More than 20 million children were targeted for sexual abuse on the Internet

About 20 million children in 21 countries around the world, including in Europe, were targeted for sexual abuse on the Internet, according to a study conducted by UNICEF in conjunction with Interpol. The study reveals that only in the past year, one in five children between the ages of 12 and 17 who use the Internet were groomed and exploited on digital platforms by people they already knew or met online. The children were the main victims of these crimes, being groomed by adults through digital means. Only 1% of abuse cases were reported to authorities, which represents a minimal fraction compared to the actual scale of the problem.