Sexual violence online

About one third of internet users worldwide are children and young people up to 18 years old.

When used appropriately and across the board, internet can change the lives of children and young people, especially the most vulnerable, impoverished and isolated; thus, the use of these technologies can give them a glimpse of opportunities and new ways to succeed.

However, internet and its use is not free of risks, especially for children and young people: it can make them more susceptible to different forms of violence, including sexual violence.

According to the UNICEF report "State of the World's Children - Children in a digital world", three types of risks for children can be identified:

  • On content, namely exposure to unwanted and inappropriate content, such as sexual, pornographic and violent images, as well as some forms of advertising, racist, discriminatory or hate speech material, sites that foster dangerous behaviour, such as self-harm, suicide and other forms of sacrifice;

  • On contact, namely when a child has conversations with an adult person who seeks contacts of a sexual nature or with the aim of persuading the victim to participate in activities that jeopardise their well-being;

  • On conduct, namely when a child behaves in a way that contributes to risks of content or contact, jeopardising the well-being of the other person, but also his or her own.

Sexting

The phenomenon of sexting consists of sending, through digital technology (smartphone, tablet, computer, social networks, email, instant messenger...), sexual or erotic content, by any format (text, audio, call, video call, photo, video, GIF, emoji, among others).

According to the study conducted by Madigan et al., published in 2018 in the journal JAWA Pediatrics, about 15% (over 10,000 respondents) have already sent messages of a sexual nature and 27% say they have received them.

According to the same study, one in eight adolescents (12.5%) have already forwarded messages they received with sexual content without the sender's knowledge.

Sexting may be due to several factors, such as the massification of the use of technology in society, aggressive marketing aimed at consumption and sexualisation, peer pressure, grooming or extortion.

Sextortion

After sharing content, some offenders use this content as a form of coercion towards the victims.

When this happens, the child may be threatened with the disclosure of those same photos to their group of friends and/or family members, as a way to obtain more intimate contents, monetary compensation or making this a way to lead to a physical encounter between the child and an adult.

Grooming

Some of the online acts committed in order for an adult to meet face-to-face with a child for the purpose of having sexual relations with them are called grooming.

Grooming is a process of manipulation in which an adult initiates a non-sexual approach, usually in order to convince a child or young person to meet with them, with the purpose of consummating the sexual abuse.

This adult person may seek to encourage children or young people to produce and send sexualised content of their own.

Many of these grooming practices take place in chats on online gaming platforms and on social networks.

There are some indicators that may lead one to suspect that a child or youngster is being a victim of these conducts:

  • spending a lot of time online and always wanting to do so away from parents or carers, for example, locked in their room;

  • great social isolation;

  • existence of some sleep disturbance due to the fact that the online activity continues until the early hours of the morning;

  • existence of eating disorders and high anxiety.

Disclaimer

Some of the information on this website has been simplified so that it can be understood by everyone. This simplification does not, however, put in question the accuracy and correctness of the contents. The content of this website was created by APAV as part of the CARE plus project, funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The content reflects the point of view of APAV, which cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.