down abuse.
– Regulators deserve more power to investigate and enforce.
– Criminal laws should cover online grooming, sexual extortion, and AI-generated sexual images of kids.
– There should be easy ways for survivors to report incidents and get help.
UNICEF also wants governments to treat AI-generated sexualized images of children as child sexual abuse material—making it illegal to create, have, or share them.
This report lands right as countries everywhere are asking how much responsibility tech companies should bear for child safety. More and more, laws are forcing companies to check risks, use age checks, report illegal content, and design platforms that actually protect kids.
That’s not enough, though. UNICEF stresses the need to challenge society’s attitudes—like tolerating the sexualization of girls or shaming survivors. Legal change alone won’t fix this.
At the core, UNICEF’s message is simple: Children can’t manage these risks all by themselves. Governments, tech companies, and the rest of us need to step up, respond quickly when things go wrong, and make sure kids get confidential support if they’re harmed.
