Abuse is closer than people think, and it destroys young lives.
Across South Asia, a crisis long obscured by silence and shame is now rendered in numbers that demand moral reckoning: roughly one in eight children in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka experience sexual abuse before adulthood, a toll of approximately 54 million young lives. A research body spanning Edinburgh and Sydney has mapped both the physical and digital dimensions of this harm, finding that AI-generated exploitation material has surged over a thousand percent in a single year. The findings arrive not as a conclusion but as a summons — to governments, technology companies, and communities — to treat the protection of children as the foundational obligation it has always been.
- 54 million children across three South Asian nations have experienced rape or sexual abuse before turning eighteen, with girls bearing a disproportionate share of that harm.
- Online child sexual abuse material has exploded by 1,325% in one year, fueled by AI-generated deepfakes, with India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan accounting for millions of reported incidents.
- Survivors describe not only the original trauma but the compounding weight of shame, legal indifference, and the terror of knowing images may circulate beyond their control.
- Advocates and experts are pressing governments for funded, concrete protections and demanding that technology companies stop treating child safety as secondary to profit.
- Childlight is presenting findings at conferences in India this week while actively collaborating with law enforcement — signaling a push to move from documentation to prosecution and prevention.
A research organization affiliated with universities in Edinburgh and Sydney has released findings that lay bare the scale of child sexual abuse across South Asia with uncomfortable precision. Approximately one in eight children in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka report experiencing rape or sexual abuse before the age of eighteen — roughly 54 million children across those three countries. Girls are affected at a higher rate than boys, a disparity that reflects global patterns while carrying particular weight in a region where cultural pressures often deepen the silence around victims.
The crisis has a rapidly expanding digital dimension. In the past year alone, online child sexual abuse material — including AI-generated deepfakes — increased by 1,325 percent. India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan host the largest volumes of such material, with millions of incidents reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2024. When adjusted for population, the Maldives, Bangladesh, and Pakistan show the highest per-capita rates in the region.
Childlight's chief executive Paul Stanfield, a former Interpol director, describes the crisis as both catastrophic and preventable, arguing that ending abuse creates cascading benefits for mental health, education, and economic wellbeing. Advocates like Anil Raghuwanshi of ChildSafeNet are calling for funded, concrete government action, warning that every delay carries a human cost.
Two survivors now working as advocates give the statistics their human weight. Sanika Kodia, digitally abused at fourteen in Mumbai, campaigns against the shame that silences victims and urges survivors to speak without fear of judgment. Rhiannon-Faye McDonald, groomed online at thirteen, directs her anger at technology companies that have long placed profit above child safety, and speaks to the lasting psychological damage — self-blame, fear, the haunting possibility that images persist somewhere beyond reach.
India's prosecution rate for such cases exceeds 90 percent, and reported incidents have risen steadily, as have Pakistan's figures. Whether these numbers reflect more abuse, better reporting, or both, the trajectory is clear. Childlight is urging technology platforms to take active roles in detecting and removing harmful material, while calling on schools and communities to close the information gaps that allow abuse to continue unseen.
A research institution based at universities in Edinburgh and Sydney has released findings that expose the scale of child sexual abuse across South Asia with stark precision. The numbers are difficult to absorb: roughly one in eight children in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka report experiencing rape or sexual abuse before turning eighteen. That translates to approximately 54 million children across these three countries alone. The breakdown by gender reveals a sharper toll on girls—14.5 percent report abuse compared to 11.5 percent of boys—a disparity that reflects patterns documented globally but demands particular attention in a region where cultural factors often silence victims further.
Childlight, the research organization conducting this work, has documented not only the prevalence of abuse but also its digital dimension, which is accelerating at an alarming rate. In the past year alone, harmful material online—including sexually explicit images generated by artificial intelligence, known as deepfakes—has increased by 1,325 percent. The three countries with the largest repositories of child sexual abuse material are India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. In 2024 alone, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received reports of 2.25 million incidents in India, 1.11 million in Bangladesh, and 1.04 million in Pakistan. When adjusted for population size, the Maldives shows the highest rate of reported incidents at 94 per 10,000 people, followed by Bangladesh at 64.1 and Pakistan at 41.3.
