Protecting children online
Every child must be protected from violence, exploitation and abuse on the internet.
Children are spending more time online than ever before. And they’re getting there sooner. Around the world, a child goes online for the first time every half second.
Growing up online offers limitless opportunities. Through computers, smartphones, gaming consoles, and televisions, children learn, imagine and develop their social networks. When used in the right way – and accessible to all – the internet has the potential to broaden horizons and ignite creativity the world over.
But with these opportunities come serious risks.
Cyberbullying and other forms of peer-to-peer violence can affect young people each time they log in to social media or instant messaging platforms. When browsing the internet, children may be exposed to hate speech and violent content – including messages that incite self-harm and even suicide.
Children can also be put at risk when tech companies breach their privacy to collect data for marketing purposes. Child-targeted marketing through apps – and the excessive screen time it often results in – can compromise a child’s healthy development.
More than a third of young people in 30 countries report being cyberbullied, with 1 in 5 skipping school because of it.
Most alarming is the threat of online sexual exploitation and abuse. It has never been easier for child sex offenders to contact their potential victims, share imagery and encourage others to commit offences. Children may be victimized through the production, distribution and consumption of sexual abuse material, or they may be groomed for sexual exploitation, with abusers attempting to meet them in person or exhort them for explicit content.
In the digital world, any person from any location can create and store sexually exploitative content. Child sex offenders may even livestream sexual abuse from the confines of their homes, directing on-demand abuse of children far away.
Some 80% of children in 25 countries report feeling in danger of sexual abuse or exploitation online.
As children embrace more digital platforms, they too may self-generate sexually explicit imagery. And though these images might be intended for an age-appropriate relationship, they can end up widely shared without consent. Sometimes, trusted adults solicit children to share imagery. For a child victim, this may result in social isolation, mental health issues, substance abuse, self-harm or suicide, as well as an increased likelihood of exhibiting abusive behaviours themselves in adulthood.
UNICEF’s response
What happens online reflects the realities children face every day – at home, at school and in their wider communities.
Strategies to promote online safety must protect the educational and health benefits of digital technologies, while addressing the risks of exposure to violence, exploitation, and abuse, as well as to privacy breaches.
UNICEF works to make the internet a safe place for children to learn, socialize and express themselves. We partner with governments to advocate for necessary regulation, and with tech companies to promote the use of acceptable safety measures on their platforms. We also support ministries of education to teach children digital-literacy and online-safety skills.
Through our Global Kids Online and Disrupting Harm projects, we gather evidence on children’s digital rights, opportunities and risks to better understand how use of digital technology contributes to their lives – and when it amplifies their risk of harm.
How does UNICEF address the online sexual exploitation of children?
UNICEF prevents and responds to the online sexual exploitation of children at the country and global level. We support coordinated national responses to online child sexual exploitation in over 20 countries – using the WePROTECT Global Alliance model – and strengthen the capacity of on-the-ground responders to provide services to victims. We work closely with governments to guide investments in evidence-based preventive programmes and awareness-raising. And we collaborate with tech companies to make digital products safer for children, providing industry guidelines and developing cutting-edge tools to stop the circulation of child sexual abuse materials.
More from UNICEF
Resources
Ending Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
Addressing Technology-Facilitated Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the Face of COVID 19
COVID-19 and Its Implications for Protecting Children Online: A technical note from UNICEF and partners
The State of the World’s Children, 2017: Children in a Digital World
Perils and Possibilities: Growing Up Online
Guidelines for Industry on Online Child Protection
Advocacy Brief: Child Online Protection
WePROTECT Global Alliance: Intelligence Brief Impact of COVID-19 on online child sexual exploitation
WePROTECT Global Alliance: Global Threat Assessment, 2019 – Working Together to End the Sexual Exploitation of Children Online
WePROTECT Global Alliance: Preventing and Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse – A Model National Response
WePROTECT Global Alliance: Working Examples of Model National Response Capabilities and Implementation
Global Kids Online
Disrupting Harm
Online Course: Action to End Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
Legislating for the digital age: Global guide on improving legislative frameworks to protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse
Framing the Future: How the Model National Response framework is supporting national efforts to end child sexual exploitation and abuse online
Last updated 23 June 2022