The Sexual Exploitation of Australian Children on Dating Apps and Websites

By Coen Teunissen, Hayley Boxall, Sarah Napier and Rick Brown

This study presents the findings from a large survey of people living in Australia (n=9,987) who had used mobile dating apps and/or dating websites in the previous five years. Across the entire sample, 12.4 percent of respondents reported receiving requests to facilitate the sexual exploitation of their own children or children they had access to. Requests included asking for sexual information about children or for sexual images or videos of children, asking to meet children in person or asking for children to perform sex acts over webcam.

The paper highlights the need for additional safety features to be embedded in mobile dating apps and dating websites to protect vulnerable users and to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.

Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2022. 14p.