Child exploitation through online platforms

A significant proportion of CCE now occurs online, where digital platforms such as social media, messaging apps, chat rooms, and gaming sites are used as tools to facilitate criminal or sexual exploitation. Online harm is therefore best understood as a means of exploitation to manipulate, coerce, or blackmail children and young people under the age of 18 into harmful and illegal activities.

Online harm can take many forms, including:

• Inciting children to participate in public disorder, such as riots or bonfires, often orchestrated through social media.
• Financial exploitation, where a child or young person’s bank account is used by perpetrators to launder the proceeds from criminal activities, bullying and cyberbullying can also take place online. Personal information can be obtained by the perpetrator.

Children and young people are particularly vulnerable to online harm due to a combination of factors, including the anonymity of digital platforms, their developmental stage, and in some cases, prior experiences of trauma. However, it's important to recognise that online harm can affect any child or young person.

Further information, including access to research documents, can be found on the SBNI Online Safety Hub.