Childlight report estimates one in four children face online sexual solicitation

The Into the Light Data Update 2026 calls for governments to treat technology-facilitated child sexual abuse as a public health priority, with stronger laws, better data, hotline investment, and action on AI-generated abuse material.

Childlight’s Into the Light 2026 data update estimates that 26.6 percent of survey respondents experienced online solicitation before the age of 18.

Childlight Global Child Safety Institute has published new global data estimating that 26.6 percent of people surveyed experienced online solicitation before the age of 18, with 6.7 percent reporting it in the past year.

The Into the Light Index: Data Update on Global Technology-Facilitated Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse 2026 was launched at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. Childlight is hosted by the University of Edinburgh and the University of New South Wales and was established by the Human Dignity Foundation.

The report draws on 103 data sources covering 147 studies across 60 countries, alongside child sexual abuse material data and new analysis of child abuse guidance materials used by offenders.

The update focuses on technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse, including online solicitation, unwanted exposure to sexual content, image-based sexual abuse, online sexual exploitation, and sexual extortion.

Girls and women reported higher lifetime prevalence of online solicitation before the age of 18, at 38.6 percent, compared with 19 percent among boys and men. Past-year online solicitation was also higher among girls, at 7.4 percent, compared with 5.3 percent among boys.

Online abuse data shows regional and gender differences

Online solicitation is the most frequently measured and reported form of technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse in the report.

Past-year online solicitation was highest in Eastern and Southern Africa at 9.7 percent, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean at 7.6 percent, Western Europe at 7.4 percent, and East Asia and Pacific at 6.8 percent.

South Asia, West and Central Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa remain underrepresented in representative survey data. That gap limits the ability to compare prevalence across all regions, particularly where child sexual abuse material data already points to significant levels of online harm.

The report also shows differences by sex. Females reported higher prevalence of online solicitation, online sexual exploitation, and sexual extortion, both during childhood and in the past year. Males reported higher levels of unwanted exposure to sexual content and past-year child sexual abuse material or image-based sexual abuse.

Past-year unwanted exposure to sexual content was estimated at 7.3 percent globally, with a childhood lifetime estimate of 8.7 percent. Past-year child sexual abuse material or image-based sexual abuse was estimated at 1.6 percent, with a lifetime estimate of 5.2 percent.

Sexual extortion affected an estimated 2.5 percent of survey respondents in the past year and 9.1 percent before the age of 18.

AI-generated material and self-generated tags add pressure

The threat is changing as digital platforms, encrypted communications, peer-to-peer networks, and artificial intelligence create new challenges for detection, reporting, and removal.

Analysts continue to identify content tagged as AI-generated or virtual child sexual abuse material. North America accounted for 85 percent of the "virtual" tag subset in 2024, according to one data source used in the report.

NCMEC’s 2024 Annual Report recorded a 1,325 percent rise in AI-generated child sexual abuse material from 2023 to 2024. The report also notes that the proportion of "virtual" categorisations in North America rose by 150 percent across one dataset between 2023 and 2024.

Material tagged as "self-generated" also increased in one data source, from 40 percent in 2023 to 65 percent in 2024. The term is used cautiously in the report because the content can be created through grooming, deception, coercion, or extortion, and does not necessarily imply meaningful consent or control by the child.

The increase strengthens the case for more report-and-remove services. Current examples include Take It Down, operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Report Remove, operated by the Internet Watch Foundation, but availability remains stronger in North America and Western Europe than in other regions.

Child sexual abuse material rates remain high in North America and Western Europe. In 2024, Western Europe recorded the highest regional CSAM rate per 10,000 population at 63.5, followed by the Middle East and North Africa at 55.4 and North America at 41.6.

Report flags child abuse guidance materials

The 2026 update is one of the first global reports to include data and frontline sector analysis on child abuse guidance materials, also referred to in some settings as "paedophile manuals."

These materials can provide instruction, justification, and community reinforcement for offending. They were detected across at least 61 countries on peer-to-peer networks in 2023 and 2024.

The study identified 869 verified guidance files in 2023 and 679 in 2024. Devices in Western Europe accounted for 53.6 percent of detected possession in 2023 and 37.1 percent in 2024.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia accounted for 18.6 percent in 2023 and 23 percent in 2024, while East Asia and Pacific accounted for 14.4 percent in 2023 and 20 percent in 2024.

The report does not present these figures as evidence of where abuse is occurring. It treats them as a signal of where the files are detected, circulated, or intercepted, influenced by digital exposure, detection capacity, and law enforcement systems.

Professor Debi Fry, Childlight’s Global Director of Data and project lead, says: "The harms of childhood sexual abuse are not fleeting. For many victims they include trauma, anxiety, depression and self-harm that can last long into adulthood.

Evidence indicates that it is a greater contributor to ill health among girls and women than widely recognised risk factors such as smoking, harmful alcohol use or lack of physical activity. Among boys it is a greater factor than poor diet. So this is a worldwide health emergency – but it is preventable."

Calls for legal reform, data collection, and hotline investment

The report makes seven recommendations for governments, regulators, platforms, and child protection organizations.

They include comprehensive national and regional legislative and regulatory frameworks, a clear legal basis for detecting and removing child sexual abuse material, and stronger data collection through representative victimization surveys.

The recommendations also call for legal loopholes around AI-generated or virtual child sexual abuse material to be closed, increased investment in national hotlines, more community and survivor-led online reporting tools, and legislation covering the creation, possession, and dissemination of child abuse guidance materials.

Health systems are also part of the prevention response, with support built into everyday care through guidance for parents, wellbeing checks, and early help through trusted services already used by families.

The 2027 Into the Light edition is set to focus on system strengthening indicators. The 2026 update leaves governments with a data set covering online solicitation, sexual extortion, AI-generated abuse material, hotline capacity, legal gaps, and child abuse guidance materials.