REPORT
Research Report with Actionable Recommendations for the Tech Industry
20 February 2024
In a groundbreaking study released by the Helsinki-based child rights NGO, Protect Children, alarming new insights are unveiled about the technology platforms that offenders frequently use to sexually abuse and exploit children online. The research surveyed over 30,000 active online child sexual abuse material offenders and uncovers significant information to tackle the proliferation of online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Protect Children’s study, funded by the Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund, brings to light the distressing ease of accessing child sexual abuse material on the open web, predominantly through social media platforms and pornography websites. A staggering 77% of surveyed offenders encountered such material on the open web, with 41% indicating that the open web provided them with information on how to access child sexual abuse material on the dark web.
This report is written by Tegan Insoll, Head of Research; Valeriia Soloveva, Specialist; Eva Díaz Bethencourt, Specialist; Anna Ovaska, Deputy Director; and Nina Vaaranen-Valkonen, Executive Director.
About the funder:
The research was conducted with the support of the Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund. However, the opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of the author Protect Children and do not necessarily reflect those of Safe Online or the Tech Coalition.
Safe Online is the only global investment vehicle dedicated to keeping children safe in the digital world. Through investing in innovation and bringing key actors together, Safe Online helps shape a digital world that is safe and empowering for all children and young people, everywhere. The Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund is a groundbreaking collaboration fuelling actionable research and uniting the tech industry with academia in a bold alliance to end online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
