Protecting children from sexual abuse online

eSafety, police and researchers see reports of online sexual abuse increasing each year – and we know not all abuse is reported. It’s important for parents and carers to understand how it happens and how to help prevent it.

We can take steps to help children avoid harm and feel safe and confident when they’re online. We can do this by paying attention to their online experiences, helping them build skills, using safety features in games and apps, and making it easy for them to ask for help if things go wrong. 

It’s also important to have open conversations about online risks with children, without scaring them. Talking about online child sexual abuse in a way that’s appropriate to their age and development makes it easier for children to speak up when they need help.

How it happens

Child sexual abuse can happen online using any device or platform that lets people connect through the internet - including gaming apps, messaging services and social media. The abuse doesn’t need to be physical to have a harmful impact. It usually happens when a child is persuaded or pressured to do things like talk about private parts of their body, share nude images, or get sexual in an online chat or video call. Sending a child sexually explicit material is also abuse. 

Online child sexual abuse can happen very quickly, even at home, without parents and carers knowing. The child often doesn’t understand they’re in danger, and may not know what has happened to them is abuse and wrong. 

The person who abuses the child online can be a relative, a friend or a stranger. They may first build an online friendship with the child around things they both like, such as games they’re playing online, to gain their trust. They may even pretend to be another child. Often they trick, scare, blackmail or flatter the child into doing what they ask. This process is often referred to as ‘grooming.’ The abuser may then start to become sexual with the child online, or arrange to meet them in person. eSafety has more information to help you understand online child grooming and unwanted contact.

It’s also important to know that sometimes children are threatened or blackmailed over sexual images or videos. This is called sexual extortion (or ‘sextortion’). Sexual abusers usually do this to make the child send more images or videos or get sexual online. But scammers also do it for financial gain. They trick the child into sending sexual content or getting sexual online, then threaten to share the content on social media or to show the child’s family and friends unless they pay money to the blackmailer. Teenage boys are often targeted online by people pretending to be young women who are sexually or romantically interested in them, and falling for the scam can put them at high risk of self-harm.

Nude, sexual or sexualised images or videos of children are sometimes called ‘child sexual abuse material’ (CSAM) or ‘child sexual exploitation material’ (CSEM). When children are shown in this material it can impact their mental health into adulthood. This includes images and videos that have been faked through processes such as photo editing and generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools that create deepfakes.

The impacts

Children who have been sexually abused online are four times more likely to experience mental health problems, according to the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. The impacts can be experienced immediately after the abuse and throughout their lives. They can include: 

• not being able to participate fully in life online and offline
• feelings of shame and worthlessness, and blaming themselves
• depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder
• nightmares and trouble sleeping
• relationship difficulties, including with trust and intimacy.

Child sexual abuse that happens online can be extremely distressing for children and young people, but the support of trusted adults can help them to recover. 

If a child in your care is sexually abused online, it’s very important to get help quickly.

Get help now

If you think your child might be experiencing sexual abuse, there are things you can do to help them. 

• Stay calm. Listen and believe them.
• If the child is in Australia and is in immediate danger, call Triple Zero (000) or your local police on 131 444.
• Any type of suspected child sexual abuse or exploitation, including grooming, should be reported to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE). The child can make a report themselves, or an adult can help them. Or you can make an anonymous report to Crime Stoppers at crimestoppers.com.au or 1800 333 000.
• Anyone can report online child sexual exploitation and abuse material to eSafety at any time, so we can have it removed. Your report can be anonymous.
• Anyone whose nude or sexual image or video has been shared online without their consent can report it to eSafety, so we can have it removed. 
• The TakeItDown tool provides a secure, anonymous way to prevent sexual images or videos being uploaded and shared on a range of online platforms and services. 
• There are many counselling and support services that help children who have experienced sexual abuse, including grooming, and their families. These are listed on the ACCCE website.

Watch more videos to help you understand what child sexual abuse online is, how to prevent it, and what to do if it happens to a child in your care.

One of the most effective ways to help protect your child is to talk regularly and openly with them about what they’re doing online, how it makes them feel and who they’re connecting with, as well as risks like sexual abuse. 

Arming your child with information about sexual abuse and how to get help if it happens to them is part of creating a safe environment that helps them grow and thrive.

Your child’s personal development and digital skills will influence their activities online and the harms they may experience. It’s helpful to talk about online safety as soon as your child is using digital devices, but they will benefit no matter when you start the conversation. Having lots of little talks instead of one big one can help too.

