Child & survivor participation

The voices of children and young adult survivors continue to be missing from the dialogue

Why is this needed?

Despite some recent global attention on child sexual exploitation and abuse online, children and young adults with these experiences continue to be missing voices from the dialogue. Many children remain unidentified by law enforcement and support services and do not disclose their experiences at all. Of those who do, rarely are their views sought on how to improve prevention and response services.

Although important efforts have been made by some survivor activists and organisations working with survivors, there remain limited opportunities for survivor participation and to exchange views and experiences, promote solidarity, and develop a collective force for change. We want to change that. 

Creating trauma-informed safe and ethically appropriate spaces for consulting survivors must be prioritised and these insights translated into strategy, policy and action by policymakers, service providers and law enforcement.

Our Participation Model

View the model of participation covering four approaches

The internet could be safer for children if:

reporting on phone

Reporting mechanisms are visible, clear and simple.

support services

Support services for child sexual exploitation and abuse online are available and accessible to everyone, including psychological support.

cybercrime info

Age-appropriate information and awareness campaigns are available for children, about cybercrimes, how to report them and how to ask for support.

training

There are widespread training opportunities for frontline support workers.

What is being done in this area?

Participation mapping

Child and survivor mapping website landing page 1
See the map

We undertook a global mapping to understand where and how children and survivors are involved in participatory initiatives related to tackling online-facilitated child sexual abuse and closely related issues.

Survivors’ perspectives

survivors prespectives
Learn more

In partnership with ECPAT International and six of its network member organisations, we conducted research amplifying the voices of survivors of child sexual abuse online. See the global report and six country-level reports.

Children’s perspectives

Selfgen snapshot page
Full research

This research conducted with Praesidio Safeguarding aims to hear the perspectives of children and young people on ‘self-generated material, and create awareness about this issue and its impact on children’s online experiences.

European survey

Untitled design 3
See full report

A European study, conducted by Economist Impact, of 2,000 18-year-olds across four European countries to understand their experiences of and exposure to online sexual harms during childhood.

See also

Child & survivor participation discussions in our Portal

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WeProtect Global Alliance › Discuss issues with other experts › The Response › Child & survivor participation

Discussing input from victims and survivors to inform response and support services, campaigns and strategies.

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