More than 800,000 children experience online sexual abuse every day, charity warns

Around 830,000 young people around the world are at risk of sexual exploitation and abuse every day, figures from a child safety charity show.

The Childlight Global Child Safety Institute estimates that over 300 million children are affected annually by technology-facilitated exploitation or abuse, equivalent to about ten cases every second or nearly 830,000 cases per day.

Childlight, hosted by the University of Edinburgh, is calling for preventative measures to protect young children who face daily abuse, such as unwanted image sharing and extortion.

The group say this points to a problem that’s even more widespread than other major childhood public health problems like asthma and obesity.

It can involve unwanted sharing of photos, deepfake images and sexual extortion.

Childlight have published the figures to mark Internet Safety Day on February 11.

Childlight COO Zoe Lambourne said: “Now is the time to shift to a prevention-focused approach that stops child sexual exploitation and abuse before it begins, saving children from irreversible harm rather than scrambling to deal with the terrible consequences.

“The world has come together before to prevent harm on a comparable scale, as with COVID-19 and HIV/AIDs. We must do so again with urgency because children can’t wait.”

Childlight believes accurate data must be the foundation of a preventative approach to understand the scale and nature of the problem, the risk factors and drivers, and what interventions can make a difference, ranging from education programmes to powerful legislation.

Evidence over the past decade has linked child sexual abuse to adverse mental health, physical health (including cancers, chronic disease and even early death), negative educational outcomes, and under-employment, harming children and wider society.

A government spokesperson said: “Child sexual exploitation and abuse is despicable and has a devastating impact on victims.

“UK law is clear: child sexual abuse is illegal and social media is no exception. Companies must ensure criminal activity cannot proliferate on their sites.”