Online sexual victimisation of children and young people in Australia
Online sexual victimisation in childhood is common in Australia, especially for girls, according to a joint eSafety-Queensland University of Technology research project.
The survey of 3500 Australians aged 16 to 24 years investigated two important types of online sexual victimisation in childhood:
- sharing of a sexual image of themselves without their consent
- online sexual solicitation by an adult (being asked to talk about sex or send sexual images).
The research found that before the age of 18:
- 7.6% experienced sharing of a sexual image of themselves without consent
- 17.7% experienced online sexual solicitation by an adult
- of those who had experienced online sexual victimisation, 15% experienced sharing of a sexual image of themselves without consent before the age of 13, and 17.7% experienced online sexual solicitation by an adult before the age of 13
- girls are around three times more likely than boys to have experienced online sexual victimisation
- the sharing of sexual images without consent is most often perpetrated by other adolescents, whereas online sexual solicitation is most often perpetrated by unknown adults.
©Queensland University of Technology, 2024
Top level findings and recommendations
About the research
As part of the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) and led by child safety expert Professor Ben Mathews, 3500 Australians aged 16 to 24 years were surveyed to measure the national prevalence of online sexual victimisation before age 18. The nature and extent of the experience among young Australians provides further support for the uptake and development by technology platforms of safety-by-design as well as encouraging the reporting of incidents to regulatory bodies and law enforcement.
The ACMS online sexual victimisation research was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, with additional funding and contributions from the Australian Government Department of Social Services, the National Office for Child Safety, and the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse.
In collaboration with eSafety, a freely-accessible paper has been published in Child Abuse & Neglect (Vol 160, February 2025). The paper sets out the study and its findings in detail.
(The findings and views reported in the research are those of the authors.)
Resources
Advice and links for online safety.
Child sexual abuse online provides advice and links to information about protecting children from sexual abuse online, including for parents, carers and educators.
Protecting children from sexual abuse online has information for parents and carers.
Keeping children safe online in communities has resources for organisations, services and practices to help prevent and handle online risks and harms, while improving online safety among families.
Young people provides useful information to help children and teens stay safe online.