Red Barnet finds two in three children face harmful online experiences

Two in three children have experienced digital abuse or other unpleasant incidents online within the past year, according to a survey by Red Barnet, a Danish children’s organisation, reported by DR.

The figure is 66 per cent. Red Barnet Secretary General Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen called it “shocking” that the number remains so high despite widespread concern about children’s safety online.

The survey covered 12 types of unpleasant online experiences, including hateful or hurtful messages, rumours, threats or extortion, unwanted intimate images, the unauthorised sharing of private images, online bullying, exclusion from social media or games, unwanted contact, being photographed or recorded without consent, altered images or videos, violent content and people pretending to be the child online.

Extortion and violent content

Psychologist Mia Lind Winther works for SletDet, Red Barnet’s free counselling service for young people. She said the cases of digital abuse vary widely.

During an interview with DR, the service received a case involving a boy who believed he had been communicating with a girl of his own age on Snapchat. The contact was later moved to Telegram, and intimate material was exchanged. The boy was then extorted and had tried to resolve the situation by paying money.

It later emerged that the person was a man from another country, Winther said. SletDet advises victims to block the extortionist and document the abuse with screenshots. It also advises against complying with the demands, as the extortion will often continue even if the victim pays.

A 14-year-old boy cited in the survey said he had encountered an image of a dismembered body lying on a toilet floor. The word “LEGO” appeared at the top of the image, which he described as a joke suggesting it was a construction set. He also said he had received videos of a cat being abused.

Calls for stronger age checks

Research, Education and Digitalisation Minister Christina Egelund wrote to DR that the survey confirmed her view that technology companies were not taking sufficient responsibility and were gambling with children’s safety online.

She said Denmark would introduce an age limit for social media to shield children from disturbing content on many platforms. The measure would not solve the problem on its own, she said, but would be an important step towards protecting the next generation.

Egelund also pointed to the introduction of digital literacy as an elective subject in Danish primary schools from 2027, saying it would help children and young people learn to use the internet safely.

The survey found that 65 per cent of children aged nine to 12 use social media and other platforms with a minimum age of 13, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

Red Barnet said much of the abuse takes place on those three platforms and urged the companies to take greater responsibility. Schmidt-Nielsen called for genuine age verification, saying it was not enough for users simply to tick a box confirming that they were over 13.

DR contacted Snapchat, TikTok and Meta, the company behind Instagram, for comment. Snapchat and TikTok were unable to respond before publication. Meta referred DR to an initiative launched on Instagram in 2025.