Try to balance conversations about online risks with positive things about online experiences. Listening to children can help them feel comfortable talking about both good and bad things that happen online. Ask open-ended questions like ‘What did you see online this week that made you laugh?’ These conversations can help you build a strong relationship and recognise if they need help. 

Parents and carers can also help children and young people know that respectful relationships online are based on healthy connections and behaviours between people. Encouraging equality, empathy and understanding can help prevent abuse and violence.

What to say

The most important conversations parents and carers can have to protect children are similar to those that protect them from offline abuse. You can talk about these things:

• The right to feel safe online, and to have a say in things like photos of them being taken and shared. 
• The importance of consent in online situations. Children and young people can’t legally consent to sexual activity with adults. For more information on Australian consent laws, see the Australian Institute for Family Studies.
• Who they can talk with about things that happen online, including sexual activity or relationships. 
• ‘Red flags’ or warning signs that a situation online isn’t safe, including recognising online abuse. Unsafe situations can include being pressured to do sexual things online or keep an online relationship a secret. You can also talk about body clues that we are feeling scared or uncomfortable.
• What to do if something is unsafe online, including knowing when and where to seek help. Let your child know that even if a person who makes them uncomfortable stops what they are doing or saying, they should still tell a trusted adult about what happened.

Always make it clear to your child that they won’t be in trouble if they come to you for help, and you’ll help them recover if they make mistakes or someone harms them.

More tips and examples

We know that conversations about sex can be awkward and deciding when to have them is challenging and different for each family. eSafety has developed further advice to help you understand what online behaviours to expect at different ages and how to have suitable conversations about sexual abuse. The age ranges are only a guide – you know your child best, so you should follow the tips that match their maturity.

Talking about online child sexual abuse with 0 to 12 year olds: Support for parents, carers and other trusted adults to have conversations with children about online experiences, asking for help, trusted adults, body safety, respectful relationships and recognising unsafe situations. 

Talking about online child sexual abuse with 13 to 18 year olds: Support for parents, carers and other trusted adults to have conversations with young people about online experiences, respectful relationships, recognising unsafe situations, threats to share nude images or videos, what to do if their nudes are shared, and safety planning. 

You can also find more information about how to talk with children about sexual abuse on the Raising Children Network website and in the National Office for Child Safety conversation toolkit.

Children are connecting with more people than ever online, so it’s important to help them stay in control of who can contact them. In 2024, an eSafety study found that more than half (55%) of Australian children surveyed have been in contact with someone they first met online, while only a third (34%) of parents know about their children’s online contacts.

Often children are excited about making new connections, so it can be helpful to explain that online spaces are often public, even if we access them in the privacy of our homes. This means we shouldn’t share things online that we wouldn’t share in a public place like a park or at school.

Checking settings

Regularly check and update privacy and security settings on younger children’s devices and accounts to limit who can contact them and how their information can be used. Help older children by reminding them to keep reviewing their settings themselves. This is especially important for gaming and social media, where the defaults may be set to allow anyone to connect with your child, including strangers or known people who are unsafe.

A good way to start reviewing privacy and safety settings is by looking up The eSafety Guide with your child to check the settings available on the apps, sites and platforms they use, so they get into good safety habits online. 

Search your child’s name online using incognito mode, for example on Google or Bing, to find out who can view their profile, photos, videos or other information about them. If this information is public, help your child change their privacy settings to limit who can see it. You can do the same with your own name.

Setting up parental controls

Parental controls are used to check and limit what your child can see and do online. For example, you may want to block and filter certain websites and stop your child downloading apps without your permission, so they’re less likely to see harmful content online. You can also block the use of features like a device’s camera. 

eSafety has more advice about parental controls.

Age-appropriate supervision is important when children are using devices, just like when they’re in public spaces offline such as playgrounds and shopping centres. It’s usually best to find a balance – on one hand you need to stay aware of what your child is doing online and be available to provide guidance, on the other hand they need to be able to enjoy online activities and have a level of independence and privacy that’s suited to their maturity.

