In 21 years there has been an evolution in the types and methods of violence against children and adolescents on a global level which are increasingly complex, but there have been no similar advances regarding the systems for detecting the problem: this is the alarm raised by the “2024 Abuse Dossier” of the SOS Telefono Azzurro Foundation. The dossier was presented during the conference “Let’s give voice to silence: listening to children and adolescents victims of sexual abuse to develop new help and protection interventions”, at Palazzo Chigi on the occasion of the International Day for the Protection of Minors against Violence. sexual abuse and exploitation on November 18.
The Dossier highlights the growing diffusion of Synthetic child sexual abuse material, i.e. child pornography material generated by artificial intelligence. “This new threat,” he explained Ernesto Caffopresident of Telefono Azzurro «makes it even more difficult to distinguish the real from the virtual. Immediate intervention is essential to combat this phenomenon.”
Another alarming fact concerns the live streaming of sexual exploitation, a practice in which abuse is broadcast live online. The picture is more than worrying: around the world, almost 90 million boys and girls alive today have suffered sexual violence and more than 1 billion women and men have suffered such violence during childhood (a figure assumed by the United Nations as effective and comparable data is lacking at a global and individual country level). The web has certainly worsened the scope of the phenomenon: the diffusion of child pornography and the online solicitation of minors in fact, they constitute new intangible risk fronts. Telefono Azzurro therefore tries to investigate what are the most suitable solutions to stem the drama and provide timely responses at a national and international level. One of the main problems concerns the lack of realistic, transparent and coherent data on sexual abuse around the world: Only 1 in 6 countries has an available data source on sexual violence against children. Furthermore, the topic of abuse is still shrouded in a cloud of silence today, especially if we look at the online abuse scenario.
In 2024 the 114 Childhood Emergency Service, promoted and co-financed by the Department for Family Policies and managed by SOS Telefono Azzurro Foundation, has collected more than 2,700 cases. In 82% of cases, minors are involved in the role of victims, in 16% of cases perpetrators and in 2% as witnesses. 53% are female, 47% male; 2.18% are children in the 0-10 age group, 43.87% are pre-adolescents (11-14 years) and 53.95% are adolescents (15-18 years). As regards the alleged perpetrators, in 32.14% of cases it is a stranger (adult), in 25% a parent (25%), and in 14.29% a friend or acquaintance (minor).
In 40.52% of reported cases, offline abuse arose or persisted within the home. Followed by the home of relatives or friends (12.93%), school (3.45%), open places (2.59%) and public places (14.66%), sports facilities (2.59 %) and the road (1.72%). In light of these data, Telefono Azzurro highlights the notable increase in parents among abusers. In particular, cases in which parents engage in behaviors online that put their minor children at risk, for example by publishing content that concerns them.
Cover photo, Istock
