How common is the experience of online grooming-type behaviours among children in Australia?

¹ _{Under the legislation, which came into effect on 10 December 2025, age-restricted social media platforms must take reasonable steps to prevent Australian children under 16 from creating or holding accounts.}

² _{Part of a nationally representative survey of 3,454 children aged 10 to 17 years living in Australia between December 2024 and February 2025.}

³ _{‘Grooming-type’ behaviours is used because grooming involves intent and a pattern of behaviour over time, which cannot be fully determined from the survey data. The survey captures behaviours commonly associated with online grooming. However, these indicators alone don’t confirm that grooming has taken place.}

⁴ _{For more information about the methodology of the research, see the methodology report.}

⁵ _{Children were given the option of skipping certain sensitive questions in the survey, including those on online grooming-type behaviours. Among the 3,454 children surveyed, 877 declined to see the questions on online grooming-type behaviours. The prevalence of online grooming-type behaviours reported here is therefore based on a subset of the overall sample (n=2,577).}

⁶ _{The smaller sample size for trans and gender-diverse children should be considered when interpreting these findings (n=64).}

⁷ _{‘Sexually diverse’ includes participants who identified their sexual orientation as 'gay or lesbian’, ‘bisexual’, ‘queer’, ‘asexual’, ‘pansexual’ or that they are ‘still working it out’. Sexuality was asked only of children aged 13–17.}

⁸ _{Arrows denote statistically significant differences between sub-groups.}

⁹ _{Q: Still thinking about things that have happened to you online only. Has an adult or someone at least 4 or 5 years older than you ever …?}

¹⁰ _{As above.}

¹¹ _{The creation or sharing of nude images of children constitutes, in most instances, child sexual exploitation material.}

¹² _{Q: Still thinking about things that have happened to you online only. Has an adult or someone at least 4 or 5 years older than you ever …?}

¹³ _{The creation or sharing of nude images of children constitutes, in most instances, child sexual exploitation material.}

¹⁴ _{Q: Still thinking about things that have happened to you online only. Has an adult or someone at least 4 or 5 years older than you ever …?}

¹⁵ _{Q: And has an adult or someone at least 4 or 5 years older than you ever …?}

¹⁶ _{As above.}

¹⁷ _{A subset of children who had experienced online grooming-type behaviour (n=339) were asked further questions about their most recent or impactful experience of this.}

¹⁸ _{Thinking about the last time <<an adult /someone who was at least 4 or 5 years older than you>> [RECENT EXPERIENCE]. Was that person an adult or at least 4 or 5 years older than you were at the time?}

¹⁹ _{Q: Keep thinking about the last time <<an adult /someone who was at least 4 or 5 years older than you>> [RECENT EXPERIENCE]. Who did this?}

²⁰ _{Q: Think about the last time <<an adult /someone who was at least 4 or 5 years older than you>> who you didn’t know in real life [RECENT EXPERIENCE]. How would you describe them?}

²¹ _{Q: Think just about the last time <<an adult /someone who was at least 4 or 5 years older than you>> [RECENT EXPERIENCE]. Which platform did this happen on?}

²² _{Platforms reported by <5% of children combined as ‘Another online platform’.}

²³ _{Q: Think about the last time <<an adult /someone who was at least 4 or 5 years older than you>> [RECENT EXPERIENCE]. Did this person also do any of the things below? You can choose more than one answer.}

²⁴ _{Q: Keep thinking about the last time <<an adult /someone who was at least 4 or 5 years older than you>> [RECENT EXPERIENCE]. How did you feel? You can choose more than one answer.}

²⁵ _{Q: Keep thinking about the last time <<an adult /someone who was at least 4 or 5 years older than you>> [RECENT EXPERIENCE]. Did you have any difficulties because of this experience? You can choose more than one answer.}