New report shows the scale of child sexual exploitation and abuse

Bringing together experts to protect children from

sexual exploitation and abuse online

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PRESS RELEASE

Under Embargo until 19 October, 2021

New report shows the scale of child sexual

exploitation and abuse online is increasing, calling

for a stronger collective global response

• The 2021 Global Threat Assessment report by WeProtect Global Alliance calls for a step

change in the global response to the issue

• COVID-19 has contributed to a significant spike in child sexual exploitation and abuse

online

• 1 in 3 respondents (34%) to global Economist Impact survey were asked to do something

sexually explicit online they were uncomfortable with during childhood

• Study shows LGBTQ+ children amongst those more likely to experience sexual harm online

• Despite the concerning findings, there is hope that advances in online safety technology

and increased government engagement can help to turn the tide on the global crisis.

WeProtect Global Alliance, a global movement of more than 200 governments, private sector companies

and civil society organisations working together to transform the global response to child sexual

exploitation and abuse online, has today published its 2021 Global Threat Assessment.

Its findings show that the scale of child sexual exploitation and abuse online is increasing at such a

rapid rate that a step change is urgently required in the global response to create safe online

environments for children.

It shows that in the past two years the reporting of child sexual exploitation and abuse online has reached

its highest levels with the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) processing

60,000 reports of child sexual abuse online every day.

The COVID-19 pandemic is undeniably one contributory factor behind the spike in reported incidents. The

rise in child ‘self-generated’ sexual material is another trend that challenges the existing response with

the Internet Watch Foundation observing a 77% increase in child ‘self-generated’ sexual material from

2019 to 2020.

Iain Drennan, Executive Director of WeProtect Global Alliance, says:

“The internet has become central to children’s lives across the world, even more so as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past two years, we have observed an increase in the scale and complexity

of child sexual abuse online. This report should act as a wake-up call to us all; together we must step up

the global response and create a safer digital world for all children.”

The 2021 Global Threat Assessment report details the scale and scope of the threat of child sexual

exploitation online and aims to encourage action on the issue to reduce the risk to children and prevent

abuse before it happens.

Bringing together experts to protect children from

sexual exploitation and abuse online

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The three main insights of the report are:

1. The scale and complexity of child sexual exploitation and abuse is increasing and is outstripping

the global capacity to respond.

2. Prevention needs to be prioritised. While a strong law enforcement and judicial response is

essential, a truly sustainable strategy must include active prevention of abuse. There is a need to

ensure the creation of safe online environments where children can thrive.

3. To tackle this complex, global issue, everyone with a role to protect children online needs to work

together to dramatically improve the response. There is reason to be hopeful with child sexual

exploitation and abuse moving up the global agenda, online safety technology becoming more

accessible and advanced, and governments doing more to act.

As part of the report, a global study of childhood experiences of more than 5,000 young adults (aged 18

to 20) across 54 countries was completed by Economist Impact. More than a third of respondents (34%)

had been asked to do something sexually explicit online they were uncomfortable with during their

childhood.

Also included in the report was a survey of technology companies that showed most are using tools to

detect child sexual abuse material (87% use image ‘hash-matching’), but only 37% currently use tools to

detect online grooming.

WeProtect Global Alliance’s Global Strategic Response (GSR) provides a global strategy to eliminate child

sexual exploitation and abuse, calling for greater voluntary cooperation, transparency, and

implementation of online safety technologies, greater regulation to make online environments safer for

children, and an increased investment in law enforcement.

The Economist Impact survey also demonstrated that girls, and respondents who identified as

transgender/non-binary, LGBQ+ and/or disabled, were more likely to experience online sexual harms

during childhood:

• Overall, 57% of female and 48% of male respondents reported at least one online sexual harm

• 59% of respondents who identified as transgender/non-binary experienced an online sexual harm,

compared to 47% of cisgender respondents

• 65% of respondents who identified as LGBQ+ experienced an online sexual harm, compared to

46% non-LGBQ+

• 57% of disabled respondents experienced an online sexual harm, compared to 48% of non-

disabled respondents

Supporting quotes

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr., US Department Of Justice’s Criminal Division

“The U.S. Department of Justice commends the WeProtect Global Alliance’s mission to bring together the

global community under one banner to fight online child sexual exploitation. The Global Threat

Assessment reveals with clarity the degree to which online child sexual exploitation affects the childhood

of far too many. The U.S. Department of Justice will answer the moral calling demanded by this report

through its continued commitment to the Alliance, obtaining justice for victims, and holding offenders

accountable.”

