Global Threat Assessment 2023 Data

GLOBAL THREAT ASSESSMENT 2023

This page contains key data from the report which you can search using keywords to see information relevant to your region, a theme or topic area.

87% increase

in volume of child sexual abuse material reports since 2019

Source: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2023

7,200% increase

in reports of financial sexual extortion targeting children 2021-2022

Source: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2023

32 million

reports of child sexual abuse material analysed in 2023

Source: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2023

360% increase

in ‘self-generated’ sexual imagery of 7-10 year olds from 2020 to 2022

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2022

45 minutes

is the average time for a child to be locked into a high-risk grooming conversation while gaming online – it can take as little as 19 seconds

Source: Crisp, 2023

60%

of perpetrators were known to the victim

Source: IBSEAC study, 2023

54% of 18-year old

respondents globally had experienced online sexual harm during childhood

Source: Economist Impact, 2023

1.3 million views in 47 days

one single dark web forum post related to child sexual abuse

Source: US Department of Justice, 2023

64.6% of the world’s population

(5.18 billion people) – are active internet users as of April 2023 

Source: Statista, 2023

7-10 year-olds

felt safest on private messaging apps and gaming platforms, despite research showing this is where online abuse often takes place

Source: #MyVoiceMySafety poll, 2023

97% of children aged 3-17

went online in 2022

Source: Ofcom, 2023

75% of people aged 15-24 were online

in 2022, compared to 65% of the rest of the population

Source: International Telecommunication Union, 2022

93% of child sexual abuse material

detected over the past three years has featured girls 

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2022

98%

of first-hand accounts of sexual extortion victims-survivors shared publicly were made by males

Source: Canadian Centre for Child Protection C3P, 2022

Up to 20% of children

in 13 countries of Eastern and Southern Africa and Southeast Asia were subjected to child sexual exploitation and abuse online in the past year alone, depending on the country

Source: Disrupting Harm, 2022

Almost 75% of victim-survivors

of child sexual exploitation and abuse online  in the US are females

Source: IBSEAC study, 2023

25% increase

in ‘self-generated’ imagery of boys from 2021 to 2022

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2023

79% of 18 year olds 

belonging to an ethnic or racial minority experienced at least one sexual harm during childhood, compared with 68% who did not belong to a ​​minority

Source: Economist Impact, 2023

100 million children

pushed into multi-dimensional poverty by COVID-19

Source: United National General Assembly, 2023

54% of US teens respondents

reported having first seen online pornography when they were aged 13 or younger

Source: Common Sense, 2022

58% of US teens respondents

aged 13 or younger indicated that they had encountered pornography accidentally

Source: Common Sense, 2022

22% to 48% of children 

reported accidental exposure to sexual content depending on the country

Source: Disrupting Harm, 2022

99.5% of reports

in 2022 were of incidents of suspected child sexual abuse material

Source: National Center  for Missing and Exploited Children, 2023

 46% of surveyed victims-survivors 

of financial sexual extortion were children

Source: Wolak,J.et al. 2017

Online grooming crimes have risen by 80%

in the past four years

Source: the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 2022

54% of respondents 

who received sexually explicit material received at least some through a private video sharing service, and 46% through a private messaging service

Source: WeProtect Global Alliance and Economist Impact, 2021

Increased from 27% to 78%

the number of webpages featuring ‘self-generated’ sexual imagery from 2018 to 2022

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2022

Children aged 11-13

feature most in reports of ‘self-generated’ imagery, with girls in this age group representing 50% of all reports actioned in 2022

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2022

20,000 webpages

including coerced ‘self-generated’ sexual abuse imagery of 7-10 year olds identified  in the first half of 2022

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2022

129% increase 

in reports related to imagery which had been created of children aged 7-10 who were tricked/ groomed into performing sexual acts on camera by an online predator since 2021

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2023

500,000 Filipino children

were victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and abuse online in 2022. This translates to roughly one in 100 Filipino children

Source: Scale of Harm, 2023

90% of URLs 

displaying child sexual abuse material were on openly accessible, free-to-use image hosting services  in 2022 

