NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 3 — Nearly one in five internet-using children aged 12 to 17 across 21 countries were subjected to at least one form of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse in a single year, a new UNICEF report says.

📻 Breaking It Down

An estimated 20 million children were affected, according to Through Children’s Eyes: How Digital Technologies Enable Child Sexual Abuse , based on nationally representative surveys of approximately 21,000 internet-using children.

The report published on Thursday says the abuse occurs on digital platforms children use every day and is frequently perpetrated by people they already know.

“This is not a marginal risk; it runs through mainstream, everyday platforms,” UNICEF says.

📌 What You Need to Know

An estimated 15 million children were exposed to sexual content they did not want to see, while nine million were asked to engage in sexual conversations or share sexual images against their will.

Another four million had sexual images of themselves shared without permission.

The report challenges the perception that online abuse is mainly committed by strangers.

Fifty-seven per cent of cases involved perpetrators already known to children, including friends, family members and romantic partners, while in 38 per cent of cases children first met perpetrators online.

UNICEF says platform features such as unsolicited messages, closed chats, fake profiles and the ability to reconnect after being blocked can be exploited to facilitate abuse.

“The abuse is digital platform-enabled and carried out through features that could be built differently.”

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya