Country Someone the child knows Stranger Unidentified Philippines 35 19 46 Serbia 56 24 20 Tanzania 70 13 16 Thailand 73 8 20 Uganda 67 16 17 Viet Nam 37 12 52 Average Percentage 57% 16% 27% Commentary: Across the 21 countries included in the analysis, 57 per cent reported instances of technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse involving someone the child already knew, compared with 16 per cent involving a stranger and 27 per cent where the perpetrator was unidentified. While the proportion varied across countries, the overall pattern consistently shows that these forms of abuse are most commonly perpetrated by individuals within children’s existing social networks rather than exclusively by unknown individuals. These findings highlight the importance of moving beyond narratives that frame technologyfacilitated sexual abuse primarily as a risk posed by strangers. They also emphasize the central role of trust and relational proximity in how abuse unfolds. Children may be subjected to abuse through interactions with individuals they already know, including people within their families, peer networks, or romantic relationships. Existing relationships can provide perpetrators with opportunities to build trust, exert influence, or exploit existing power imbalances. The complexity of these dynamics was further illustrated in qualitative findings from Disrupting Harm, where abuse developed and persisted across different types of relationships and through technology. Children described abuse involving manipulation, pressure, coercion, grooming and exploitation of trust from both known and unknown perpetrators. These accounts demonstrate that technology can enable perpetrators to initiate, maintain, or escalate harmful interactions, including within relationships where children may initially feel safe. They also reinforce the importance of prevention approaches that address both online and in-person environments, strengthen children’s understanding of healthy relationships and boundaries, and ensure children have access to support from various avenues when abuse occurs. Through Children’s Eyes Appendix 69