Families are being urged to prioritise online safety conversations as new research shows more than one in four girls have experienced online sexual solicitation by an adult before they turn 18.
Joint eSafety research with Queensland University of Technology, led by child safety expert Professor Ben Mathews, found online sexual solicitation often begins at an early age, with 80 per cent of targets saying it started by age 15 and 25 per cent reporting it began before age 12.
Alarmingly, 86.7 per cent of perpetrators were total strangers, underscoring the risks posed by anonymous online interactions.
Based on data from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) the research surveyed 3,500 young people aged 16 to 24, exposing the troubling prevalence of online sexual victimisation (OSV) in Australia.
Overall, 17.7 per cent of all children and young people surveyed had experienced online sexual solicitation by an adult, with girls facing a significantly higher risk compared to boys (7.6 per cent).
The study also confirmed the non-consensual sharing of sexual images is a widespread problem, with 7.6 per cent of children and young people reporting this had happened to them.
Girls were disproportionately targeted, with 10.9 per cent experiencing this harm, compared to 3.8 per cent of boys. Among those affected, 65 per cent said incidents began by age 15, and 15 per cent before age 12. Nearly half (48.8 per cent) of perpetrators were romantic partners under 18, while 23.4 per cent were other adolescents outside of relationships.
eSafety Commissioner Ms Julie Inman Grant said the results reaffirmed the importance of taking a holistic approach to children’s safety online, and urged parents and carers to seek help and advice at eSafety.gov.au.
“These findings are absolutely startling. As Australia’s online safety regulator, eSafety is committed to tackling online grooming and other forms of online sexual victimisation through research, regulation, and proactive education,” she said.
“Prevention is just as important as enforcement. The best way to protect children is through open and ongoing conversations about online risks and by playing an active role in their online lives. Parents and carers play a unique and vital role in helping children recognise potential dangers and build digital resilience, and eSafety seeks to empower and enable these important conversations.”
Ms Grant said children – especially girls – need the tools to navigate the online world safely.
“That’s why education and prevention remain at the heart of eSafety’s work, ensuring young people are empowered, engaged, and digitally literate.
“We have been warning for some time of the dangers posed by ‘co-mingled’ platforms, such as social media, messaging and gaming apps, where children and adults are online together. While many of these can provide valuable experiences for young people, they can also be weaponised by predators to target children.”
Professor Mathews, Lead Investigator of the ACMS, said the concerning prevalence of harmful experiences demanded a proactive preventative approach.
“Parents are an important part of this, and schools should also play a key role in building children and young people’s digital skills and literacy in sexuality and relationships.
“Public policy must support these efforts, and accelerate prevention efforts as technological capacity continues to grow. Online platform providers must also take responsibility for enhancing prevention, and have a duty to increase safety in online environments for children,” he said.
Read the full study here. This research was funded by the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse. The findings and views reported in the research are those of the authors.
eSafety provides practical resources to help families identify risks, prevent exploitation, and respond effectively. Parents and carers can find expert guidance, conversation starters, and age-appropriate advice at Protecting children from sexual abuse online.
