‘Avalanche’ of child abuse and sexual exploitation taking place behind closed doors: ‘It’s a hidden emergency’

According to a new study, child abuse and sexual exploitation take place behind a “avalanche” closed doors.

A comprehensive analysis of population -based research suggested that 7 percent of children in Western Europe were raped or sexually assaulted before they were 18 years old.

Almost 20 percent reported that online demand or grooming before the age of 18 – described as unwanted or under pressure sexual interactions.

This shows that approximately 15 million children affected in the region are affected.

The figures were included in the annual report of the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute at the University of Edinburgh.

He analyzed population -based research from several countries and produced ideas about sexual assault and the rape scale of children.

Rape and sexual assault figures have shown that women (9.7 percent) were higher than men (3.9 percent).

The analysis had 48 studies from 19 European countries.

Childlight CEO Paul Stanfield said: “People are usually the place where the house is the heart, but unfortunately it is the place where the house is hurt for too many children.

“We see that what is known by children on a wide scale of betrayal by technology companies and regulators to avoid digital crime scenes in the bedrooms.

“This is a hidden emergency where children should be safer, abuse behind closed doors – but not prevented, inevitable.”

Childlight Center also increases recently in the “deep fake” abuse material produced by the harmful AI.

According to the US -based Lost and Abuse Children’s Center, this increased by 325 percent between 2023 and 2024.

Professor Deborah Fry of Edinburgh University led the research.

He said: “Although the evidence is limited to a handful of countries and prevalence, what we know about sexual violence against children in families underlines the need to invest in primary prevention or stop before starting.

“This is a form of violence that is the most difficult to measure and is often difficult to confront.”

He said that many cases are never defined because children often remain silent.

Prof Fry said: “They may be afraid of abuse, or they may blame themselves because they will harm their families – or they may not realize that what happened is abuse.

“Nevertheless, we know that it can lead to permanent trauma that affects the health and even life expectancy of the survivors.”