Colombia, Among Countries Where One in Five Minors Suffers Online Sexual Abuse

UNICEF has just published the report “Through Children’s Eyes: How Digital Technologies Enable Child Sexual Abuse,” which estimates that 20 million children between the ages of 12 and 17 (almost one in five) suffered at least one form of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse in a single year across 21 countries around the world.

The document combines the testimonies of minors with one of the largest available survey datasets on this issue, to warn about a widespread trend of child sexual abuse and exploitation, both online and offline, facilitated by technology.

According to UNICEF, the report brings together evidence obtained in two rounds of the Disrupting Harm research project, carried out in 21 countries. The first round, whose data were collected mainly between 2020 and 2021, covered Cambodia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mozambique, Namibia, the Philippines, the United Republic of Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda and Vietnam.

In the second round, corresponding to the 2024-2025 period, the research was expanded to Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Pakistan and Serbia.

The true scale of the problem could be much greater

The report estimates that more than 15 million children were exposed to unwanted sexual content, nine million received requests to engage in sexual conversations or share sexual images against their will, and four million were victims of the dissemination of sexual images of themselves without their consent.

But what is even more serious is that, according to UNICEF, the true scale of the problem is likely to be much greater due to the high number of cases that children do not report.

“The report highlights a painful reality. More than 20 million children in the countries studied were exposed to unwanted explicit sexual content or experienced online exploitation, often in the same digital spaces where they learn, play and interact with their friends,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director, quoted in a statement from the UN agency.

“These experiences cause profound emotional distress and mental anguish. Many boys and girls suffer in silence, without knowing where to turn for help. We cannot look the other way,” she added.

According to the results, nearly 60% of the cases occurred on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp, and 14% in online games.

The report notes that the features, functions and design of these platforms were used to take advantage of children’s trust. In Montenegro, more than 80% of reported cases were related to social media platforms, while in Colombia these platforms were linked to more than half of the cases.

Profound repercussions on children’s emotional well-being

In the countries surveyed, 57% of cases involved a person whom the minor already knew, such as other children, romantic partners, friends or relatives, challenging the idea that online abuse is mainly committed by strangers.

At the same time, 38% of children first came into contact with the perpetrator online, and the evidence shows how abuse is facilitated, for example, through fake accounts and private messaging features.

Technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse can have profound repercussions on children’s emotional well-being, their sense of security and their trust in others.

The experiences described by children in interviews conducted during the research were often marked by fear, shame, confusion and isolation, and many of them struggled to understand what had happened or to know where to seek help.

“I did not know how to react… I was left somewhat shocked,” said a young woman from the Dominican Republic, after private images of her were disseminated without her consent when she was 14. Another participant in the research, reflecting on a similar experience, said she felt “like the most used person, the dirtiest, the worst of all.”

According to the analysis, children who experienced technology-facilitated exploitation were four times more likely to report suicidal thoughts or behaviors and self-harm, and had considerably higher levels of anxiety.

For example, in Mexico or North Macedonia, the risk of having suicidal thoughts or behaviors was more than eight times higher among children who had experienced abuse, while in Pakistan the risk of self-harm was more than seven times higher.

More than 40% of cases of technology-facilitated abuse were never disclosed to anyone, while less than 1% were reported to authorities such as the police, social workers or through helplines.

Urgent action is needed

Globally, the most common reason children remained silent was that they did not know where to turn or whom to tell. In some of the countries surveyed, the proportion of cases that were not disclosed was even higher, as in Armenia, where more than half of the cases were never disclosed to anyone.

The findings highlight the urgent need for governments, technology companies and other stakeholders to take measures to better protect children in the digital age. The report calls for urgent action to:

· Make digital platforms safer by design, strengthening children’s privacy protections, restricting unsolicited contact from adults, improving the safety of recommendation systems and strengthening the detection and reporting of abuse.

· Strengthen legislation, regulation and accountability, ensuring that governments have the tools and enforcement measures necessary to address new forms of abuse, including sexual extortion and AI-generated material depicting sexual abuse.

· Create reporting and support systems that children can trust, including investment in child protection, health, justice and social services.

· Prevent responsibility for self-protection from falling on minors, and ensure that families, schools and communities provide support when they tell them what happened, and help them seek assistance safely.

· Reduce the economic vulnerabilities exploited by perpetrators through greater support for families and expanded educational and employment opportunities for children and young people.

· Address social and gender norms that normalize the sexualization of girls and stigmatize survivors of sexual violence.

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