Reacción a "A study warns that more than 10 million children in Asia and Africa have been subjected to online sexual exploitation or abuse"

The study by Ghai and colleagues is one of the most comprehensive in terms of the prevalence of an increasingly common form of child sexual violence: technology-mediated sexual abuse. It also reports on two regions of the world traditionally excluded from research, thereby helping to provide science with more non-WEIRD data (the acronym used to define Western countries with high levels of literacy, access to technology, high incomes and democratic systems). It also anticipates potentially more distressing future data, as the widespread use of the internet by young people in these regions is not equally prevalent across all countries and, as it increases, the prevalence of the violence described may worsen. Finally, it is one of the first global studies on how to improve the prevention of child sexual abuse that is representative and data-driven. Many prevention studies are based on hypotheses about what might work to encourage victims to speak out: in this study, however, the specific factors that motivate reporting—or not—are analysed. This is highly useful as it can guide data-driven public policy.

On the design

One of the greatest strengths of this article is its use of a broad definition of sexual abuse committed against children using technology. As the authors indicate, they followed the so-called ‘Luxembourg Guide’ to construct their survey, which is a real success, because the shortcoming often found in other studies of this type is that they focus solely on asking about one form of crime (for example, online grooming) and do not account for other forms in their surveys that also constitute violence, such as receiving unwanted sexual images or sexual blackmail. This is highly relevant because in criminology there is what is known as the ‘perceptual gap’ in victimisation surveys. This arises because participants do not know which specific behaviours the term they are being asked about refers to, and so real information about the prevalence of the phenomenon may be lost, whereas if, as in this study, the behaviours considered to be sexual violence are explicitly detailed, respondents understand them and data more faithful to reality is obtained, whilst, incidentally, educating people on which behaviours are criminal and should not be permitted.

In this regard, I do consider it a shortcoming of the study that it did not cross-reference information on the prevalence of different forms of violence or the failure to report them when one has been a victim with a legal variable—that is, with whether those forms of violence are considered crimes or not in the countries covered by the study. This data exists and the authors are well aware of it because it was published in 2022 by the same Disrupting Harm project to which this large-scale survey belongs (this and this). According to that previous report, in several countries covered by the study, the types of behaviour asked about are not criminalised, that is to say, they do not appear as offences in their criminal legislation, and furthermore, not all countries define those under the age of 18 as ‘children’. This circumstance could explain why the young people surveyed did not always regard having been victims of these forms of violence as serious, because they do not identify them as violence, or because they did not know where to turn.

On prevention and the media

Indeed, one of the main conclusions is that young people do not report the crime because “they do not know where to turn”. This finding is highly significant because, at least as of 2022, and again according to the previously mentioned report, public support channels existed in all the countries covered by the study. This suggests that the mere existence of a support service does not mean that the public is aware of it or uses it. In Spain, for example, we have several helplines aimed at children and addressing violence, such as 116111 or 900 202010, but these may not be as widely publicised as 016 for victims of gender-based violence. The role the media can play in this regard is invaluable, by accompanying their reports on this type of research with details of the support resources available.

On the timing of the study and the role of families

The study was conducted post-pandemic, which may have increased the number of cases identified, as greater internet use during that period is known to have led to a surge in cases of online abuse across all countries. Nevertheless, the prevalence and profile identified are consistent with other international studies: both boys and girls are susceptible to becoming victims, and perpetrators target the virtual spaces frequented by minors, such as gaming platforms. As the authors point out, this should make parents realise that, just as they warn of the dangers that may lurk on the streets when their teenager starts going out, they must also warn of the dangers of the virtual world—a world that, moreover, forms a central part of their daily lives—and how to deal with them. Families who talk openly, respecting their teenager’s sexual curiosity and offering support, are the ones who best help their sons and daughters to prevent online sexual violence.