1 in 5 children across 21 countries have experienced tech-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse – UNICEF

NEW YORK, 3 September 2026 – An estimated 20 million children aged 12 to 17 – almost 1 in 5 – were subjected to at least one form of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse in a single year across 21 countries, according to a new report released by UNICEF today. 

Through Children's Eyes: How Digital Technologies Enable Child Sexual Abuse combines children’s testimonies with one of the largest bodies of available survey data to warn of a widespread trend of child sexual abuse and exploitation – both online and offline – enabled by technology. 

The report estimates that over 15 million children were exposed to unwanted sexual content, 9 million were asked to engage in sexual conversations or share sexual images against their will, and 4 million children had sexual images of themselves shared without their consent. However, the true scale of the issue is likely far higher due to underreporting by children. 

“The report reveals a painful reality. More than 20 million children across the countries studied were subjected to unwanted explicit sexual content or exploitation online, often in the digital spaces where they learn, play, and connect with friends," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "These experiences cause profound emotional and mental distress. Many children suffer in silence, unsure where to turn for help. We cannot look away.”

According to the findings, nearly 60 per cent of cases took place on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and WhatsApp, and 14 per cent of cases happened in online games, with the platforms’ features, functions, and design used to exploit trust, the report notes. In Montenegro, more than 80 per cent of reported cases involved social media platforms, while in Colombia they were linked to more than half of cases.

Across the countries surveyed, 57 per cent of cases involved someone the child already knew, including peers, romantic partners, friends, and family members, challenging assumptions that online abuse is primarily perpetrated by strangers. At the same time, 38 per cent of children first encountered the perpetrator online, with evidence showing how abuse is facilitated through fake accounts and private messaging features, for example. 

Technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse can have a profound impact on children’s emotional well-being, sense of safety, and trust in others. The experiences described by children during research interviews often focused on fear, shame, confusion, and isolation, with many struggling to understand what had happened or where to seek help.

“I didn't know how to react... I felt a little in shock,” said a young woman from the Dominican Republic, after private images were circulated without her consent at the age of 14. Another research participant, reflecting on a similar experience, said she felt “like the most used, the dirtiest, the worst person.”

Children subjected to tech-facilitated exploitation were four times more likely to report suicidal thoughts or behaviours and self-harm, and reported significantly higher levels of anxiety, according to the analysis. In Mexico or North Macedonia, for example, the risk of suicidal thoughts or behaviours was more than eight times higher among children who experienced abuse, while in Pakistan the risk of self-harm was over seven times higher.

More than 40 per cent of cases of tech-facilitated abuse were never shared with anyone, while fewer than 1 per cent were reported to authorities such as the police, social workers, or helplines. Globally, the most common reason children remained silent was not knowing where to go or who to tell. In some surveyed countries, non-disclosure rates were even higher, including in Armenia, where more than half of cases were never shared with anyone.

The findings point to an urgent need for action by governments, technology companies, and other stakeholders to better protect children in the digital age. The report calls for urgent action to:

• Make digital platforms safer by design, with stronger privacy protections for children, restrictions on unsolicited contact from adults, safer recommender systems, and better detection and reporting of abuse.
• Strengthen laws, regulation and accountability, ensuring governments have the tools and enforcement measures to address evolving forms of abuse, including sexual extortion and AI-generated sexual abuse material.
• Build reporting and support systems children can trust, including investment in child protection, health, justice and social services.
• Shift the burden of protection away from children, ensuring families, schools and communities respond to disclosures with support and help children seek assistance safely.
• Reduce the economic vulnerabilities perpetrators exploit through stronger family support and expanded education and employment opportunities for children and young people.
• Address the social and gender norms that normalise the sexualisation of girls and stigmatise survivors of sexual violence.

“All of us, including governments and technology companies, must do more to protect children online,” said Russell. 

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Notes to editors

Technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse refers to the ways digital technologies and platforms are used to enable or amplify the sexual abuse and exploitation of children in both online and in-person settings.

The report Through Children's Eyes: How Digital Technologies Enable Child Sexual Abuse draws on nationally representative surveys of approximately 21,000 internet-using children aged 12 to 17 across 21 countries, alongside in-depth interviews with 100 young people who experienced abuse in childhood. As the survey sample includes internet-using children only, the findings are representative of internet-using children rather than all children, particularly in countries with lower internet connectivity. The research was conducted by UNICEF as one part of the Disrupting Harm project, implemented jointly by UNICEF, ECPAT International and INTERPOL. 

