Is Online Child Sexual Abuse Becoming a New Global Phenomenon?

In what is believed to be the first global estimate of this crime, researchers found millions of children globally were victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse every year, whether through talking or exposure to sexual images and videos without their consent.

The United States is one of the most dangerous countries, with very high rates of risks associated with online sexual abuse.

The internet has enabled communities of sex offenders to easily and rapidly share child abuse and exploitation images on a staggering scale.

More than 36 million reports of online sexual images of children who fell victim to all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse were filed in 2023 to watchdog groups by companies such as X, Facebook, Instagram, Google, WhatsApp, and members of the public. That equates to one report every one second.

Child Abuse

The first global study of its kind shows that more than 300 million children globally are victims of online sexual abuse and exploitation every year.

According to the study published by The Guardian, on May 27, 2024, researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that 12.6% of the world’s children were victims of non-consensual sexual conversations, images, and videos in the last year, equivalent to about 302 million children and young people.

A similar percentage (12.5%) were exposed to online temptation, such as unwanted sexual talk that could include sending sexual messages, questions, and requests by adults or other youth.

In addition, crimes can also take the form of sexual blackmail, where scammers demand money from victims to keep images private, and misuse deepfake technology provided by artificial intelligence programs.

The study indicates that the United States is a particularly high-risk region.

The university's Childlight Initiative (which aims to understand the prevalence of child abuse) found that one in nine men in the U.S. (about 14 million) admitted online offending against children.

Surveys found that 7% of British men (about 1.8 million) admitted the same, as did 7.5% of men in Australia.

Many men admitted they would seek to commit physical sexual offenses against children if they thought it would be kept secret.

Following up on these revelations, Paul Stanfield, Childlight chief executive, said: “Child abuse material is so prevalent that files are on average reported to watchdog and policing organizations once every second.”

He continued: “This is a global health pandemic that has been hidden for too long. It is something that is happening in every country, is growing exponentially, and requires a global response.”

He stressed the need to act urgently and deal with this issue as a preventable public health problem.

In turn, Interpol Executive Director Stephen Kavanagh said that traditional law enforcement methods are facing difficulties in keeping pace with these developments.

“We must do more together at the global level, including training specialized investigators, and better sharing of data and equipment, to effectively combat this phenomenon and the damage it is causing to the lives of millions of children around the world,” he explained.

Grace Tame, a survivor, leads the Grace Tame Foundation which works to prevent and respond to sexual abuse of children.

She said: “Child sexual abuse is a global public health crisis that is steadily worsening thanks to advancing technologies which enable instantaneous production and limitless distribution of child exploitation material, as well as unregulated access to children online.”

Sexual Exploitation

On April 23, a charitable foundation to combat child abuse warned of the possibility of pedophiles using artificial intelligence techniques to generate nude images of children, with the aim of blackmailing them and pressuring them to provide the attackers with pornographic content.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reported that it had found a guide on the Dark Web that includes a section urging criminals to use stripping software to remove clothes from photos sent to them by children wearing only underwear.

The manipulated image can be used to blackmail the child and force him to send more dangerous pornographic materials, according to what the institution stated.

The foundation, which works to find and remove online child sexual abuse material, said last year that this is the first evidence we have seen that perpetrators are advising and encouraging each other to use artificial intelligence techniques for these purposes.

Last year, the same foundation warned of a rise in cases of sexual blackmail, where victims are manipulated into sending sexual images of themselves, and then threatened to publish those images unless they pay money.

The charity stated in its report that 2023 was the most extreme year ever.

It revealed that she found more than 275,000 web pages containing content containing sexual abuse on children last year, which is the highest number she has recorded, pointing to the identification of a record amount of material that falls within category A, which can include the most brutal images, including rape, sadism, and sex with animals.

The foundation said that more than 62,000 pages contain category A content, compared to 51,000 in the previous year, 2022.

The IWF revealed that it found 2,401 images of self-produced child sexual abuse material, which is material in which victims are exploited or threatened to film sexual violations against themselves. These images were produced by children between the ages of 3 and 6 years.

According to research published last year by the British communications regulator Ofcom, a quarter of children between the ages of 3 and 4 own a mobile phone, and half of children under the age of 13 have accounts on social media.

Broken Heart

On June 11, 2019, the US Department of Justice announced the arrest of about 1,700 people over a two-month period, an average of 28 people per day, during a large-scale operation targeting online child sexual harassment networks.

Investigators succeeded in identifying 308 people suspected of sexually abusing minors or producing child pornography, according to a ministry statement.

Others are suspected of viewing, retaining child pornography, or soliciting minors via social media.

The authorities also identified 257 victims during this operation, called ‘Broken Heart’, which was conducted between April and May in all US states.

During that operation, the British and US authorities announced the dismantling of a website that promoted the sexual exploitation of children and was selling graphic scenes of sexual abuses involving child victims, noting that during this operation, 337 people were arrested in 38 countries.

The arrests were linked to the Welcome to Video website, which was one of the first sites to offer the sale of disgusting videos using the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

The US Department of Justice said that the website represented the largest market for child sexual exploitation in terms of volume of content.

The website collected 250,000 videos, many of which were unknown, and they have been downloaded more than a million times.

The website was managed by 23-year-old South Korean Jong Woo Son, who had already been imprisoned in his country and was later charged in the United States.

Seven men were convicted in the United Kingdom, one of whom was sentenced to 22 years in prison, for raping a five-year-old boy and sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl who appeared in a video on the website.

It is noteworthy that American law generally imposes harsh penalties on child abusers and molesters.