Australia: 1 in 8 Online Daters Were Asked to Facilitate Child Sexual Abuse

A new survey from the Australian Institute of Criminology has found that 12.4% of people on dating apps have received requests to facilitate child sexual exploitation or abuse. The study of 10,000 people reveals that predators are targeting children via their parents on dating apps.

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has released a new report that highlights 12.4% of respondents had received at least one of these five requests when online dating:

• A request for photos of their children or other children they had access to
• Pressure to provide sexual images of those children
• A request to meet those children before it was “appropriate”
• Requests for information of a sexual nature about those children (eg. breast size, whether they had their period)
• An offer of payment for photos, videos or live streams of those children

The AIC’s Deputy Director told ABC News that 48.5% of online daters that had been asked for an image, reported being pressured to provide sexual images of children. 

According to the report’s researchers, younger people, First Nations people, non-native English speakers, and people with a disability or long-term illness were all more likely to receive these inappropriate requests from predators.

Both men and women on dating apps were equally likely to receive these requests, researchers explained. Perhaps surprisingly, men who encountered these requests were equally likely to be speaking with a male or female perpetrator (or so their profiles claimed).

The response

ABC News spoke with parents who use online dating platforms after these findings were released. One mother told the newspaper that she already strictly avoids posting any photos of her young son’s face on social media. 

Other parents are now considering doing the same, but highlighted that it can be difficult to navigate how to mention that they are a parent while online dating. 

The AIC’s Deputy Director shared that “I think the general advice would be wherever possible, don’t put pictures of your children online because you don’t know who’s viewing those photos”.

He also highlighted that parents who date online should be cautious as to even mentioning their parental status from the beginning, as this could make them a target for perpetrators.

Read the full report on this survey from ABC News here.