O3190: Social Media Facilitated Sexual Assaults in Children

Background: With the popularity of social media (SM) amongst children and adolescents, the dangers of online platforms are becoming more evident, including meeting sexual predators. Social media facilitated sexual assault (SMFSA) occurs when social media facilitates communication between a victim and perpetrator that leads to a sexual assault. While prior literature suggests technology can play a role in facilitating sexual assaults, there is no specific literature on the prevalence of child sexual abuse victims who report meeting their perpetrator via social media platforms such as Instagram. Thus our objectives were to 1) identify the prevalence of child sexual abuse victims who disclosed meeting their perpetrator on social media, and 2) identify which SM platforms were reported most frequently.

Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study of children 10 to 18 years of age who disclosed sexual abuse at Rady Children’s Hospital Chadwick Center for Children and Families between 2018-2023. Data was collected in RedCAP and analyzed via Stata using descriptive statistics and Chi Squared/Fisher’s exact

Results: Of the 1062 patients included, the mean age was 13 years (SD 1.9), 89% were female, 36% White, and 19% Hispanic. The patient was related to alleged perpetrator 60% of the time. 80% of perpetrators were adult men. In the total population 7% reported SM was used to facilitate the sexual assault. When accounting only for victims with non-related perpetrators, there was a statistically significant increase in SMFSA at 12% (P value < 0.0001). Snapchat followed by Instagram were the most common platforms used. There was no statistical significance in acquisition of sexually transmitted disease or physical injury between the two groups.

Conclusion: Social media platforms are being used to facilitate sexual assault in children between the ages of 10-18 years. Instagram and Snapchat are the two most common reported social media platforms. Further research is needed to understand how to keep children safe from predators on social media.