Introduction It often begins without warning. For many children, sexual content isn’t something they anticipate. It just shows up – appearing uninvited in messages, chats, or calls – sometimes from strangers, but frequently from people they know. A girl Across 21 countries, 20 million children aged 12–17 were subjected to at least one form of technologyfacilitated sexual exploitation and abuse in a single year. That is about 1 in 5 internetusing children, on average. in Colombia describes receiving unsolicited sexual content when she was 15–16 years old: “You start chatting on Facebook with your friends and, all of a sudden, a message request arrives with a photo of an intimate part of who knows who and inviting you to do racy things. And it wasn’t just once, but several times. And you [think]: ‘But well, what’s happening at this moment? I’m not talking to you, I don’t know who you are’” It doesn’t always stop at exposure. What begins as an unsolicited message can quickly shift into something more direct – a request, a demand, or repeated pressure disguised as normal conversation. A girl from Mexico recalls being asked for sexual images by adult men who were friends with her older sister, when she was 14 years old: Through Children’s Eyes Introduction 6