Three Reports on how vulnerable groups need to be protected from online sexual exploitation

For most children, the internet is a place of curiosity, creativity, and connection. But for others, it can be a much more dangerous playground.

Today, on Safer Internet Day, Terre des Hommes Netherlands launches three new research reports that challenge the idea that a one-size-fits-all approach to online safety can ever truly protect children. Together, these reports show why inclusion is protection.

The VOICE-IDENTITY Project

These reports are the result of the VOICE-IDENTITY project (Identity, Diversity and Exploitation: Navigating and Tracing Intersectionality related to Tech-facilitated Sexual Exploitation of Youth), a research series on the risk and protective factors related to Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC). The project is part of the Stepping Up the Fight Against Sexual Exploitation of Children, by the Down to Zero Alliance.

Following the successful first phase of the VOICE research, which engaged children from 15 countries to understand their views on online safety, we deliberately chose to zoom in. In this second phase, we focused on three groups of children who are often at greater risk of harm online, but whose voices are rarely centred in research, policy, or platform design.

The goal was not to label children or reinforce stereotypes. Children are always more than any category used to describe them. At the same time, identity, disability, culture, gender norms, and social context shape how children experience the internet, including the risks they face and the protection available to them. This is called intersectionality. 

By recognising these differences, we can better understand unique vulnerabilities and protective factors, and ensure that children’s perspectives inform practice, advocacy, and policy.

Three Reports, Three Contexts, One Clear Message

In this launch, we present three in-depth studies from very different contexts , deliberately moving beyond the places and groups that are most often heard.

Bangladesh
Children with disabilities
This report explores how children with visual, hearing, intellectual, and neurodevelopmental disabilities experience online risks, highlighting how inaccessible digital design, stigma, and limited safety education increase vulnerability.

Bolivia
Indigenous Aymara children 
Focusing on Indigenous children in rural contexts, this study shows how later internet access, limited digital literacy, gender norms, and reliance on community justice systems shape both risk and protection in distinct ways.  

The Netherlands
Children who identify as LGBTQIA+ 
This research examines how LGBTQIA+ children use online spaces for identity exploration and connection, while also facing heightened risks related to discrimination, secrecy, and targeted exploitation.

Why This Matters

These reports make one thing clear: there is no such thing as a “standard” child, so why are we designing online safety policies for one? Children’s risks online are not evenly distributed, and neither are their protections. When safety frameworks, digital platforms, and policies are designed without considering diversity, they leave the most at-risk children behind. We cannot claim the internet is safe until it is safe for all children, especially those facing intersecting forms of vulnerability. We therefore call on decision-makers, tech companies, practitioners and educators to adapt online safety approaches to children’s real lives. Only by listening to children, in all their diversity, identities, contexts, and abilities, can we create an online world where every child can safely enjoy the benefits of the internet.

Read the full reports here to find out more about how these different groups of children navigate the internet and how their identity shapes risk and protection from OSEC.