Firstly, before we talk about the stats, we are not trying to scare you.
As parents, you know that the world is full of risks for your teenage kids. More so if they are online 24/7, which seems to be a baseline for kids who love TikTok.
When you hear the words ‘sexual violence’, you may think of children being sexually abused by adults. Yes, this does happen, but sexual violence is rising worldwide, with more than half of sexual offences against children now being committed by other children aged 10-17, according to the NSPCC in 2025.
This is a mainstream issue that is happening in chat rooms, classrooms and bedrooms. Here, we want to introduce this to you, so you can be aware of the reality that is hitting closer to home every day.
Teens- The Perfect Storms
You know your teenager(s). They are the perfect blend of mood swings, messy bedrooms and pretending they didn’t hear you when you told them something. Mix this with digital influence, curiosity, risk-taking, and peer pressure, and there can be a problem.
Teens are becoming adults, with sexual needs, which in adolescence, can look like curiosity, early experimentation and exploration. All of this is normal. However, in the window of 10-24 years, this is when harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) starts.
Why does this matter? In this age group, that behaviour is escalating.
So, what’s normal sexual behaviour and what isn’t? Experts use a simple model, Hackett’s Continuum, to divide the behaviours of teens.
- Green: normal, age-appropriate exploration.
- Amber: concerning, intrusive, pressured, compulsive.
- Red: abusive, coercive, or criminal.
Research in 2025 shows that the amber zone is erupting. Once rare behaviours, such as sexual bullying, revenge porn and the pressure to share explicit photos, are becoming more common among teens. It is easy to underestimate the harm of these behaviours, but these acts can put young people on a dangerous path.
The Scale
Is it really that bad? Yes.
- Globally, 1 in 3 women will experience violence or sexual violence (WHO, 2021).
- In the UK, child sexual abuse offences have risen 267% since 2013 (Gov, 2021).
- Two-thirds of survivors say their abuser was another child, not an adult (Radford, 2011).
- A 2025 NAPAC study shows 52% of all child abuse and exploitation crimes come from 10- to 17-year-olds.
- Schools recorded 10,000+ incidents of child-on-child sexual misconduct in a single term (Ofsted, 2024).
The Everyone’s Invited study showcased what young girls have been saying for years. Sexual harassment is routine. It’s not rare. It’s not occasional. It’s routine.
92% of teenage girls have reported sexist slurs. 80% have had unwanted sexual comments made to them, and 64% have experienced unwanted touching.
This is not a fringe number. This is an average experience for girls in the UK.
Pornography
Even in the early 2000s, porn was hard to access. However, now, thanks to the algorithms on the internet, explicit content is pushed onto kids. Most children don’t search for this content but they stumble across it. How? On X (formerly Twitter), pornography is accessible with no age checks.
This constant exposure shapes how young people think about sex and consent, before they can understand the concept.
Of course, it’s not just sex that is pushed to younger people. Misogynistic influencer content from people like Andrew Tate is leading to boys refusing to accept female authority, girls being barked at, and misogynistic phrases being repeated word for word.
The attitudes are seeping into classrooms, online chatrooms and gamer groups, misshaping boys’ perspectives to see girls as lesser.
Schools Can’t Teach This
The latest data shows that teachers in the UK are worried. Really worried.
Teachers describe a growing crisis:
- 76% of secondary teachers are “extremely concerned” about online misogyny’s impact on pupils (Over, 2025).
- 70% of female teachers have been harassed or demeaned by pupils (UK Parliament, 2022).
- 1 in 5 girls feel unsafe at school (Girlguiding, 2023).
Schools are trying to make a difference, but they can’t. The teachers can’t prevent these issues and do not have the skills (or the time) to educate against them. Also, somewhat unsurprisingly, government guidance is vague in relation to how to teach relationship skills to teens. They can barely teach enough sex education to keep the kids informed!
Why Skills-Based Prevention Matters
Most parents have been there. You tell your teenage kid not to do something and what is the first thing they do?
Telling kids what to do is not enough and even in schools, the teens need something more to help them understand consent, relationships and how not to go down the dark path of the angry influencers online, which is already being shown to lead to a higher risk of harmful sexual interactions.
So, what DO the kids need? The Russell Report highlights these points as important when approaching CSA with kids and preventing it-
- Emotional regulation
- Consent literacy
- Spotting unsafe content online
- Empathy
- Conflict resolution
- Healthy relationship skills
The Takeaway for Parents
First of all, don’t panic!
The issue is indeed bigger than most people think and it is getting worse.
However, this is not an inevitability. With smart, informed, proactive adults and evidence-based programmes, the trajectory of the generation can be changed.
As parents, you will be a part of the solution but much like the schools, you can’t do it alone.
Programmes like FRESH (Forming Relationships and Evolving Sexuality Healthily) will focus on building those all-important skills for teens, as they are starting to become curious about sex, relationships and the bigger picture as they grow. If you sons, don’t worry. It doesn’t blame the boys. FRESH shifts the narrative from “don’t do this” to “here’s how to have safe, respectful, healthy relationships.”
Best of all, FRESH has been designed by a forensic psychologist, Luisa Williams, who has 23 years of experience working with teenagers relating to sex and relationships. So, it’s expert-led!
The next blog in this series will look more at the extent on behaviour and the current options that are in place in schools. That way, you will have more insight into what’s happening to teens and will see how much more the internet and manosphere is influencing teens.
References
Girlguiding UK. (2023). Girls’ Attitudes Survey 2023 (Research Report). Girlguiding UK. https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/globalassets/docs-and-resources/research-and-campaigns/girls-attitudes-survey-2023.pdf
Hackett, S. (2014). Children and young people with sexually harmful behaviour. Research in Practice.
Hackett, S. (2025, February). Study on sexual violence and harmful sexual behaviour displayed by children: Nature, causes, consequences and responses (Council of Europe ENF-VAE Study No. 05). Council of Europe.
Home Affairs Committee. (2023, December 8). Human trafficking: First Report of Session 2023–24. UK Parliament.
Ofsted. (2021). Review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-sexual-abuse-in-schools-and-colleges
Over, H., Bunce, C. J., Baggaley, J., & Zendle, D. (2025). Understanding the influence of online misogyny in schools from the perspective of teachers. PLOS ONE, 20(2), e0299339. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299339
Quinn, T. (2025, January 28). NSPCC warns of genAI’s growing risk to UK children. Digit.fyi. https://www.digit.fyi/nspcc-warns-of-genais-growing-risk-to-uk-children/
Radford, L., Corral, S., Bradley, C., Fisher, H., Bassett, C., Howat, N., & Collishaw, S. (2011). Child abuse and neglect in the UK today. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/pre-2013/child-abuse-neglect-uk-today