Commentary: Across the 21 countries included in the study, Meta-owned platforms, particularly Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, were, on average, the platforms on which children most frequently experienced incidents of technology-facilitated sexual abuse. At the same time, some regional differences are evident. Children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia saw comparatively few incidents occurring on Facebook or WhatsApp, with Instagram featuring more prominently. In contrast, Facebook was disproportionately represented in surveys with children living in Eastern and Southern Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Latin America. The first round of data was collected between 2019 and 2021, during which platform popularity and safety features may have differed from 2022–2025. This could account for some of the regional differences observed. However findings from the second round suggest that the top five platforms where most children have been subjected to technology-faciliated sexual abuse remained largely the same. These findings highlight that a relatively small number of social media platforms account for a disproportionate share of technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse cases. This underscores the critical role that a small group of widely used platforms play in shaping children’s exposure to online harm and the importance of ensuring that effective safety measures are implemented where children are most active. Through Children’s Eyes Appendix 77

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