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sexual exploitation and abuse online

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Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs

“The 2021 Global Threat Assessment is a call for action to tackle one of the worst crimes. Child sexual

abuse can harm for life, we urgently need to do more to protect our children. Regulation can help

facilitate not only prevention but also action by all the relevant stakeholders, in particular tech

companies. Law enforcement must be provided with adequate human and technical resources to face

the increasing case workload. We can solve this problem if we work together globally to prevent and

respond to these crimes.”

Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner

“These report findings sadly further demonstrate why collaborative efforts to protect Australian children

have never been more important. We believe it takes a network to disrupt a network and are proud to

see a growing network of experts across Australia, across the world, coming together to improve safety

practices and address the issue in new ways.”

Lt Col Dana Humaid, Director General of the International Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Interior of

the United Arab Emirates

“We consider the launch of the Global Threat Assessment report 2021 as an opportunity to reflect and

prioritize efforts and engage with the international community and share our experiences and practices.

This report can be used by governments to guide their efforts. The challenge of sexual exploitation and

abuse online is a crime of global magnitude and requires collaborative and multi-disciplinary efforts to

combat and end it.”

UK Government Safeguarding Minister Rachel Maclean

“Child sexual abuse is a heinous crime that crosses borders, so it is vital that we work with our global

allies to tackle it. Through international cooperation with law enforcement, civil society, and industry

partners we can ensure that there is no safe space for sex offenders to operate. The latest Global Threat

Assessment provides valuable insights that can help sharpen our international response, and I look

forward to further co-operation with the We Protect Global Alliance to make sure that children are

protected online.”

Ernie Allen, WeProtect Global Alliance Chair

“The problem of child sexual exploitation and abuse online is massive and growing, we must do more to

identify those preying upon the world’s children online, but we must also bring far greater attention to

prevention. We can stop these crimes before they occur. Our goal is to awaken world leaders and place

this crisis far higher on the global policy agenda.”

Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn

“Just as technology is constantly evolving, so are the methods of those who seek to sexually abuse and

exploit children online. WeProtect’s report shows that emerging technologies, such as live-streaming, are

increasingly being used for exploitation. We must come together to develop an actionable, holistic

response that keeps pace with technology. Together, we will turn the tide on this epidemic.”

Sean Litton, Executive Director, Technology Coalition

“The technology industry continues to make progress in advancing its methods to detect and report Child

Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) content. We remain encouraged by the industry's knowledge sharing and

collaboration in creating the critical tools to propel the global threat response forward. The collective

action we are seeing is testament to both the seriousness with which the technology industry takes this

problem, and their commitment to its resolution.”

Bringing together experts to protect children from

sexual exploitation and abuse online

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Baroness Joanna Shields, CEO of Benevolent AI and Board Member and Management Board Member

of WeProtect Global Alliance

“With 60,000 reports of online child sexual abuse being processed every day, inaction or indifference is

not an option. Each report represents a childhood irrevocably damaged. We need to push online child

sexual abuse to the top of global policy and law enforcement agendas and have coordinated and

effective global action to ensure that kids are safe online.”

Cornelius Williams, Director, Child Protection Programme Team, UNICEF

“It is clear that technology is dramatically changing the nature of child sexual exploitation and abuse

online around the world, including across the African continent. No country is immune. Offenders have

new ways to access and abuse children. It’s crucial that countries invest in systems and services for child

protection to prevent abuse from occurring in the first place. This takes a coordinated effort within each

country and across the globe.”

Guillermo Galarza, Vice President of the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children

(ICMEC)

“The global assessment report will give us an overview of the situation during COVID-19 and online

sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. 2020 was a year where more than 21.7 million reports

reached NCMEC. Particularly in the cases of online seduction on social platforms, video games and

message applications, where there was an increase of 97.5 percent given that children and adolescents

spend all their time on these platforms due to confinement caused by the pandemic.”

Laís Cardoso Peretto, Executive Director of Childhood Brasil

“In the first year of the pandemic, the number of anonymous reports from websites containing images

and videos of child sexual abuse more than doubled in Brazil compared to 2019, reaching a record level

in the historical series started in 2006 by the SaferNet Brasil platform. Now in 2021, between January

and April, we registered a 33% increase in complaints compared to the same period last year. The arrival

of 5G technology tends to aggravate this scenario. It is necessary for everyone to mobilize in this

confrontation.”

