Research & Statistics

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Despite negative headlines and growing concerns about social media’s impact on youth, teens continue to use these platforms at high rates – with some describing their social media use as “almost constant,” according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens. 

 Since 2019, Thorn has undertaken multiple research initiatives focused on better understanding  the experiences, challenges, and risks that young people are facing in online spaces today. Thorn’s  past research with youth has investigated their attitudes and experiences with online grooming,  sharing “nudes,” nonconsensual reshares, as well as how they do – or do not – navigate attempts at  disclosure of their online sexual experiences. 

June, 2024 - In partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), this research examines more than 15 million reports made to the CyberTipline from 2020 to 2023 to pinpoint cases of sextortion and examine the evolving scale and nature of financially motivated sextortion. Importantly, while sextortion can affect all ages, this report focuses explicitly on the sextortion of minors. 

A joint report between the Stanford Internet Observatory and Thorn examines implications of fully realistic child sexual abuse material (CSAM) produced by generative machine learning models. Advances in the open-source generative ML community have led to increasingly realistic adult content, to the point that content indistinguishable from actual photographs is likely to be common in the very near future. These same models and techniques have been also leveraged to produce CSAM.  

 While some online experiences are consensual, they also carry inherent risks. Previous research has shown these risks are heightened for LGBTQ+ youth and that this population often responds differently to harmful online experiences. In this study, Thorn builds off the existing body of research to ensure strategies to combat online child sexual exploitation are inclusive and relevant to the needs of LGBTQ+ youth. 

There is growing evidence about the prevalence of sending, receiving, or resharing nude images by youth (sexting). Less is known about the demographic, technology use, and social context correlates of sexting. Using logistic regression, we looked at predictors of sexting behaviors in minors. 

As part of a larger portfolio of research into the issue of SG-CSAM, in  2020, Thorn surveyed 1,000 minors aged 9-17 about their attitudes and  experiences around online interventions (e.g., blocking or reporting users)  within the context of potentially harmful online sexual interactions.1 

Self-generated child sexual abuse material (SG-CSAM) is a  known challenge within the online child sexual exploitation  landscape and an area with little available data. This report  represents a continuation of Thorn’s ongoing research to  illuminate that landscape and provide concrete data related  to the size and scale of SG-CSAM experiences among kids  and how SG-CSAM behaviors evolve over time. 

From July 2013 to February 2014, Without My Consent conducted an online survey to better understand the experience of online harassment victims. 

Information from the Department of Justice on Child Sex Abuse Materials.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children looks at a number of issues and provides statistics.

 Download and read the yearly reports from the Revenge Porn Helpline, documenting the cases seen across the Helpline since it was established in 2015 by SWGfL. The reports reveal the findings, the impact of intimate image abuse, and the work of our team. 

 With data on over 100,000 human trafficking screenings among vulnerable youth, our research reveals key insights on primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention efforts.  Scroll down to the Screenings Report.

A Condensed Guide for Service Providers and Law Enforcement  

Resources about and for victim populations.

The State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report provides the world’s most comprehensive assessment of this abhorrent practice, as well as efforts by governments and stakeholders around the globe to combat it.  By measuring progress in 188 countries – including the United States – we are advancing President Biden’s commitment to prevent trafficking, prosecute perpetrators, and protect survivors. 

Our report illustrates the many ways the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has, since the  2019 report, encouraged and nurtured efforts throughout our nation’s transportation systems,  significantly strengthening America’s response to this vital responsibility. Our recommendations  convey the many challenges that remain in our collective efforts to eliminate this scourge. 

“Trafficking in persons” and “human trafficking” are umbrella terms—often used interchangeably—to refer to a crime whereby traffickers exploit and profit at the expense of adults or children by compelling them to perform labor or engage in commercial sex.  When a person younger than 18 is used to perform a commercial sex act, it is a crime regardless of whether there is any force, fraud, or coercion involved. 

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November 2020 - A look at sex trafficking of children. 

November 2020 - A look at online sexual exploitation of children. 

October 2020 - A look at sexual exploitation of children through travel and tourism. 

