One in five internet-using children across 21 countries, including Thailand, has experienced online sexual exploitation or abuse in a single year, according to a new UNICEF report described as one of the largest studies ever conducted on the issue.
The report, titled Through Children’s Eyes: How Digital Technologies Enable Child Sexual Abuse, was released by UNICEF’s Office of Research this week. It draws on surveys of about 21,000 internet-using children aged 12 to 17, alongside in-depth interviews with 100 young people who experienced abuse in childhood.
The research estimates that around 20 million children across the 21 countries surveyed were sexually exploited or abused through digital technologies in a single year. More than 15 million children were exposed to unwanted sexual content, more than 9 million were pressured into sexual conversations or asked to share sexual images, and about 4 million had sexual images shared without their consent.
Thailand was among 12 countries included in the first round of the research, alongside Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, with data collected primarily in 2020 to 2021. A second round, conducted in 2024 to 2025, expanded the study to nine further countries.
Nearly 60% of cases took place on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp, the report found. About 14% happened in online games, where features and design were used to exploit trust.
More than half of cases, 57%, involved someone the child already knew, including peers, romantic partners, friends and family members, challenging the assumption that online abuse is mainly committed by strangers. Meanwhile, 38% of children first encountered the perpetrator online.
Less than 1% of all experiences were reported to police, a social worker or a helpline, and more than four in ten cases were disclosed to no one at all, according to the findings.
Children subjected to online sexual exploitation and abuse were four times more likely to report suicidal thoughts or behaviours and four times more likely to self-harm, the analysis found. They also reported anxiety levels around 11 percentage points higher than their peers.
John Livingstone, head of digital policy at UNICEF Australia, said the platforms identified in the research are the same ones used by children every day. He said governments, regulators and technology companies must build safety into products from the outset, rather than relying on children and parents to manage risks after harm has occurred.
The report was produced as part of the Disrupting Harm project, run jointly by UNICEF, ECPAT International and Interpol. Because the survey sample includes only internet-using children, the findings are considered representative of that group rather than all children, particularly in countries with lower internet connectivity.
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