A major UNICEF study estimates that about 20 million children who use the internet across 21 countries experienced sexual exploitation or abuse on digital platforms over the course of a single year. The research, described by UNICEF as one of the largest of its kind, found the bulk of incidents took place on social media services and that the true global total is likely to be considerably larger.
The study used nationally representative surveys conducted between 2020 and 2025 and sampled roughly 21,000 internet-using children in 21 countries, including Kenya, Pakistan, Brazil and Serbia. Across the regions covered - Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe - UNICEF estimated that more than one in five children aged 12 to 17 had faced at least one form of sexual abuse or exploitation on an online platform in the year before being surveyed.
UNICEF’s headline estimates break down as follows:
- Approximately 15 million children in the surveyed countries were exposed to unwanted sexual content.
- About 9 million were pressured into sexual conversations or to share sexual images.
- Roughly 4 million had sexual images of themselves shared without their consent.
The report states that, given its coverage of 21 countries, the number of children subjected to online sexual abuse on a global scale is certain to reach many tens of millions.
Where abuse is taking place
Almost 60% of reported incidents occurred on social media platforms, with the platforms most frequently cited being Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. Online gaming environments accounted for about 14% of reported cases.
A spokesperson for Meta noted that some of the surveys date back to 2020, prior to the introduction of platform protections that UNICEF recommends, such as defaulting teenage accounts to private settings and restricting adults from messaging teens with whom they are not connected. The spokesperson also said the company treats WhatsApp as a private messaging service rather than as a social media platform.
Responding to the findings, Meta said: "While the report doesn’t provide any specific evidence of abuse, we’ll continue to fight child exploitation aggressively across our apps and support law enforcement in prosecuting the criminals behind it."
Snapchat referred to a blog post by its Global Head of Platform Safety, Jacqueline Beauchere, noting the company is working to combat online sexual extortion through proactive detection, account removals, user reporting tools and other safety features intended to protect vulnerable users. TikTok described a range of safeguards it has implemented, including restrictions on certain features for younger users, making accounts for under-18s private by default, and deploying technology to detect potentially predatory behaviours.
Perpetrators, reporting and emerging risks
The report found that more than half of the abuse instances involved someone the child already knew, such as a friend, relative or romantic partner. In 38% of cases the child first encountered the person who perpetrated the abuse online. The research also found that fewer than 1% of such incidents were reported to police, a social worker or a helpline.
UNICEF highlighted growing concerns tied to artificial intelligence. In nine countries where data on AI-generated content was collected, an estimated 1.1 million children said sexual images or videos portraying them had been created using AI. The report links tech-facilitated sexual exploitation with markedly worse mental health outcomes: children who experienced such exploitation were around four times more likely to report suicidal thoughts or self-harm and also reported significantly higher levels of anxiety compared with their peers.
"These experiences cause profound emotional and mental distress. Many children suffer in silence, unsure where to turn for help," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.
UNICEF recommendations
In response to the findings, UNICEF urged both governments and technology companies to strengthen safety measures on digital platforms, modernize laws to address evolving forms of abuse including AI-generated content, and improve child protection and reporting systems so that victims can find support and incidents can be tracked and addressed more effectively.
The report’s data emphasize the intersection between platform design, emerging technologies and child protection systems. It documents significant exposure to harm on mainstream social platforms, limited reporting of incidents to formal support channels, and an emergent threat from AI-enabled sexual imagery that affected a substantial number of children in the countries surveyed.
While the study is limited to the 21 countries included in the surveys, UNICEF’s analysis underlines the scope of digital harms facing young internet users and signals the need for coordinated responses from policymakers, platform operators and child protection services.