TWO-THIRDS OF CHILDREN INTERACT ONLINE DAILY WITH PEOPLE THEY DON’T KNOW, DESPITE FEAR OF GROOMING – REPORT

SYDNEY, September 25, 2024 – More than six in 10 children with access to the internet have daily contact with “unknown others” despite concerns about online grooming, new research from Save the Children and Western Sydney University has found, highlighting children’s demand for better online protection.

The research team conducted in-depth interviews with approximately 600 children and young people aged 8 to 18 from Australia, Finland, the Philippines, Cambodia, Colombia, Kenya and South Africa. They shared their views and experiences of inappropriate online requests for personal information or images.

The report ‘Protecting Children from Online Grooming’ was written by Western Sydney University’s Young & Resilient Research Centre and funded by the global child safety investment fund Safe Online as part of the Tech Coalition Safe Online Research Fund.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, incidents of online grooming and child sexual and financial exploitation have reached an all-time high (1), with an 82% increase in online grooming offences against children reported during that period (2). Online grooming practices have also transformed, with the fastest growing form of online grooming targeting young men for financial extortion (3).

The report found that children were more likely to connect with strangers – or ‘unknown others’ – online as they got older and became more social. This was motivated by a desire for friendship, fun and play, followed by a desire to keep up with trends and events, and to connect over shared interests.

The findings also showed that children across cultures and age groups were more suspicious of people they didn’t know online than people they knew in real life, but that most (66%) of the study participants still had daily contact with ‘unknown others’ online.

Children from high-income families were twice as likely to use privacy settings to protect themselves from unwanted contact, compared to children from low-income families. However, the potential for financial benefits provided an incentive for children from middle-income countries to connect with strangers online, potentially jeopardizing their safety.

While children have come up with countless ways to protect themselves, they are calling for widespread, accessible and targeted online safety education for themselves and their caregivers. In the discussions, children also made concrete suggestions about how technology platforms and governments can make changes that will keep them safer online.

Sonisay*, an 11-12 year old girl from rural Cambodia, said:

“Adults need to know that children interact with strangers, keep an eye on them and read their chats.”

Angel*, 15-17 years old and from a city in the Philippines, said:

“Adults need to be aware of today’s highly computer literate children… To support and protect children, adults need to understand that children are comfortable using the Internet, which encourages them to interact with strangers.”

Charlie* 14 years old from Australia stressed the need to start online safety education earlier:

“Educating young children about technology safety and its dangers…adults only start this education for older children on social media, when the problem may be with video games played by young children.”

Children reported that it was very difficult to determine the intentions of strangers online. Children were also particularly concerned about being asked for personal information or nude photos, being drawn into inappropriate sexually oriented exchanges, or being exposed to criminal activity.

The report shows that children want and need better protection online. Children should rely primarily on their intuition and background checks when navigating their online interactions with people they don’t know, rather than on help from trusted adults.

The data also showed that children differentiate between people they know well, both online and in person, and people they only know online, with 86% approaching the latter with caution. Despite this caution, children were still three times more likely to ignore or deny an inappropriate or unwanted request than to report or block it.

Steve Miller, Save the Children’s Global Director of Child Protection, said:

“Children deserve to thrive in a safe and nurturing environment – ​​both online and offline. As the digital landscape evolves, so do the challenges and threats, including the threat of online grooming and exploitation. We must create a digital environment that is not only safe, but also enriching, so that children can explore, learn and grow without fear. Policymakers must listen to the voices and experiences of children when designing policies that protect them.”

Professor Amanda Third, Co-Director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University, said:

“Protecting children from online grooming requires a whole-of-community approach. Governments, NGOs, technology platforms, teachers, parents, carers and children themselves all have an important role to play. However, to tackle this problem most effectively, it is crucial that we listen to the views and experiences of children and young people and involve them as active partners in the research and policy design process. Children and young people are finding their own ways to tackle this problem and design solutions, but they are also looking to us to help them and their carers with the skills and knowledge they need to navigate these rapidly evolving digital environments safely.”

Save the Children has launched a major global initiative to support digital inclusion and build the next generation of resilient digital citizens. Save the Children’s Safe Digital Childhood initiative involves working with schools, communities and tech leaders to break down barriers to digital inclusion by ensuring that the least-resourced children have access to devices and connectivity; delivering targeted digital literacy and citizenship programs; helping technology industry partners integrate child-centered safeguards into their platforms; and empowering children to assert their rights in the digital world.

The Young & Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University is an international research centre headquartered in Australia that brings together young people with researchers, practitioners, innovators and policymakers to explore the role of technology in the lives of children and young people, and how technology can be used to enhance the resilience of individuals and communities across generations.

Safe Online is the only global investment vehicle dedicated to keeping children safe in the digital world. By investing in innovation and bringing together key actors, 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, which funded the research, is a groundbreaking collaboration that drives actionable research and brings together the tech industry, academia and civil society in a bold alliance to end online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

*Names have been changed to protect identities

(1) WeProtect Global Threat Assessment data 2023

(2) NSPCC. (2023, 15 August). 82% increase in online grooming crimes against children in past 5 years.

(3) WeProtect’s Global Threat Assessment Data 2023