In 2025, hotlines continued to see a sustained increase in reports related to grooming, sexual coercion, and both financial and non-financial sexual extortion. Many of these cases involved minors being contacted through mainstream social platforms, messaging services, and random video chat applications, such as OmeTV, which facilitated manipulative and coercive interactions.
Analysts noted that victim demographics are gradually diversifying, with an increase in self-generated material emerging from minors in response to pressure or coercion by offenders. The rise in reports related to sexual extortion was particularly notable in Colombia, where online sexual exploitation and grooming reports increased by 29% compared to 2024, with 86% of cases linked to social media, messaging apps, or random video chat platforms.
These trends underline the growing complexity of technology-facilitated abuse, highlighting the need for careful monitoring, cross-border cooperation, and timely intervention to protect victims and prevent further exploitation.
