300m kids are targets of online abuse

Shock figures from Childlight project

- RYAN MCDOUGALL

MORE than 300million children a year are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse, according to a Scots study.

In the first global estimate of the crisis, Edinburgh University researchers found one in eight kids have been victims of non-consensual talking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past year.

In addition, 12.5 per cent of children globally about 300million - are estimated to have been subject in the past year to online solicitation such as unwanted sexual talk and sexual act requests.

The Childlight initiative - which aims to understand the prevalence of child abuse - includes a global index, Into The Light, which found one in nine men in the US (almost 14million) admitted online offending against kids at some point.