Over 800K children experience tech-facilitated abuse daily — group

Over 800,000 children globally experience technology-facilitated sexual exploitation abuse, according to a United Kingdom-based organization,

The Childlight Global Child Safety Institutes estimates that over 300 million children are affected annually by this pandemic equivalent to about 10 cases every second or nearly 830,000 cases per day.

The group, hosted by the University of Edinburgh, stressed it may even be more widespread than other major childhood public health problems, such as asthma and obesity.

Technology-facilitated sexual exploitation or abuse, it noted, can involve unwanted sharing of photos, deepfake images, and sexual extortion.

"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," Childlight COO Zoe Lambourne said.

"The world has come together before to prevent harm on a comparable scale, as with Covid-19 and HIV/AIDS. We must do so against with urgency because children can't wait," Lambourne added.

As the world commemorates Safer Internet Day, Childlight pushed for accurate data as the foundation of a preventive approach to understanding the scale and nature of the problem, the risk factors and drivers, and what interventions can make a difference.

Evidence over the past decades has linked child sexual abuse to adverse mental health, physical health (including cancers, chronic disease, and even early death), negative educational outcomes, and underemployment.

Last year, the Philippine National Police (PNP) disclosed that it has rescued a total of 636 victims of child exploitation since Republic Act 11930, also known as the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children, was signed into law in 2022.

Of the victims, 375 are girls and 121 are boys, all aged 17 and under. The PNP also noted that one of the most disturbing cases involved the rescue of a four-month-old baby from the hands of his mother and aunt, who were apprehended for selling the child on the dark web from their residence in Tagug.

Since 2022, the PNP has conducted 307 operations, resulting in 167 arrests, 218 cases, and 12 convictions.