Across all cultures and ages, children are suspicious of people they don’t know online, and we see them developing strategies to protect themselves. But it shouldn’t be just their responsibility to stay safe online - they need adults, especially their parents and caregivers, to step up and help.
Online grooming is a serious and growing problem. It happens when an adult builds an emotional connection with a child, often through social media, gaming platforms, or messaging apps, to manipulate and exploit them, usually for sexual purposes. As more children access the internet daily, including my own 9-year-old daughter, their risk of encountering online predators also increases. This is an issue that demands all our attention.
Two-thirds of children surveyed for a new report from Save the Children and Western Sydney University said that they interacted with strangers online every single day, looking for friendship or to learn about trends and events.
Across all cultures and ages, children are suspicious of people they don’t know online, and we see them developing strategies to protect themselves, like checking with mutual friends or asking questions to verify the identity of the person they’re chatting with.
Karolina*, 10 makes a GIF during a programming lesson in a Digital learning space in eastern Ukraine. Anastasiia Zahoskina/Save the Children
But it shouldn’t be just their responsibility to stay safe online - they need adults, especially their parents and caregivers, to step up and help. Governments and tech companies must do more by implementing robust regulations and creating effective solutions based on children’s needs. For instance, children are calling for AI-powered warning systems, and easier ways to block or report harmful content.
It’s up to us to listen and act on what they’re telling us. One group of teens from the Philippines put it simply:
“Adults need to know that the children of today are highly computer-savvy… To be able to support and protect the children, adults need to understand that children are comfortable with using the internet which pushes us to interact with strangers.”
My daughter is too young for social media, but she is making her first forays into the online world, and what we’re intent on doing is having open communication on what she encounters there. This new report shows that children around the world are asking for help from adults. They are calling for better digital safety education, not just for themselves but for their parents too. But many children feel their parents don’t fully understand their online experiences, which leaves them less able to help when issues arise, and less likely to be asked.
The Protecting Children from Online Grooming report also has recommendations on strengthening education, improving platform safety features, and enforcing protective legislation to keep children safe online while allowing them to benefit from digital engagement.
Janet*, 40, Francisco*, 4, and Nina*, 12, watching a video on a smartphone in Peru. Miguel Angel Arreategui Rodriguez / Save the Children
This issue of online grooming is part of a wider challenge in protecting children from violence. It’s not just about addressing one risk – like online exploitation – but about building strong, inclusive child protection systems that can prevent and respond to violence both offline and online.
This is exactly the focus of the first ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children in November. Save the Children is calling on world leaders to make bold commitments to strengthen comprehensive, sustainable, and inclusive national child protection systems. These systems must prevent and respond to all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation, and neglect, whether it is happening in the home, at school, or online. This is how we create lasting change and protect children everywhere, in every aspect of their lives.
Children are speaking up, and we need to listen to them. This new report shows that by working together – parents, governments, tech companies, and civil society – we can ensure that children not only stay safe online but also have the freedom to explore, learn, and connect without fear.
