Mapping of Vulnerability Factors of Brazilian Adolescents on the Internet

Águeda Pacheco Melo Barreto, Cristiano Silva Moura, Maurício José Silva Cunha, Hasheem Mannan, Marcos Flávio Silveira Vasconcelos D´Angelo and Matheus Pereira Libório ()
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Águeda Pacheco Melo Barreto: ChildFund Brazil
Cristiano Silva Moura: ChildFund Brazil
Maurício José Silva Cunha: ChildFund Brazil
Hasheem Mannan: University College Dublin
Marcos Flávio Silveira Vasconcelos D´Angelo: State University of Montes Claros
Matheus Pereira Libório: State University of Montes Claros

Child Indicators Research, 2025, vol. 18, issue 4, No 8, 1657-1683

Abstract: Abstract Adolescents’ involvement with the Internet has become a growing concern, mainly due to their exposure to online sexual violence. The study uses mixed methods (k-means, discriminant analysis, logistic regression, and decision trees) to shed light on implicit behaviors and their relationship with online sexual violence among 8,436 adolescents, allowing inferences for all of Brazil. The results reveal that gender, hours online, age, and number of apps accessed are determining factors of sexual violence, which affects 45% of Brazilian adolescents. The age of adolescents is a key factor for developing effective public policies, given its correlation with the two most determinant factors in the occurrence of online sexual violence: hours online and the number of apps accessed. Adolescents aged 17 and 18 who use more than one app are 8.09 times more likely to experience sexual violence with online interaction than the average. The study’s findings contribute to developing efficient and targeted public policies on adolescent characteristics and Brazilian regions.

Keywords: Online sexual abuse; Online behaviors; Digital vulnerability; Multidimensional problem; Composite indicator (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s12187-025-10254-6

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