The research will be presented this week at conferences in New Delhi and Kerala, where Childlight is collaborating with Indian law enforcement to identify offenders and strengthen protections. Paul Stanfield, the organization's chief executive and a former director of Interpol, frames the crisis as both catastrophic and preventable. "Abuse is closer than people think," he said, describing it as a human tragedy that destroys young lives through both physical and online exploitation, often intertwined. He emphasized that stopping abuse opens pathways to mental health, physical wellbeing, and educational success—benefits that ripple through entire societies and economies.
Experts and advocates are calling for immediate action from governments and technology companies. Anil Raghuwanshi, founding chair of ChildSafeNet, stated plainly that children face increasing risk of online abuse and that protective measures must be concrete and adequately funded. "Failure to protect children is a failure to fulfill their responsibilities," he said. "Every second counts." The gap in data remains significant across South Asia, particularly regarding abuse perpetrated by family members, a reality that suggests the true scale may be even larger than current figures indicate.
Two survivors now working as advocates offer testimony to the lasting damage. Sanika Kodia, from Mumbai, was digitally abused via social media at fourteen. She now campaigns through the Brave Movement and speaks to the shame that silences victims. "Survivors are often shamed and blamed by those around them, by perpetrators, and sometimes even by the law," she said. "They need to understand that speaking out does not make them 'bad people.' There will always be people who believe them, understand them, and show empathy." Rhiannon-Faye McDonald, groomed and abused online at thirteen, now works with the Marie Collins Foundation on online safety. She points directly at technology companies: "For far too long, technology companies have prioritized profit over safety." She describes the lasting psychological toll—self-blame, fear, the terror that images or videos may be known to others—and rejects the minimization that treats such material as merely a photograph.
India's prosecution rate for CSAM cases exceeds 90 percent, and reported incidents have climbed from 54,359 in 2021 to 64,469 in 2022. Pakistan's numbers nearly doubled in the same period, from 1,546 to 2,954. These rising figures may reflect both increased abuse and improved reporting, but they underscore the urgency. Childlight is urging technology companies to take more active roles in detecting and removing abuse material, while also calling on schools, communities, and professional organizations to conduct educational and awareness programs. The organization acknowledges that a significant information gap persists, one that can only be closed through representative survey data and sustained commitment to understanding the full scope of the problem.
Notable Quotes
Abuse is closer than people think. Around the world, we are seeing a human tragedy of millions of young lives destroyed by physical and online sexual abuse, often deeply interconnected.— Paul Stanfield, CEO of Childlight
For far too long, technology companies have prioritized profit over safety. The increasing number of abuses against children is a direct result of this.— Rhiannon-Faye McDonald, survivor and online safety advocate
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does the research focus specifically on India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka when the crisis clearly extends across the entire region?
Those three countries had representative survey data available—the kind of systematic sampling that lets you say something reliable about the whole population. The rest of South Asia is largely unmapped. That gap itself is part of the story. We're probably undercounting.
The 1,325 percent increase in online material in a single year—is that because abuse is actually increasing, or because detection is improving?
Both, almost certainly. But the speed of that growth is driven by technology itself. Deepfakes and AI-generated images lower the barrier to creation. You don't need a victim to produce the material anymore. That's a new dimension of the problem.
The Maldives has the highest rate per capita, but India has the largest absolute numbers. What does that tell us?
It tells us that raw numbers and rates are different stories. The Maldives figure is shocking because it's concentrated in a small population. India's numbers are shocking because there are so many children there. Both demand attention, but for different reasons.
Why do you think survivors like Sanika and Rhiannon-Faye are speaking publicly now?
Because silence has failed them. The shame they describe—that's the mechanism that keeps abuse hidden. Speaking breaks that mechanism. They're also pointing at the systems that failed them: law enforcement that blames victims, technology companies that ignore the problem, communities that shame rather than support.
What would actually change things?
The experts are clear: governments need to fund and enforce protections. Technology companies need to stop treating safety as optional. Schools need to teach children what abuse looks like and that it's not their fault. And survivors need to be believed and supported, not blamed. None of that is happening at scale yet.