According to one study, one in 15 children in Europe has been raped or sexually assaulted. child light study In 33 European countries.
Approximately 4.7% reported being raped before age 18 and 7.4% reported being sexually assaulted.
The incidence appears to be significantly higher in girls (9.7%) than in boys (3.9%).
Violence often runs within families, with 7.6% of respondents having experienced sexual assault by a family member in their lifetime before the age of 18.
In 2023, child counselors reported more than 33,000 (33,261) calls related to child sexual exploitation and abuse.
This report refers to child helpline tags. Child Helpline tags describe how Child Helpline staff document and categorize contacts (such as calls, text messages, and other forms of communication) in the data system.
The Netherlands has the highest number of sexual violence tags among the countries surveyed, with 5,819, while the UK ranks as the leading location for “technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse”.
Ireland emerged as the country with the highest number of offline commercial sexual exploitation (offline) tags: 227.
But this phenomenon is also becoming increasingly noticeable online.
Approximately one in five children in Europe has been exposed to unwanted sexual content in the past year, amid an alarming global rise in AI abuse, increasing by 1,325% from 2023 to 2024.
One in seven children also reported unwanted or pressured sexual interactions online over the same period.
In Europe, Dutch-hosted web platforms accounted for an astonishing 60% of child sexual abuse reports.
It is also the country with the highest number of reports per 10,000 people (880.9 reports/notifications per 10,000 people), followed by Slovakia (193.7) and Lithuania (190.0).
“We call on countries to enact legislation that upholds the best interests of children and empowers governing bodies to set inclusive, child-centered, gender-sensitive standards for child safety in online spaces and the consequences when these standards are not met,” the report said.
Why is the Netherlands a major host of online child pornography?
According to Childright, the reason the Dutch numbers are so bad is due to several factors: “the country’s role as a global hub for data centers and Internet exchange points, the size and openness of the hosting market, and potential differences in hosting business models and removal procedures.”
In 2024, the country’s Senate will new law Require hosting companies to remove online child sexual abuse content from their servers. Online Child Pornography Prohibition Act.
Failure to remove such content could result in fines equal to “up to 10% of the company’s revenue in the event of repeated violations.”
New legislative efforts will be strengthened by the recent accession of the Netherlands. Global online safety regulation networka group of countries including the UK, France, South Korea and Australia, among others, will increase cooperation between online safety regulators.
Additionally, in 2025, Dutch police took part in two major operations against online child sexual abuse. The first was for AI-generated sexual content, and the second accused pedophile platform Kidflix, which has around 2 million users.
of surgeryThe operation, which led to 79 arrests and the identification of around 1,400 suspects, was defined by Europol as the largest-ever operation against child sexual exploitation.
Will the EU increase oversight of private chats to tackle abuse?
EU lawmakers have been proposing to tighten online surveillance since 2022 and seek to crack down on child sexual abuse.
In particular, the so-called Chat control invoice It would force instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal to scan encrypted conversations for images, videos, and URLs that may contain child abuse content.
But in one of the most recent rounds of negotiations, member states failed to reach an agreement last month, citing concerns over privacy and “mass surveillance.”
Germany’s “no” was decisive, with the country’s Justice Minister Stefanie Ubig saying chat control “must be taboo in a country ruled by law.”
The Netherlands also opposed the bill, while Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Hungary and Ireland supported the current plan.
How does Europe compare to South Asia?
The ChildRight report also looked at South Asia, where an estimated 12.5% of children reported having been raped or sexually assaulted.
Similar to Europe, this proportion is higher for girls (14.5%) compared to boys (11.5%).
Within the region, 4.5 million cases of child sexual abuse were reported in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
However, the highest rate per 10,000 people was in the Maldives (94), followed by Bangladesh with 64 and Bhutan with 41.
