More than one in five children aged 12 to 17 across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe experienced at least one form of sexual abuse or exploitation online in the year before they were surveyed, according to a UNICEF report.
The report estimated that around 15 million children in the countries surveyed were exposed to unwanted sexual content, while 9 million were pressured into sexual conversations or sharing sexual images. Another 4 million had sexual images shared without their consent.
UNICEF said the global number of children subjected to online sexual abuse is likely to reach many tens of millions.
The study, described by UNICEF as one of the largest of its kind, was based on nationally representative surveys conducted between 2020 and 2025. It covered around 21,000 internet-using children across 21 countries, including Pakistan, Kenya, Brazil and Serbia.
Nearly 60 per cent of reported abuse occurred on social media platforms, with Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok among those most frequently identified. About 14pc of cases occurred through online gaming, the report said.
A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said some of the surveys dated back to 2020, before the company introduced several of the child-safety measures recommended by UNICEF.
Meta said it had since introduced protections including default private accounts for teenagers and restrictions preventing adults from messaging teenagers with whom they are not connected. The company also said it considers WhatsApp a private messaging service rather than a social media platform.
“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,” a Meta spokesperson said.
Snapchat referred Reuters to a statement by its Global Head of Platform Safety Jacqueline Beauchere, who said the company was working to combat online sexual extortion through proactive detection, account removals, user reporting tools and other safety measures.
TikTok said it had introduced several safeguards to protect minors, including restricting certain features for younger users, setting accounts belonging to under-18s to private by default and using technology to detect potentially predatory behaviour.
The UNICEF report found that more than half of the cases involved someone the child already knew, including friends, relatives or romantic partners. Around 38pc of children said they first encountered the perpetrator online.
Despite the scale of the problem, fewer than 1pc of cases involving children were reported to police, social workers or helplines, according to the research.
The report also raised concerns about the growing use of artificial intelligence in child sexual exploitation. In nine countries where relevant data was collected, an estimated 1.1 million children reported that AI-generated sexual images or videos had been created depicting them.
Children who experienced technology-facilitated sexual exploitation were about four times more likely to report suicidal thoughts or self-harm and also reported significantly higher levels of anxiety than their peers, the report said.
“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.
UNICEF called on governments and technology companies to strengthen safety measures on digital platforms, update legislation to address emerging forms of abuse, including AI-generated sexual content, and improve child-protection and reporting mechanisms.