May 2012 - This paper investigates the impact of legalized prostitution on human trafficking inflows. According to economic theory, there are two opposing effects of unknown magnitude. The scale effect of legalized prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution market, increasing human trafficking, while the substitution effect reduces demand for trafficked women as legal prostitutes are favored over trafficked ones. Our empirical analysis for a cross-section of up to 150 countries shows that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect. On average, countries where prostitution is legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows. 

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 Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) refers to the nonconsensual creating, taking, or sharing of intimate images, including threatening to share images. It can also include coercing someone into sharing intimate images, or sending unwanted intimate images. In recent years, there has been growing attention to the nature, scope, and impacts of IBSA, but comparatively little attention has been paid to the perpetration of these harms. This scoping review consolidates and synthesizes the existing knowledge on the perpetration of IBSA against adults. The review involved a systematic search of scholarly and gray literature across select databases. In total, 26 studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies were included if they were published in English between 2013 and 2023 and reported on findings of a sample of adults over the age of 16 who admitted IBSA perpetration behaviors.  

   Every day all over the world children are forced to live in the darkness of sexual exploitation and abuse. This is a hidden pandemic. The Into the Light Index highlights the prevalence of this problem by presenting global data. Behind every number is a young person and a need for urgent action because children can't wait. 

 We found over 300 million young people had experienced online sexual abuse and exploitation over the course of our meta-study. 

 Our estimates are based on a meta-analysis of 125 representative studies published between 2011 and 2023, and highlight that one in eight children – 302 million young people – have experienced online sexual abuse and exploitation in a one year period preceding the national surveys.

Additionally, we analysed tens of millions of reports to the five main global watchdog and policing organisations – the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), the International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE), and Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation database (ICSE). This helped us better understand the nature of child sexual abuse images and videos online.

 With social media, smart phones, and other technology woven seamlessly into all facets of everyday life, many of us – primarily women and girls, but not solely – must face the fact that threats of sexual and gender-based violence now pervade our online lives.

For example, there are 3,000 websites dedicated to nonconsensually sharing intimate images, predominantly of women and girls. This issue is also growing at a breakneck speed, impacting people across generations and borders.

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA)— also known as sextortion, upskirting, revenge porn, deepfakes, digital sex trafficking, or cyberflashing—is a technology-enabled form of gender-based violence that can result in very real impact, ranging from mental illness to suicide, from job loss to social isolation, physical assault to body dysmorphia, threats against friends and family, and many other harms.  

Deepfake image-based sexual abuse represents a growing and alarming form of tech-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse that uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to create deceptive and non-consensual sexually explicit content. Vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls, face amplified risks and unique challenges in combatting deepfake image-based sexual abuse. 

Deepfake image-based sexual abuse, tech-facilitated sexual exploitation and the law provides an in-depth analysis of the legal frameworks in nine focus jurisdictions, including England, Wales, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, the US (Virginia, Texas, California), the European Union, and international human rights law. 

 Image-Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA) is a recently studied form of violence and abuse perpetrated using technology. This systematic review aims to examine and systematize studies exploring factors associated with IBSA (e.g., victimization, perpetration, and propensity to perpetrate). 

 The results of this study highlighted conceptual and methodological limitations in the literature on IBSA. Aside from these limitations, this systematic review identified factors associated with IBSA, focusing on four macro-areas: victimization, perpetration, propensity to perpetrate IBSA, and IBSA implications. The results demonstrated the role of psychological, relational, and social variables, although the effect sizes observed in the quantitative studies were small or in few cases moderate. 

 Expert Opinion by Professor Clare McGlynn, Durham Law School,  Durham University, UK and Professor Lorna Woods, School of Law,  University of Essex, UK 

  Through qualitative and quantitative research on digital image-sharing practices with 480 young people aged 12 to 18 years (336 in the survey and 144 in focus groups) from across the UK a team led by Professor Jessica Ringrose (IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society), found that non-consensual image-sharing practices were particularly pervasive, and consequently normalised and accepted among youth. 

Adolescents increasingly use social media platforms, and these practices open up new forms of sexual victimization, in particular image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). Few studies have examined prevalence rates and correlates of both physical sexual victimization (PSV) and these new forms of victimization in representative samples. We used data from 5,245 adolescent girls (53%) and 4,580 adolescent boys (47%) from the population-based Young in Oslo Study (mean age 17.1 years, SD = 0.9).  

