Country At school On the internet At home At a public place At a place where I do sports Other Montenegro 38 30.8 2.3 31.6 18.8 0 North Macedonia 18.3 19.4 18.5 52.8 7 0 Pakistan 0 34.2 15.8 30.3 0 0 Serbia 33.9 35.6 0.4 20.5 1.5 3.7 Average percentage 26% 38% 14% 23% 5% 1% Commentary: Among the nine countries included in this analysis, the most commonly reported place where children first met the perpetrator was on the internet (38 per cent), followed by school (26 per cent) and in a public place (23 per cent). Smaller proportions of instances involved perpetrators first met at home (14 per cent), at a place where the child played sports (5 per cent), or another location (1 per cent). These findings should be interpreted as describing where children first encountered the perpetrator, rather than where the abuse occurred. They demonstrate that technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse can emerge from both online and in-person interactions. The internet can provide opportunities for perpetrators to initiate contact with children, which emphasizes the opportunity that technology companies have to create barriers to this kind of contact or to build in better safeguards. At the same time, the findings show that technology may also be used to facilitate abuse that begins in existing in-person environments, such as schools, homes, or community spaces. This reinforces the need for prevention approaches that do not frame technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse solely as an online risk. Supporting children to recognize unsafe situations, understand healthy relationships and boundaries, and seek help when something feels wrong is important across all environments where children interact with others. Through Children’s Eyes Appendix 72