More than half of young people in Poland experienced abuse on the net as a child, yet 73% of them never turned for help. fresh study of the Republican Foundation and Foundation Project: Poland, prepared as part of the task Seeing the Unseen financed by Safe Online, it shows how profoundly the problem of digital force lies in the Polish kid protection strategy and how poorly this strategy works today.
In the summertime of 2025, CAPI interviews with 800 people aged 18-25 were conducted. Questions afraid childhood experiences, questions were asked, among others, about the time spent in front of the screen, parents' educational style, contact with online abuses and the readiness to search support. This is part of a larger task besides covering the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, which aims to fill the gap in cognition about sexual force against children on the Internet, a phenomenon which, according to Europol data, frequently affects children from the Visegrad Group region.
The subjects in the survey were asked to measure their own vulnerability to abuse before 18 years of age on a scale of 1 to 7 until 51% of the subjects indicated a level of 3 or higher. For 21% abuses were frequent or permanent. Only 18% declared a complete deficiency of specified experience.
The scale of the problem increases with age, but begins amazingly early. Already in kindergarten 32% of respondents experienced exclusion, 21% were ashamed, and 20% were trolling. What is worrying is that even at this phase 5% of children have been exposed to sexual force and 4% to harassment. However, the most delicate minute of life is the age of 11-14 years:. Only 23% of the surveyed subjects felt completely safe at the time, compared with 37% in the junior simple school classes. It is during this period that the scale of force increases rapidly.
Importantly, many of the subjects, despite the experience of circumstantial forms of abuse mentioned in the survey, placed themselves not at the utmost points of the scale, but in the middle. Persons prepare the study interpret this as a signal that a large proportion of abuse remains unnamed or unrecognized by the individuals themselves who have experienced it.
The function of parents and schools: supervision works, but trust is lacking
The survey confirms something that was intuitively suspected: educational kind matters. Among those whose parents had no thought of their online activity, the percent of those experiencing abuse was above average high. The most common model of education was "moderate supervision" (39% of respondents), i.e. 1 with certain principles, but without full control of content. Only 5% of the respondents grew up with a complete ban on the Internet, but paradoxically the strict ban was not more effective than the engaged but uncontrollable approach.
The situation with assurance in the institution is worse. As many as 47% of respondents declare that they do not trust the school, which is peculiarly worrying, given the function that education systems should play in protecting children. By far, the most trusted origin of support is those of friends to whom 57% would surely turn to for help, followed by parents and intellectual helpers.
The state of digital education is besides simplistic, due to the fact that only 25% of the respondents passed a full school course in digital skills, and up to 24% received no education in this area. The most common form of preparation was "a fewer lessons at school" (36%) – which, according to the authors of the report, demonstrates the fragmented and inconsistent media education strategy in Poland.
Silence as rule, not exception
The most alarming consequence of the study is howRarely do young people search help. Among those who experienced abuse, 73% never asked for support. The reasons are mostly emotional, not practical. 20% indicated shame, 18% fear of troubles, 13% considered the situation insufficiently serious, and 12% feared a violent person.
Worse still, those who chose to search aid seldom felt full heard. Only 12% assessed the support received as completely sufficient, while as much as 41% rated it low, due to the fact that at a level of 1-3 on a seven-point scale. The most helpful sources of support were those providing intellectual and therapeutic assistance (21% of the indications among respondents, seeking support) and parents (20%), but the scale of professional assistance remains marginal to the scale of the problem.
Those who are asked what they most anticipate in the support process did not point to punishment or trial. The most crucial was the request for safety (57%), for serious treatment (50%) and for the problem to simply halt (49%). Only in 4th place was the anticipation of consequences for a violent individual (46%).
Grey acceptance zone
The study besides shows something more subtle than the abuse statistic themselves - a blurry boundary of what young people consider acceptable. The vast majority of respondents (more than 70%) unequivocally reject openly violent and sexual behavior, specified as forcing intimate content (75% consider it completely unacceptable) or threats of online execution (73%).
The problem begins where the boundaries are little clear. Only 27-29% of the respondents explicitly reject behaviour specified as commenting on someone's image or pressures associated with a first date. In the case of indirect behaviour specified as a gag on someone's sexual orientation, unwanted physical contact or embarrassment due to political views - full rejection declares only 43-52% of respondents. It is this "gray zone" that is the most crucial field for educational activities – due to the fact that it is there that abuse is the easiest to normalize or overlook.
What's next?
Those working on the study make a clear conclusion, the problem of digital force against children in Poland is not due to deficiency of awareness, but to the deficiency of effective, accessible and trustworthy support systems. They recommend, among another things, conducting education about boundaries and online safety from an early age, due to the fact that data shows that abuse starts in kindergarten. besides propose building reporting systems that are discreet, free of evaluation and easy accessible.
Based on the study "Seeing the Unseen: Sexual force against children online in Poland" (Republicion Foundation, July 2025) prepared in cooperation with the Foundation Project: Poland and funded by Safe Online.
