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

Children’s exposure to potential sexual abuse and exploitation has breached a protective barrier due to the use of the internet and the expanding access to online content by minors worldwide. The technology-mediated environment has proven to be highly vulnerable due to the anonymity afforded to perpetrators and their ability to access potential victims from miles away and within the privacy of their homes, creating a false sense of security. This is the central focus of this study, whose strengths lie in its inclusion of a very large sample of minors across many different countries.

The authors include relevant analyses that lead to some fundamental conclusions. It is worth noting that technologies enable abusive experiences for minors of which responsible adults are unaware. There is a significant difficulty in reporting these experiences, seeking help, and even detecting them, as there may be a tendency to downplay what happened or for victims to feel guilty for participating. It is particularly important to note that adolescents are the group most likely to experience this type of abuse and that there are no gender differences, making it a widespread experience accessible to any minor.

The most significant limitations relate to the potential for future research and the importance of continuing in this direction: the possibility of generalizing findings to other Western cultures and countries, and the inclusion of potential variables that may prevent or hinder such experiences, such as parental controls or minors’ access to technology. This is a study with significant implications, highlighting that there is a substantial hidden form of abuse—one that goes unreported and undetected, to which little importance is attached, yet which can cause significant developmental problems for minors worldwide.

The study is undoubtedly very interesting, both because of its scope and because it provides insights into child sexual abuse in a region where there is not as much evidence available as in other parts of the world.

The study by Sakshi Ghai and colleagues provides empirical evidence of great interest for understanding technology-facilitated child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSEA), as it presents robust data on the prevalence of this phenomenon across a wide range of countries in Southeast Asia and Africa. In this regard, the study is doubly significant, as it not only sheds light on this phenomenon in these countries but also represents a scientific milestone as one of the first multi-country studies on this issue in this region of the world. That said, the results obtained by the research team are very much in line with previous studies conducted worldwide, which follow relatively stable patterns in the field of child sexual abuse (digital or physical), with global trends placing its prevalence at around 20% for the general population.

In the digital realm, and while it is true that this is an area still under study due to the rapid expansion of digitalization, the findings confirm the global scope of this problem, as highlighted by previous studies conducted in specific online spaces such as video games, social media, or public internet forums.

Going further, one of the main findings of this study, in my opinion, is the confirmation that child sexual abuse (whether physical or digital) is not an issue that specifically or exclusively affects girls, but rather a cross-cutting problem that impacts boys and girls almost equally (16.9% vs. 17%), requiring holistic solutions.

Regarding patterns of reporting or disclosure of victimization experiences, while the underreporting rate found by the research team is high (51% do not tell anyone), this figure is actually on the optimistic side compared to previous studies in this field, which highlight that between 50% and 80% of child victims of sexual abuse do not report such experiences during childhood.

Methodologically, this is a robust, multi-country study with large community samples that are statistically representative at the national level of the connected child population. It should be noted, however, that it is important to exercise some caution when attempting to extrapolate and interpret these results, as while the research team was able to control for a number of variables in the multi-country comparisons (rural vs. urban population; societal connectivity, etc.), many others have been difficult to control (cultural, social, legal factors, etc.), which makes it difficult to conduct more in-depth comparisons.

Finally, and although the authors of the study repeatedly point this out, it is important to remember that cross-sectional studies such as that by Sakshi Ghai and colleagues allow us to view a specific situation at a specific moment, and this snapshot is important for understanding the state of the issue surrounding a given problem at a given time. However, these studies do not allow for the establishment of causal relationships between the different variables and problems observed; longitudinal studies are required for this purpose.

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.

The study published in Nature on the role of technology in child sexual exploitation and abuse in Africa and Asia is based on a very extensive and representative database, containing survey data from 11,912 children aged between 12 and 17 from 12 countries in Africa and Asia. This study provides us with very solid evidence on a problem that people do not want to talk about and which previous research had already highlighted: there is insufficient awareness that digital sexual violence against children occurs. The study analyses how many children and adolescents suffer this type of abuse, including whether they manage to ask for help and what barriers they encounter in doing so.

The most worrying finding is that one in six young internet users has suffered some form of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation or abuse, and that more than half did not tell anyone. Furthermore, a point highlighted by the study’s researchers themselves is that the data was collected before the rise of generative artificial intelligence, and therefore does not reflect some new forms of abuse such as sexual deepfakes. If we wish to tackle the root cause, these would be the social dynamics that lead to the consumption of child sexual exploitation and abuse material; only in this way can we overcome this problem.

The message conveyed by this article is very clear both internationally and in Spain: it is not enough to simply ask children to report incidents; rather, it is essential that they know where to turn, that accessible and safe support channels exist, and that families, schools, social services, law enforcement and digital platforms work in a coordinated manner.

In this regard, it is essential to act in accordance with international principles such as ‘upstander intervention’, creating a support network for these victims that protects them and helps them break the silence surrounding abuse. For example, the Club de Valientes Violencia 0 is one of the Successful Initiatives (AEE) that is achieving results and transforming the world by protecting children from a very young age. Breaking the silence is a step that very few victims dare to take because they know that there is a form of isolating violence that will revictimise them and turn against the people who support them most. If we want victims of any kind of abuse to become survivors, it is essential to respect their voices and never act against their will.