AI smart glasses have made covert recording easier than ever. Images and videos produced in this way may constitute image-based sexual abuse and exploitation – a form of gender-based violence in which images are used to exploit, humiliate, or sexually violate a person.

Protect Children developed a new global survey for victims and survivors of image-based child sexual violence. The survey is part of our Project Lens, and aims to understand and prevent emerging forms of image-based sexual violence against children.

Preventing child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) is a key EU priority. Knowledge on prevention pathways and face-to-face (F2F) treatment services for at-risk individuals is limited. This study maps the availability and distribution of institutional, self-referral F2F services in six EU countries participating in Project Bridge, an EU-funded initiative connecting individuals with sexual interest in children at risk of committing CSAE to preventive care, to identify gaps a

Protect Children has Analysed Over 4 Million Child Sexual Abuse Material Images to End the Revictimisation of Victims and Survivors, Support Their Recovery, and Restore Their Dignity

The protection of children from sexual abuse is of paramount importance to society, and the threat of this abuse has only grown in recent years. Those who pose this threat, child sex offenders, have been found to congregate in online communities where they can trade abusive material and interact with each other. Despite concerns raised in research about the harmful influence of these communities on their members, they remain greatly understudied.

Our new report explores experiences of 24,912 survivors of child sexual violence collected in 36 languages through the Global Our Voice Survivor Survey, unveiling the specific characteristics and devastating consequences of online abuse through the comprehensive examination of online, in-person, and mixed victimisation experiences.

The research will explore how different technology ecosystems facilitate and drive abuse, and how they influence offender’s behaviours.

Google Search deploys a "Onebox" feature at the top of the results page when users conduct searches for Child Sexual Abuse Material. This study evaluates the impact of a strategic shift in this feature, comparing a revised intervention, focused on repercussions and therapeutic resources, to a previous iteration that focused on reporting.

Warning messages have been used to disrupt individuals seeking online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and promote engagement with support services, yet large-scale field evidence on message content remains limited, particularly in high anonymity environments. This study reports a field experiment on Ahmia.fi, a Tor search engine, examining how warning message content influences behavior. Across a 140-day period, almost 20 million searches were observed, with over 3 million

The proliferation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on digital platforms poses a critical challenge for online safety, especially for children. Despite global efforts to combat CSAM, opportunities for exposure remain widespread, with limited research on its developmental and psychosocial impacts.

Protect Children developed a new global survey for victims and survivors of image-based child sexual violence. The survey is part of our Project Lens, and aims to understand and prevent emerging forms of image-based sexual violence against children.

Protect Children Annual Report 2025

Protect Children is profoundly disappointed in the European Union’s inability to ensure continued protections for children against sexual abuse online.

The research will explore how different technology ecosystems facilitate and drive abuse, and how they influence offender’s behaviours.

You Are Enough: A Supportive Guide for Parents and Caregivers of Children Affected by Sexual Abuse With Insights and Advice from Those Who Understand

Recent headlines have highlighted both the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare’s (THL) recommendations on children’s digital device use and proposals for banning children and young people from social media. These recommendations are welcome, but we hope that the discussion about banning children and young people from social media will move onto somewhat new tracks.

Today, on Safer Internet Day, we demand urgent action against nudifying tools—technology designed to create non-consensual nude and abusive imagery, disproportionately targeting children and women.

This poem was created by one of the parents whose child have fallen victim to sexual abuse.

REPORTS Protect Children, with support from the Justice Initiative, is conducting the Global Our Voice Survivor Survey to amplify the voices and wisdom of victims and survivors of childhood sexual violence. As part of this initiative, a series of language and thematic reports are being published to present victims' and survivors' experiences across multiple languages. These reports offer valuable insights into the realities of sexual violence against children, the challenges

As we step into the new year, we are taking a moment to reflect on an extraordinary year of impact.