More Than 300 million Children are Victims of Sexual Abuse, New Research Shows
New research suggests that more than 300 million children yearly are victims of sexual exploitation and abuse. According to researchers at the University of Edinburgh, one in eight children or 12.6% of the world’s children have been victims of sexual exploitation including exposure to sexual images and video in the past year. This amounts to about 302 million young people.
In addition, 12.5% of children worldwide; 300 million have been subject to online solicitation including unwanted sexual talk and also sexual act requests.
Offences may also take the form of “sextortion” where predators demand money to keep the nude images private, according to 7% of British men equivalent to 1.8 million admitted to offending children online at some point. The University’s Childlight Initiative’s new global index, Into The Light, the statistics are equivalent of filling Wembley Stadium more than twenty times.
Childlight Chief Executive Paul Stanfield shared, “This is on a staggering scale that in the UK alone equates to forming a line of male offenders that could stretch all the way from Glasgow to London,”
“Child abuse material is so prevalent that files are on average reported to watchdog and policing organisations once every second.
“This is a global health pandemic that has remained hidden for far too long. It occurs in every country, it’s growing exponentially, and it requires a global response.
“We need to act urgently and treat it as a public health issue that can be prevented. Children can’t wait.”
The Childlight initiative revealed that one in nine men in the US an estimated 1 million people admitted offending against children on social media. 7.5% of men in Australia also say the same. According to the research, a number of men admitted they would commit physical sexual offences if they thought it would be kept private.
Debi Fry, professor of international child protection at the university, said it affects children “in every classroom, in every school, in every country”.
She revealed : “These aren’t harmless images, they are deeply damaging, and the abuse continues with every view and the failure of taking down this abusive content.”
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