According to the Save the Children study by the international children’s charity organization, a large proportion of Finns aged 11–17 have experienced online care.
According to the study, nearly 80 percent of children have received explicit images from an adult, while 75 percent of children have been asked to submit them.
More than one in ten Finnish children experience such sexual behavior every week, the survey found.
"This shows that treatment is very common," said the Children’s Senior Child Protection Adviser Tanja Simola.
The story continues after the picture.
One-third of the children who responded to the study said they had been offered rewards in return for sexual acts or messages. The study found that adults provided money, cigarettes, and alcohol in exchange for clear images or physical encounters.
Nine percent of children who experienced treatment said they had agreed to a video call with the perpetrator, and six percent said they met them in person.
"Trim" refers to an act in which an adult contacts a child intentionally to perform sexual acts. It is illegal in Finland to engage in such activities with a child under the age of 16.
The Save the Children survey was conducted between February and March this year. The online survey was sent to 499 schools nationwide and received nearly 1,800 responses.
Why do children talk to guests?
The study also included questions about why children made online contact with strangers.
More than half of respondents said they did it bored, and 40 percent said the reason was curiosity. One-third of the children said they did not understand the reality of the situation. A quarter mentioned loneliness or the courage to refuse to speak.
One in five said they were looking for a friend, while 15 percent said they were interested in sex and sexuality.
Save the Children Tanja Simola said that curiosity about sexuality was a normal part of a child’s development. Many children may find it easier to talk about anonymously online than with their parents.
"It may be that the child has not received enough information about sex or sexuality at home or school. Sex education may be incomplete, non-existent, or lack of interest in the child," he said.
Recognition of care
Most of the respondents felt that they could identify treatment behavior. More than 70 percent said they knew they were being treated and more than 90 percent said they considered sexual messages to be readable treatments.
"Children recognize a treatment situation when it explicitly contains sexual elements, but we should consider how well the child recognizes situations where such behavior does not occur immediately," said Simola.
The danger is compounded by the fact that children are not always able to apply such awareness in practice, he said.
"For example, many said that if such a situation occurs, they block the sender of the message and tell a friend when they should take screenshots of the event, including the sender’s name and tell the adult," Simola added.
Tell an adult
More than half of the respondents said they were telling someone about a care product they met. More than 90 percent had told a friend, while one in five told their mother. In contrast, less than ten percent had told their fathers and five percent to school staff.
In the study, children were asked to explain the reasons why they did not tell anyone about the treatment measures they encountered. Three-quarters said it was because they hadn’t taken the matter seriously.
"If it is that children did not currently recognize that it was something harmful, it would be important for adults to take into account" Simola said.
Forty-five percent of children who responded to the survey said they didn’t think telling someone would help, and 35 percent said they thought no one cared. A third said they were too ashamed to report what had happened.
"Shame can be a significant factor, especially if they have been told at home that they need to be careful and have been told that they should not share personal information online. A child may fear that their parents are angry if they have already done so once," Simola explained.
For adults, the Save the Children counseling is to bring up discussions about care as part of daily discussions.
"When an adult asks a child about school or his or her activities, it may include talking about the news online, asking what kind of application the child is using and with whom he or she is playing or communicating online," Simola said.
Anyone can report childcare or explicit material found online through Save the Children Online tip online service (link in Finnish).
Source: The Nordic Page