UNICEF estimates 20 million children suffered online sexual abuse in one year - Reuters

A United Nations children’s agency has released a report estimating that about 20 million children who use the internet were subjected to sexual exploitation or abuse on digital platforms over the course of a single year. The estimate is based on nationally representative surveys conducted between 2020 and 2025 in 21 countries, covering roughly 21,000 internet‑using children across regions that include Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

The findings indicate that more than one in five children aged 12 to 17 in the surveyed nations experienced at least one form of online sexual abuse or exploitation in the year prior to the survey. Approximately 15 million children were exposed to unwanted sexual content, 9 million reported being pressured into sexual conversations or to share sexual images, and 4 million had sexual images of themselves shared without their consent.

The majority of reported incidents occurred on social‑media platforms, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the abuse. The platforms most frequently cited were Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. Online gaming environments were identified as the setting for about 14 percent of the cases.

The agency cautioned that the 20 million figure likely represents only a portion of the global problem, suggesting that the total number of children affected worldwide could run into many tens of millions. The research is described as one of the largest studies of its kind on online sexual abuse of children.

A spokesperson for the company that owns several of the highlighted platforms acknowledged the report and reiterated the firm’s commitment to strengthening safety measures, though specific actions were not detailed in the release.