Sexual abuse on the internet begins on average at the age of 13, is mostly perpetrated on girls and the abusers are people with no previous criminal record and, in half of the cases, from their environment.
It is Save the Children's x-ray of online grooming in Spain, after analyzing nearly 400 court rulings on this type of violence between 2021 and 2022.
Children access the internet increasingly early and relate to each other through the network at very early ages: it is estimated that the first access is at the age of 7 and that 95% of minors between the ages of 10 and 15 uses. At the same time, there has been an increase in online sexual crimes involving a child or teenager as a victim, and in 2022 there were 954 complaints of this kind.
Almost 60% of victims are girls, a proportion that rises to 80% in the case of physical sexual abuse, which usually starts earlier, at the age of 11. And there are 11.5% who are victims with disabilities. The bulk of abuse is focused on boys and girls between 12 and 15 years old.
Regarding the profile of the aggressors, in 23% of the cases it was an acquaintance; in 16.4%, a monitor or trainer; in 9.8%, a teacher or educator; in 3.3%, another relative, and the remaining 47% were unknown. And 95% of them had no history.
Another fact that the report reveals is that in 54% of cases it is the mother who uncovers or communicates the online abuse to the authorities. In 97% of the cases the sentence was a conviction, and the most imposed sentence was more than five years in prison.
"These data show that boys and girls are a particularly vulnerable group to violence through the internet and in the case of online grooming it must be remembered that the abuser gradually gains their trust to involve - them in a sexual activity that can range from talking about sex and obtaining photos or videos to maintaining a sexual encounter", explained the director of social and political advocacy of the organization, Catalina Perazzo.
After reviewing the trials, Save the Children shows concern about the duration: they can last between two and three years. In this sense, he recalls that the organic law on the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence that was approved two years ago already raises the need to develop specialized justice for children.
