300-M kids a year face sexual abuse online

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — More than 300 million children a year are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse, according to the first global estimate of the scale of the problem published on Monday.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that one in eight of the world’s children have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past 12 months.

That amounts to about 302 million young people, said the university’s Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, which carried out the study.

There have been a similar number of cases of solicitation, such as unwanted sexting and requests for sexual acts by adults and other youths, according to the report.

Offenses range from so-called sextortion, where predators demand money from victims to keep images private, to the abuse of artificial intelligence technology to create deepfake videos and pictures.

The problem is worldwide but the research suggests the United States is a particularly high-risk area, with one in nine men there admitting to online offending against children at some point.

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

“This is a global health pandemic that has remained hidden for far too long. It occurs in every country, it’s growing exponentially, and it requires a global response,” he added.