Study finds millions of European children face sexual violence – and AI deepfakes surge is driving new harm

New research has uncovered “an avalanche” of sexual exploitation and abuse behind closed doors, with millions of children targeted online and offline where they may feel safest.

Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, hosted by the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, says a lack of safety features has allowed mobile phones to become a hotline to harm that can turn bedrooms into crime scenes.

It has also produced new insights into the scale of sexual assault and rape of children, sometimes by close relatives who also subject them to online abuse. Warning that too often “home is where the hurt is”, the institute says it underlines the importance of more emphasis on prevention.

Childlight’s new Into The Light study, based on population-based surveys, suggests that about 7% of children across Western Europe (around five million) are raped or sexually assaulted before the age of 18. Prevalence is higher among females (9.7%) than among males (3.9%).

This is based on an analysis of 48 studies from 19 European countries, which produced a range between 3.7% and 9.6%. It also suggests 4.7% are raped (5.3% among females, 1.6% among males) and 7.4% are sexually assaulted before turning 18 (11.8% among females, 4.5% among males).

Surveys on the experiences of adolescents found that one in 20 (5.1%) reported being raped or sexually assaulted within the past year prior to the surveys being completed.

Childlight also estimates the scale of technology-facilitated abuse, including online grooming, coerced sexual interactions and non-consensual taking and sharing of Child Sexual Abuse Material in the form of images or videos – known as CSAM.

It found that about one in five children in Western Europe (19.6%) report experiencing online solicitation or grooming, which refers to unwanted or pressured sexual interactions online, before turning 18. That suggests nearly 15 million children affected in the region. About 1 in 7 children reported facing this in the past year.

Data indicates that relatives are responsible for over 55% of assessed CSAM, with fathers estimated to have produced over 900,000 images globally in 2024.

Childlight CEO Paul Stanfield said: “People often say home is where the heart is – but sadly for too many children, home is where the hurt is.

“We see betrayal of trust by those known to children on a vast scale, compounded by insufficient protections by tech companies and regulators to avoid digital crime scenes in children’s bedrooms. It’s a hidden emergency in places where children should be safest, an avalanche of abuse behind closed doors – but it’s preventable, not inevitable.”

Emerging evidence highlights that before the age of 18, approximately 7.6% of children (1 in 13) experience sexual assault by a family member, with girls at greatest risk.  However, this data is limited to a small number of countries that measure this in representative surveys. Perpetrators are most commonly fathers and stepfathers but also include mothers, siblings, grandparents, uncles and aunts.

The research was led by Debi Fry, Professor of International Child Protection Research at the University of Edinburgh. She said: “Even though the evidence is limited to a handful of countries and prevalence estimates vary widely, what we know about sexual violence against children within families underscores the need to invest in primary prevention or stopping it before it ever starts. This is a form of violence that is hardest to measure and often hardest to confront.”

She said many cases are never identified because children often stay silent. Fry said: “They may fear the abuser or that they will hurt their family, they may blame themselves – or not realise that what happened was abuse. Yet we know it can lead to lasting trauma, affecting the health and even life expectancy of survivors.”

Caroline Taylor was abused as a child by her father who was convicted for offences he committed. She now campaigns with the survivor-led Brave Movement to end childhood sexual violence. She said: “When I was a child, society’s discomfort and stigma allowed my offender to take my body, my voice, my safety, my dreams and even my place in the family. Victims sometimes internalise a sense of shame they have rather than speak out.” 

She added: “We need to give children hope and permission to speak and, as part of that, survivor engagement must be genuinely at the heart of all policy design, legislation, law reform and programme design and delivery.” 

Childlight’s report, the only global study of its type, highlights a 1,325% rise (2023-2024) in harmful AI-generated online abuse material, such as deep fakes placing real children’s faces onto sexual images. The rose from 4,700 reports logged by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2023 to over 67,000 in 2024.

Childlight says new legislation is helping block child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online and hold social media companies to account. It supports law reforms and pro-active CSAM detection and rapid removal by tech companies, as well as educational programmes to support children and those close to them and to promote open conversations around child safety.

It highlights encouraging evidence from child intervention models, such as Barnahus, where victims are helped by agencies working together in a comfortable setting to disclose abuse. The approach used across Europe has been linked to a rise in perpetrators being charged and convicted.

Rhiannon-Faye McDonald was abused at the age of 13 after being approached online by a perpetrator posing as a teenager. Soon afterwards he turned up at her home and abused her in person. Today she campaigns for better online safety through the Marie Collins Foundation.

She said: “For too long technology companies have favoured profit over safety. A rising number of children being abused is a direct result. For most victims and survivors, even with the right support, the impacts are significant and long-lasting. We live with misplaced self-blame and the fear of being recognised by those who have seen the images or videos of our abuse. For anybody who believes that it's "just a photo", this couldn't be further from the truth.”