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2022

64.5% 

of  most common reported risk to children across social media platforms was ‘content of interest to predators’

Source: Crisp, 2023

302,392 respondents

opened the global dark web survey targeted at individuals who had searched for child sexual abuse material from 2021 to 2023 

Source: Suojellan Lapsia, 2023

70% of senior IT professionals

from Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK stated that increased working from home has heightened the risk of the spread of child sexual abuse material

Source: NetClean, 2023

94% of members

from six different dark web forums, with more than 600,000 active members and 760,000 posts,  downloaded child sexual abuse content

Source: Mare, 2023

38% of respondents

from dark web survey actively sought online contact with a child after viewing child sexual abuse ​​material

Source: Suojellaan Lapsia, 2023

Only 7.5% 

of child sexual abuse material on the dark web network is sold for profit

Source: Liggett,R. 2018

In 2022, 89% of actioned reports

of child sexual exploitation and abuse online were non- commercial

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2022

Female perpetrators were indicated  20%

of the time in abuse cases

Source: WeProtect Global Alliance and ECPAT International, 2022

 25%  of respondents

in dark web study targeting  individuals searching for child sexual abuse material reported using images and videos related to violent, sadistic, and brutal ​material

Source: Suojellaan Lapsia, 2023

Increase by 425%

venture capital investment in generative artificial intelligence (AI), from 2020 to 2022

Source: Financial Times, 2023

Over $1.1 trillion by 2030

forecasted size of the global market for XR

Source: Transparency Market Research, 2020

4.90 billion social media users

worldwide  in 2023 compared to 4.26 billion in 2021

Source: Statista, 2023

Decrease: 77% in 2020 to 41% in 2022

the proportion of child sexual abuse material hosted in the Netherlands went from after a series of interventions led by the Dutch government

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2020

Increased from 5% to 15%

the proportion of child sexual abuse material hosted in the US in 2022

Source: Internet Watch Foundation, 2022

Over 350 safety tech providers

were operating globally in 2022

Source: Publitas 2022

79% of 18-year old respondents

had received sexually explicit content on their mobile phone

Source: WeProtect Global Alliance and Economist Impact 2023

55% of children

in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, have access to the internet through a personal mobile device

Source: Economist Impact, 2023

50% growth in non-English

language terminology related to child sexual abuse

Source: Crisp, 2023

30 of the top 50 online platforms

do not issue transparency reports covering steps taken to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse ​​online

Source: OECD, 2023

Decrease by almost 80%

the number of reports of suspected child sexual abuse from larger platforms will reduce with the adoption of E2EE

Source: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2023

3 million CAD (approx. £1.8 million)

the budget allocated by the Government of Canada to support a comprehensive approach to combating online child sexual exploitation, including prevention measures

Source: PA Consulting engagement with Talking for Change, 2023

23%  increase

in number of  countries collecting prevalence data on the number of recorded and reported cases of sexual violence against children, since 2019

Source: Out of the Shadows Index, 2022

83% of countries

surveyed  conduct some form of national research, analysis, and monitoring of online-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse

Source: WeProtect Global Alliance and UNICEF, 2022

50% of countries 

surveyed  have discussed or adopted universally agreed terminology

Source: WeProtect Global Alliance and UNICEF, 2022

In 2022, 68%

of suspected child sexual abuse material cases were referred to law enforcement – a 20% increase from 2021

Source: INHOPE, 2023

43% of the 111 million TikTok videos

removed from the platform in 2022 were removed by automated systems

Source: The Verge 2022

 88 million

of the Cyber Tipline reports received in 2022 contained media files, of which 37 million were videos

Source: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2022

89 UN Member States

and 344 investigators are registered to the AI for Safer Children Global Hub

Source: email received from Ministry of Interior, United Arab Emirates 26/07/2023

12 in 13 countries

not connected to INTERPOL’s International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database are low- and middle-income countries

Source: WeProtect Global Alliance and UNICEF, 2022

 39% of surveyed

dark web users reported they had viewed child sexual abuse livestreaming

Source: Suojellan Lapsia, 2023

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