Bogota, Colombia – A report released last week by UNICEF-Innocenti, ECPAT International and INTERPOL found that about 21% of Colombian minors aged 12 to 17 were victims of online sexual abuse in the past year.
The report, “Disrupting Harm,” surveyed 25 countries, including Colombia, to examine how the use of technology, including new tools such as artificial intelligence (AI), is helping to fuel online abuse.
The survey was conducted between 2023 and 2025, and the results are surprising. Approximately 860,000 Colombian youth experienced some form of digital sexual abuse or exploitation in just one year (2024).
The data also pointed to gender and economic disparities. A quarter of young women surveyed said they had been victims of this type of abuse or exploitation, as did 17% of young men. In poor rural areas, 29% of minor respondents said they had been victimized, compared to 17% in urban areas.
In addition to Colombia’s social dynamics, including deep-rooted “machoism,” rampant domestic and gender-based violence, and extreme wealth inequality, technology is increasingly a factor in child abuse.
A 2025 study by the Communications Regulatory Commission (CRC) found that 81% of 14-17 year olds and 55% of 10-13 year olds owned their own mobile phone in the past year.
Experts say interactions between children and young people have increased significantly since the pandemic. Cell phones have become a ‘basic’ tool for maintaining social status and escaping reality, especially for people facing family problems.
“It’s important that children don’t fear being punished or having their phones taken away for answering a message,” said Camila Perera, an expert at UNICEF’s Innocenti Research and Data Office. “We have seen in our research that this is one of children’s greatest fears: being disconnected from the world.” Latin America Report.
Almost half of the reported cases of abuse occurred on social media platforms such as Facebook (80%), WhatsApp (30%) and Instagram (17%), with 14% linked to online gaming networks.
Additionally, 2% of victims reported that artificial intelligence was used to create fake explicit content using their faces. This highlights a new phenomenon that was widely discussed last year after Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok began creating millions of sexual images online.
The introduction of these technologies has regulators and parents struggling to keep up.
“Minors with exceptional digital skills have moved much faster than any safety measures. As they advance, protection protocols cannot keep up,” said Fabio González Florez, project leader at ECPAT International. Latin America Report.
“There is a serious obligation to stay informed, and it doesn’t require a graduate degree. Tutorials are everywhere and every platform offers parental controls that we need to learn how to use,” he added.
Stranger behind the screen? ‘Real’ danger
Contrary to popular belief, the threat is not always anonymous hackers lurking in the dark. In fact, only 30% of victims met their abuser online.
In half of the recorded cases, children were abused by someone they already knew, such as a family member, neighbor or classmate. This approach leaves some minors unable to recognize abuse or feel safe enough to seek help.
“There is a common expression called ‘stranger danger,’ which is the idea that you should only look for outsiders, but most abusers are actually people close to the family,” González said.
The findings also revealed another difficult situation. One in five cases of online sexual abuse of minors are perpetrated by another minor. Some victims have been found to be willing to target or recruit associates to re-victimize them in exchange for incentives or “freedom.”
The report also highlights that victims often suffer from serious mental health problems, including anxiety, depression and a tendency to self-harm.
Although many minors prefer silence, when they decide to speak out they usually turn to their mothers, siblings or friends. The message is that it is important to build trust-based relationships with children.
“Beyond digital parenting, we need to ensure that children see their parents as a source of protection, someone they can talk to about sexuality, consent and limits without being judged,” Perera recommended. “It’s about being a source of trust so they can come to us with their doubts and their curiosity.”
Despite existing channels in Colombia, such as ICBF’s 141 line or the police’s “¡A Denunciar!” The portal’s findings show that formal reporting among minor victims is almost non-existent.
Protective measures: Are they enough?
As connectivity via the Internet increases, the threat landscape for online abuse of Colombian children has expanded tremendously.
“Our obligation is to cooperate with our 196 member states. We also have specific resolutions focused on child protection,” said an Interpol member who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the work. Latin America Report. “Another important step is to urge countries to adopt protocols to detect and block URLs containing sexual abuse and exploitation material, preventing the commercialization of such content.”
But in our increasingly interconnected world, risks remain. “A single image of Colombian children can be reproduced across the world, across time and geography, so the response to protect them must become a national priority,” the INTERPOL member said.
Finally, the survey calls on digital companies to contribute to risk reduction by incorporating preventative features into platform design and improving safety measures. Research is also exploring new prevention tools to transform both physical and digital spaces and remove conditions that foster violence.
This issue requires concrete action from all sectors: care systems, families and technology companies.
Main image source: UNICEF
