These findings are consistent with the qualitative evidence collected through Disrupting Harm.
However, the findings from the qualitative interviews revealed impacts on children beyond negative
mental health outcomes. Many children described experiencing fear, shame, anxiety, isolation, loss
of trust and ongoing distress following technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse.
For some children, these impacts appeared immediate, while others described longer-term effects
on their relationships, well-being and sense of safety. Together, the quantitative and qualitative
findings underscore that the consequences of technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and
abuse can extend well beyond the abusive incident itself, highlighting the importance of ensuring
that children have timely access to trauma-informed mental health and psychosocial support
alongside appropriate protection and justice responses.
Differences in the magnitude of the adjusted risk ratios and mean differences should be
interpreted with caution. Estimates are influenced not only by the underlying relationship between
technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse and these indicators of harm, but also
by differences in sample size, the prevalence of these outcomes within countries, and unknown
co-variates, affecting the statistical precision. In countries where suicidal thoughts, self-harm and
anxiety were relatively uncommon, confidence intervals are wider and effect estimates may appear
inflated or more variable.
As these analyses are based on cross-sectional survey data, they demonstrate associations rather
than causal relationships. While the findings cannot establish that technology-facilitated child
sexual exploitation and abuse caused poorer mental health outcomes, they consistently show that
children reporting these forms of abuse were substantially more likely to report adverse well-being
outcomes across diverse contexts.
Through Children’s Eyes
Appendix
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