This report combines evidence from two rounds of Disrupting Harm research conducted across 21 countries. The first round, with data collected primarily in 2020–2021, covered Cambodia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mozambique, Namibia, the Philippines, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda and Viet Nam. The second round in 2024-2025 expanded the research to Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Pakistan and Serbia.

Link to the report here.   

Multimedia materials available here.

Notes to the editors in North Macedonia

The data included for North Macedonia are drawn from the recently launched Disrupting Harm in North Macedonia: Evidence on Technology-Facilitated Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse study. Some indicators in the global analysis have been harmonized and adjusted to allow comparison across participating countries and may therefore differ slightly from figures presented in the national report. Depending on the indicator, comparisons are based either on 21 countries participating in the wider Disrupting Harm programme or on a subset of 9 countries that took part in the second round of the study, which included additional questions on emerging forms of online abuse, perpetrator characteristics and abuse pathways.

While country comparisons should be interpreted with caution, the global analysis helps place North Macedonia's findings in an international perspective. It highlights both the specific risks facing children in North Macedonia and important opportunities to strengthen prevention, reporting, mental health and protection services and responses by digital platforms and other stakeholders to better protect children online.

Key findings for North Macedonia include:

An estimated 11,727 internet-using children aged 12-17 (9.4%) in North Macedonia experienced at least one form of technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse in the year prior to the survey, compared with an average prevalence of 18% across the 21 countries included in the analysis. While North Macedonia reported lower prevalence for several forms of technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse than the average across participating countries, the findings reveal emerging risks that demand urgent attention.

North Macedonia recorded the highest prevalence among the nine countries included in the second round of the study of children who were threatened or blackmailed into engaging in sexual activities (4.4%, compared with an average of 3%) and of children who were threatened with the distribution of sexual images or videos of themselves (4.2%, compared with an average of 2%).

North Macedonia also recorded the highest prevalence among the nine countries of children who reported that AI-generated sexual images or videos had been created depicting them (4.3%), more than double the cross-country average of 2.0%. These findings highlight how emerging technologies are creating new risks for children's safety online.

The comparative analysis challenges common assumptions about online abuse. Eight in ten (80%) incidents involved someone the child already knew, including friends, family members, romantic partners or acquaintances, compared with an average of 57% across participating countries. This was the highest proportion reported among the countries included in the study.

More than half of perpetrators (52.8%) were first met in a public place, compared with an average of 23% across the nine countries included in the analysis. School and home were also important settings where children first encountered perpetrators: 18.3% first met them at school and 18.5% at home, compared with averages of 26% and 14%, respectively. These findings underline that technology-facilitated abuse is not solely an online phenomenon and often emerges from children's existing relationships and everyday environments.

North Macedonia also recorded the highest proportion of adult perpetrators among the nine countries included in the second round of the study. Nearly six in ten incidents (59%) involved an adult perpetrator, compared with an average of 34%.

The impact on children's wellbeing is profound. In North Macedonia, children subjected to tech-facilitated exploitation were 8.6 times more likely to report suicidal thoughts or behaviours and 9.4 times more likely to report self-harm compared with children who had not. North Macedonia recorded one of the strongest associations observed across the 21 countries included in the study, highlighting that online sexual exploitation is not only a child protection issue but also a significant mental health concern.

Encouragingly, North Macedonia recorded the highest disclosure rate among participating countries. Almost nine in ten children (87.6%) who experienced abuse told someone about what happened, compared with the average of 59%. Children most commonly disclosed to mothers, friends, fathers and siblings, highlighting the critical role families and peer networks play in supporting children. However, as in other countries, fewer than 1% of cases were reported to formal support mechanisms such as the police, social workers or helplines.

These findings underscore that technology facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse is not only an online issue. It is often rooted in children's existing relationships and everyday environments. Protecting children therefore requires more than online safety measures. North Macedonia must build on children’s willingness to speak up by ensuring that every disclosure leads to a timely, coordinated and child-centred response, while strengthening family and community awareness, promoting healthy relationships and digital resilience, improving reporting pathways, ensuring access to child-friendly support services, and increasing accountability of technology platforms to create safer digital environments for children.

For further information, please contact:  
Iris Bano Romero | UNICEF Global Office in Rome| [email protected]