One in three children in Ukraine is at risk of sexual exploitation online – research findings 

One in three children in Ukraine has been exposed to situations involving risk of sexual violence or exploitation online at least several times in the past year.

This was revealed during a presentation of research results at the Media Center Ukraine by Olha Ovchar, PhD, Director of the Proinsight Lab Agency.

“We asked children to evaluate certain situations that we believe are related  to threats of sexual violence or risks of sexual exploitation in the past year. At least one in three children had experienced these situations at least a few times in their personal experience,” she said.

The most common incidents include receiving messages with sexual overtones, attempts by strangers to arrange real-life meetings with children after online contact, receiving photos or videos of someone else’s naked body, and requests to send intimate pictures.

Olha Ovchar noted that these risks are unevenly distributed among different groups of children.

“Unfortunately, gender analysis shows that at least four of these situations are significantly more common among girls, and all of the listed situations are more common among older teens aged 14-17. Only one situation – discussing sexual topics with someone online – occurs equally among boys and girls,” she added.

At the same time, only about one-third of children who experienced such threats reported them to adults.

“A striking finding is whether children talk about such incidents at all. It turns out that about 60% of children don’t tell anyone. When they do confide, it’s mostly to friends, and only a third of them told an adult – a parent or relative,” Olha Ovchar concluded.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news