An actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, power or trust for sexual purposes either online or in-person.
It includes a wide range of behaviours and situations such as: grooming, sexting, blackmail/coercion, luring, trafficking, distributing sexually explicit material, and consuming child sexual abuse material [CSAM].

All types of sexual exploitation and abuse are illegal whether you are communicating with someone older than you or someone your own age.

Children and youth involved in sexual exploitation are victims of abuse who need help and protection.

Refers to an actual or threatened physical, verbal or emotional intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions. It can occur between an adult and a minor or between two minors. It may include non-contact and contact activities and involve a range of behaviours including, but not limited to:

• Sexual acts of any kind

• Inappropriate touch such as fondling.

• Exhibitionism or exposing oneself to a minor.

• Any sexual interaction or conversation online, on the phone or through text messages.

• Exposing a child to pornography or producing, owning, downloading or sharing CSAM.

• Sex trafficking

Sexual abuse can happen online or in-person.

*Sexual activity with a child (someone under the age of 18) is illegal regardless of the age of majority or age of consent locally. Not knowing or mistaking the age of a child is not a defence.

Any unwanted comment, gesture, or action that is sexual in nature (aside from unwanted touching of sexual body parts, which is sexual assault), that makes someone feel afraid, embarrassed, uncomfortable or ashamed.

Sexual harassment can take physical, verbal, and visual forms and include comments, behaviour, and unwanted sexual contact.

It includes, but is not limited to jokes, threats, discriminatory remarks about someone’s gender or sexuality, making crude gestures, leering and stalking or following.

Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking that involved recruiting, moving, or holding victims for sexual exploitation purposes. Sex traffickers can coerce victims into providing sexual services by force or through threats, including mental and emotional abuse and manipulation.

While anyone can be a victim of trafficking, police-reported incidents show that 96% of victims are women and girls. Girls under the age of 18 make up 24% of those incidents.

Sextortion is a form of online blackmail.

Perpetrators either manipulate victims into sending explicit photos/videos or create fake explicit content [deepfakes] of the victim and then threaten to release the sexual material publicly unless they receive payment, more images or both. Sextortion is a crime.

Children and youth involved in this type of sexual exploitation are victims of sexual abuse who need help and protection.

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is any violence directed towards a person based on their gender, gender expression, or perceived gender. It is often rooted in unequal power dynamics between genders. While anybody can be abused, women, girls and gender-diverse people are at a higher risk.

It can take physical, emotional, and economic forms and includes, but is not limited to, name-calling, hitting, pushing, blocking, stalking, harassment, sexual assault, rape, control, humiliation and manipulation.

GBV can happen between people in romantic relationships, within families, at work, and between friends, acquaintances and strangers.

It is estimated that one in three women will experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime.
*UNHCR