Second, platform features, functions and design enable trust to be exploited. Much of the harm comes from people children know: across the 21 countries, 57 per cent of cases involved a perpetrator already known to the child, and in nine of the countries, children were exploited and abused by another child in more than 1 in 4 cases. But this does not make it a private problem. The features and functions of digital platforms are being used to exploit trust: the unsolicited message request to a child account, the migration to a closed chat, the reshare, the fake profile, the ability to return after being blocked. The abuse is digital platform-enabled and carried out through features that could be built differently. Meanwhile, in 38 per cent of cases, children first met the perpetrator online. Abuse is also shaped by gender. Perpetrators weaponize the stigma and blame that follows disclosure to keep girls silent. Boys are harmed too and targeted differently, their abuse is more often minimized, with perpetrators exploiting the expectation that boys should cope alone and sometimes threatening to reveal or falsely imply a boy’s sexual orientation as a means of extortion. Gender norms for girls and boys are often used against them. Third, when children need help, the system is not fully able to support them. Even when they exist, mechanisms to report, complain, or seek help are not seen as viable options for children when they need them most. More than 4 in 10 cases were disclosed to no one at all. Where children did tell someone, it was most likely a friend (23 per cent), then a sibling or mother. Fewer than 1 per cent reported their experience to the police, a social worker or a helpline. The most common reason for silence was simply not knowing where to go or who to tell (25 per cent). This is a failure of the system. Notably, some children interviewed said they stayed silent for fear of losing access to their devices or platforms, a reminder that simply cutting children off can deepen the very silence that leaves them unprotected. Through Children’s Eyes Executive summary 3