How do children get support and recover? Children and young people are not passive in the face of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse. Even within environments that are often unsafe or unsupportive, they continuously make decisions, act and look for ways to navigate harm and support one another. Blocking perpetrators, seeking support, warning friends, reporting harmful content, or disclosing abuse are all expressions of agency and resilience. These actions show that children are not defined solely by the harm they experience, but also by the ways they attempt to regain safety, control and support. Interviews with survivors show how agency often appears in small but important acts of self-protection. One girl in Mexico who was coerced into sending intimate images at the age of 14 described choosing a platform with a “view-once” function in the hope that the perpetrator would not be able to save her images. Such decisions reflect the constrained ways children attempt to reduce harm within situations shaped by coercion and unequal power. Children also exercise agency collectively. Friends, siblings and peers were often the first people children turned to, for emotional support, advice, or help seeking justice. Some young people described finding strength through feminist movements and public conversations about online violence, which helped them recognize that what happened to them was abuse – not something they deserved, nor something they should carry alone. Through Children’s Eyes How do children get support and recover? 34