 This paper categorizes sexual image crimes and abuse that occur against children and highlights the predominance of youth-made sexual images among the image exploitation and abuse affecting youth. 

 A study conducted in the United Kingdom in 2022 found that 27 percent of victims of image-based sexual abuse were women between the ages of 30 and 39 years, whilst 15 percent of victims were women between the ages of 21 and 29 years. Furthermore, 10 percent of victims of intimate image abuse in the UK were girls aged 16 years or younger. Women were significantly more likely to be victims of revenge porn than men throughout all age groups. The highest share of male victims belonged to the 30 to 39 years age group, which accounted for seven percent of victims. 

2019 -  The Committee on National Statistics held a 2-day public workshop on estimating the prevalence of human trafficking in the United States on April 8-9, 2019. The workshop explored current and innovative sampling methods, technological approaches, and analytical strategies for estimating the prevalence of sex and labor trafficking in vulnerable populations. The workshop, sponsored by the Office on Women’s Health at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), brought together statisticians, survey methodologists, researchers, public health practitioners, and other experts who work closely with human trafficking data or with the survivors of trafficking. 

 The mission of the Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC) is to combat crimes against children by providing high quality research and statistics to the public, policy makers, law enforcement personnel, and other child welfare practitioners. CCRC is concerned with research about the nature of crimes including child abduction, homicide, rape, assault, and physical and sexual abuse as well as their impact. 

 The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) released a brand-new analysis of children who were lured out of their homes and were reported missing to NCMEC. The report analyzed 476 cases reported missing to NCMEC between 2020 and 2023.  Date: 2.22.24

 Every day, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leads the fight against child exploitation and abuse. As part of the Department’s mission to combat crimes of exploitation and protect victims, we investigate these abhorrent crimes, spread awareness, collaborate with interagency and international partners, and expand our reach to ensure children are safe and protected. 

 Viewing of child sexual abuse material, CSAM, is often preceded by habitual consumption of adult pornography, according to findings from a project conducted in collaboration between the University of Eastern Finland, Protect Children, and the Council of the Baltic Sea States. The project aims at preventing child sexual abuse. 

 Today’s teenagers are more digitally connected than ever. Most have access to smartphones and use social media, and nearly half say they are online almost constantly. But how are young people navigating this “always on” environment?   

  The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has identified a significant and growing threat where AI technology is being exploited to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Our first report in October 2023 revealed the presence of over 20,000 AI-generated images on a dark web forum in one month where more than 3,000 depicted criminal child sexual abuse activities. 

  Since then the issue has escalated and continues to evolve. This new July 2024 updated report evaluates what has changed since October 2023 with AI child sexual abuse imagery and the technology being abused to create it. It should be considered an update to the initial report and be reviewed alongside it. 

Many young people are struggling to find in-person care, support, and practical information for their challenges with behavioral health (i.e., mental health, substance use, and wellness). But ever since the COVID-19 pandemic forced much of our health care online, options for supporting mental health via digital technologies have been growing in availability and accessibility. 

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has quickly become an integral part of the digital landscape, surfacing new ways for people to learn, create, and innovate. At the same time, it brings both proven and unknown risks to everything from privacy to equity and accuracy.

 Smartphones have become a constant companion in our teens' lives. From connection with family and friends to entertainment and literal white noise, young people rely on their smartphones for different types of support, relaxation, and distraction—at home and at school, and during the day and night.  

   Consumer interest in how apps and platforms use and sell personal information is at an all-time high, but there's also a significant lack of understanding. In part, that's because the complex ways companies collect, sell, and share their data for the purpose of making money aren't fully understood by companies themselves or accurately explained to parents, caregivers, and families. 

    The majority of U.S. teens in our survey report they're watching pornography online. But they also say conversations with trusted adults go a long way to helping them understand what they see in pornography and exploring their sexuality in healthy ways. 

     Beyond ‘scandals’ and the public testimonies of victim-survivors, surprisingly little is known about the nature and extent of the harms of ‘image-based sexual abuse’, a term that includes all non-consensual taking and/or sharing of nude or sexual images. Accordingly, this article examines the findings from the first cross-national qualitative study on this issue, drawing on interviews with 75 victim-survivors of image-based sexual abuse in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.