John Tanagho, Executive Director at IJM's Center to End Online Sexual Exploitation of Children

“The Global Threat Assessment reveals that livestreamed child sexual abuse for payment is increasing,

with demand-side offenders unable to travel turning to livestreamed abuse. This is a reminder that

greater global and national collaboration is needed to protect children through sustained whole-of-society

approaches, including more effective and resourced justice systems. The inspiring story of Filipino

survivor leader and recent Women of the Future Southeast Asia awardee, Ruby, featured in the GTA (p.

61), provides hope that effective justice system responses and international collaboration lead to victim

rescue, survivor restoration, and ultimately prevention of new abuse.”

Tarang Khurana, Chair - Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)'s Young Indians' Project Masoom

"There is enough evidence to infer that lockdowns and disruptions caused due to COVID-19 have

significantly contributed to the spike in online child sexual exploitation and abuse. The easy access to

abusive content involving children is deeply concerning. The universality of the problem requires

collaborative action and we all have a shared responsibility to end this. Along with strong law

enforcement it is imperative to create empowered individuals, society, and community, who come

together to uproot this systemic menace”

Bringing together experts to protect children from

sexual exploitation and abuse online

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To download the full report please visit here https://bit.ly/GlobalThreatAssessment21

Ends

Media enquiries

Marianna Scamballi, Account Director, International Client Hub

Action Global Communications

+357 22 818 884 / +357 99 245 752

marianna.s@actionprgroup.com

Jess Lishak, Head of Communications and Engagement

WeProtect Global Alliance

+44 (0) 7981 956079

jess@weprotectga.org

Notes to Editors

WeProtect Global Alliance

WeProtect Global Alliance brings together experts from government, the private sector and civil society

to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse online.

The Alliance generates political commitment and practical approaches to make the digital world safe

and positive for children, preventing sexual abuse and long-term harm.

In 2020, WeProtect Global Alliance relaunched as an independent organisation and is the

combination of two initiatives:

• The European Commission and US Department of Justice’s Global Alliance Against Child

Sexual Abuse Online; and

• WePROTECT Children, established by the UK Government as a global multi-stakeholder

response to combating online child sexual abuse.

The Alliance consists of 98 governments, 53 companies, 61 civil society organisation and 9

international organisations.

Learn more at: https://www.weprotect.org/

Global Threat Assessment Report 2021

The Global Threat Assessment Report 2021 published by the Alliance details the scale and scope of

the threat of child sexual exploitation and abuse online. It aims to encourage evidence-based action

by recognising the significant progress achieved to date, and highlighting opportunities to reduce the

risk to children, to prevent abuse before it takes place.

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sexual exploitation and abuse online

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This report is a meta study that distils findings from multiple international studies to increase their

global reach, collate a holistic picture of the threat, and offer a balanced assessment where

information is incomplete, or experts disagree (caveating where appropriate).

This secondary research is supported by various forms of primary research:

• Interviews with law enforcement officials, child safety advocates, academics, technology

industry representatives and other experts.

• Case studies provided by member organisations and their affiliates.

• An anonymised survey of 32 global technology companies, which was conducted by the

Alliance in collaboration with the Technology Coalition

• Intelligence ‘vignettes’ developed by Crisp, a leading provider of online safety technologies.

Economist Impact Survey

To help fill the global knowledge gap on the potential scale and scope of online sexual harms against

children, Economist Impact and WeProtect Global Alliance conducted a study that gathered evidence

from more than 5,000 18 to 20 year olds in 54 countries around the world who had regular access to

the internet as children.

The questionnaire asked respondents about their exposure to online sexual harms and their risk

factors during childhood.

Questions centred on four online sexual harms, defined as:

• Being sent sexually explicit content from an adult they knew or someone they did not know

before they were 18.

• Being asked to keep part of their sexually explicit online relationship with an adult they knew

or someone they did not know before a secret.

• Having sexually explicit images of them shared without consent (by a peer, an adult they knew,

or someone they did not know before).

• Being asked to do something sexually explicit online they were uncomfortable with (by a peer,

an adult they knew, or someone they did not know before).

Definition for ‘Child sexual exploitation and abuse online’

Child sexual exploitation and abuse that is partly or entirely facilitated by technology, i.e. the internet

or other wireless communications.