Paying attention to how kids and teenagers are using their devices is likely to help you spot issues early. Think about these things:

• Your child’s location. For example, a bathroom isn’t an appropriate area for devices to be used in any circumstances because it's an area for private activities. Another example is that while older children may need to use their devices in their bedroom to do homework, you can still encourage gaming in common areas such as the kitchen or lounge room so you can hear what’s going on and spot issues early. 
• The type of online activities your child is engaging in. For example, sharing photos or videos, online or video chat, live streaming and gaming can be higher risk activities. Encouraging your child not to use headphones while talking with others can reduce the risk of unhealthy secret communication and activity.
• Who your child is connecting with. For example, unsupervised multi-aged groups can be a higher risk setting. Gaming is one of the main ways children connect with others online, and that can mean playing in open worlds and violent environments with older children or adults, so reviewing privacy settings is important.

Diverse experiences

You may need to pay extra attention and adjust your support for children with diverse experiences.

Research by eSafety has shown that young LGBTIQ+ people use the internet to access support and connect with other people like themselves, but can also experience additional risks online. It’s important they feel safe and supported as they ask questions and seek their sense of belonging. Depending on their age and maturity, eSafety’s LGBTIQ+ young people resources and the LGBTIQ+ learning lounge can help keep them safe online.

Children with a disability or who are neurodivergent commonly have different experiences and exposure to risk online, so it’s best to match your supervision and conversations to their needs. It may be helpful to read eSafety’s research on the digital lives of young people with disability. You can also help support autistic young people with safe, healthy video gaming with resources from Amaze. The Raising Children Network also has specific advice for keeping autistic children and young people safe from child sexual abuse. 

Whatever your child’s experiences, let them know you will always try to help them. You can say things like ‘I may not have gone through the same things when I was growing up, but you can still talk with me and come to me with questions. If I don’t know the answers, we can find them together. Or I can help you find other people or information you can trust.’

Away from home

It’s useful to consider how your child is supervised online when they’re not at home. For example, ask their pre-school or school about device use and supervision, and make sure children are supervised when they are in multi-age groups and activities. It’s also good to think about whether other adults such as co-parents, grandparents and babysitters know how to keep your child safe around devices – you could share this page with them, to help them understand the issue and protect your child.

Worrying behaviour

If you’re worried about a child’s sexual behaviour online, it’s important to get support – this makes it less likely they will continue the harmful behaviour as adults. The Raising Children Network has more information to help.

Thinking carefully about who’s in your online network is just as important as knowing who’s in your child’s network, especially if you share photos and videos of them online. 

For example, research by the Australian Institute of Criminology shows that some people use dating apps to meet others so they can contact and abuse their children. The abuser may connect with your child directly, or ask you for sexual information about them, or sexual images or videos of them.

No matter how you connect with others, keep these things in mind:

• Avoid sharing photos, videos and comments that include your child’s full name, anything that identifies their school or home address or the details of their after-school activities. It’s also a good idea to change your own privacy settings, especially on social media, so only people you trust can see posts about your children.
• Photos and videos don’t have to be nude, sexual or sexualised to be used or shared in dangerous ways. For example, AI tools can be used to fake sexual content of real children, even if they’re clothed in the original images or videos. Instead of sharing snaps and reels of your kids publicly online, consider sending them in more private ways only to people you trust, such as by a text or messaging app. 
• If you do decide to share photos or videos of your child, it’s also good to ask your child if it’s OK. This will help show them how to respect other people’s privacy.

You can help increase community safety by talking about online child sexual abuse with friends and other parents and carers. This makes it harder for abuse to happen.

There’s a lot of stigma about sexual abuse, so both adults and children can feel too scared or ashamed to talk about it, especially if it’s happened to them. Being more open about the issue in our communities helps people feel more comfortable reaching out for help or helping someone else. 

• Ask friends and other parents and carers questions like ‘How do you help your child feel safe and comfortable online?’ and ‘How do you talk with your kids about staying safe from sexual grooming and abuse online?’
• The National Office for Child Safety has advice for talking with other adults about child sexual abuse and how to get support for it.
• You can also join eSafety’s webinars for parents and carers to learn more about online safety, and encourage others to join too.

Translated factsheets

Advice summaries on Protecting children and young people from sexual abuse online and Talking about child sexual abuse online with children and young people are available in these languages:

• عربي (Arabic)
• 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
• ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (Punjabi)

It is illegal to view, share or produce sexually suggestive or explicit images or videos of children. This content can be reported directly to the platform where you see it and to eSafety.gov.au/report so it can be removed. eSafety also helps law enforcement agencies to identify and support the victims. 

All reports about illegal and restricted online content can be made anonymously – that means you don’t have to give your name or contact details.

Learn more about topics including child sexual abuse online, image-based abuse and illegal and harmful content.