In this report we have studied children’s experiences, attitudes and strategies for dealing with sexual abuse, online and outside the internet. We have also performed a comparison of children’s responses to ECPAT Sweden’s (ECPAT) online survey “Nude Online” in 2021 and 2023. The survey has been developed and refined over time, but the questions we have chosen to ask children about attitudes to sexual crimes have been retained without change – for the very reason that we want to be able to study change.
Our findings show that the vast majority of children have a positive attitude towards the internet and the opportunities it provides to help them develop, be inspired and meet others, but that the internet can also be a place where it is difficult to be open and honest, and where there is a risk of ending up in conflict with others or being subjected to crime. The internet can be a forum for inspiration but also a place where there is a risk of meeting other people who do not respect one’s boundaries. Furthermore, the internet can be a place where norms, trends and gender roles are maintained and reinforced, which can lead to a trivialisation of some crimes and a normalisation of transgressive and illegal forms of behaviour.
We can see that children’s exposure to online sexual crimes continues to be high, and we have not seen any significant change in this respect over the years we have carried out our surveys. Almost all girls and more than half of all boys have received an unsolicited nude photo at some time. We also see that, among the children who have been subjected to two or more crimes, the level of exposure to crime is at the same level as in previous years.
Sexual exploitation of children is a serious and globally widespread crime that can manifest in many ways, including through so-called livestreamed sexual abuse. To combat this, ECPAT Sweden’s Financial Coalition launched ”Project Indicators” with the long term goal of preventing payments for child sexual abuse. The project itself focused on livestreamed sexual abuse of children, […]
As a parent, or if you are an adult in some other key role, being involved in children’s lives, both online and offline, is crucial for their safety and security. But it is not always easy to know how to act and talk to a child without encroaching on the child’s privacy and opportunities for […]
A report on exposure to sexual crime among children who identify as LGBTQIA+ This report is based on ECPAT Sweden’s (ECPAT) story-based survey “Nude Online” from 2022 and focuses on vulnerability to sexual crime among children who identify as LGBTQIA+, and their views on sex and relationships on the internet. Of the 6,919 children who […]
In ECPAT Sweden’s (ECPAT) work to combat the sexual exploitation of children, we have seen how an increasingly large proportion of the crimes have moved to the internet. In recent years, we have noted the emergence of a new type of crime that is largely targeted at teenage boys. It differs from the typical sexual […]