October 10, 2024
About 240 to 310 million boys and men, or around 1 in 11, have experienced rape or sexual assault during childhood, the United Nations children’s agency said on Wednesday.
The number of females rises to 650 million, or one in five, when taking into account “non-contact” forms of sexual violence, such as online or verbal abuse, UNICEF reported, in what it called the first global survey of the problem.
The report comes ahead of an inaugural Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, in Colombia next month.
UNICEF said its findings highlight the urgent need for intensified global action, including by strengthening laws and helping children recognize and report sexual violence.
Risks were higher, rising to 1 in 4, in “fragile settings,” including those with weak institutions, U.N. peacekeeping forces, or large numbers of refugees, the report found.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell called sexual violence against children “a stain on our moral conscience.”
“It inflicts deep and lasting trauma, often by someone the child knows and trusts, in places where they should feel safe.”
UNICEF said most childhood sexual violence occurs during adolescence, especially between ages 14 and 17, and those who suffer it face higher risks of sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse and mental health issues.
“The impact is further compounded when children delay disclosing their experiences … or keep the abuse secret altogether,” UNICEF said.
It said increased investment in data collection was needed to capture the full scale the problem, given persistent data gaps, particularly on boys’ experiences.
UNICEF said it based its estimates of girls’ and women’s experiences on nationally representative surveys conducted between 2010 and 2022 in 120 countries and areas.
It said estimates for boys and men were derived from a broader range of data sources and applied some indirect methods.
