Project report
Stronger Together: How Child Helplines, Online Platforms and CSAM Reporting Services Can Better Protect Children Online
Steve Erwood ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This report examines how child helplines, online platforms, and child sexual abuse material (CSAM) reporting services can work together to better protect children online. The study found that counselling contacts related to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse increased by 155% between 2020 and 2025, while CSAM detection grew by 450% in 2025 alone. The report is based on a survey of 43 child helplines across 42 countries and interviews with platform representatives and child protection experts, mapping current collaboration efforts and identifying what needs to change.
Key points
- Counselling related to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse grew 155% between 2020 and 2025
- INHOPE identified 4,781,125 new CSAM cases in 2025 alone, a 450% increase from the previous year
- The survey covered 43 child helpline members from Child Helpline International across 42 countries
- Two forms of collaboration identified: signposting (referring children for emotional support) and giving counsellors ways to report harms to platforms
- Protecting children online requires collaboration between platforms, helplines, CSAM hotlines, reporting portals, and legislators
Limitations
The report does not provide detailed findings on which specific collaborations are working or what changes are needed, as only the abstract and metadata are presented. The specific country-level results and recommendations cannot be determined from this document excerpt.
Abstract
New technological developments mean children and young people spend more time online, facing risks and harms that are growing faster than the systems designed to protect them. Longitudinal data on contacts from children and young people to child helplines show that counselling related to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse (TF-CSEA) grew by 155% between 2020 and 2025. In 2025 alone, INHOPE identified 4,781,125 new Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM), marking a 450% increase from the previous year. Protecting children online is not the responsibility of any single stakeholder. It requires effective collaboration between the online platforms where harm often occurs, the child helplines supporting the victims, CSAM hotlines and reporting portals that detect and remove illegal content, and legislators. One form of collaboration is signposting: referring a child harmed on a platform to receive emotional support by human counsellors. Another type of collaboration would be giving counsellors dedicated ways of reporting to platforms the harms that children tell them about. This report maps the current state of these collaborations, identifies what is working and what is not, and sets out what needs to change. It is based on a survey of 43 child helpline members of Child Helpline International (CHI) across 42 countries and 12 interviews with platform representatives, CSAM hotlines and reporting portals, and experts in child online protection. Download PDF – Single Page Version for Easy Printing Download PDF – Spreads Version for Widescreen Online Viewing The post Stronger Together: How Child Helplines, Online Platforms and CSAM Reporting Services Can Better Protect Children Online appeared first on Child Helpline International.