E/CN.15/2014/CRP.1 especially in light of the circumstance that boys may often feel reluctant to reveal their abuse because of a double stigma associated with suffering abuse and same-sex sexual relations.134 With respect to cyber-enticement, up to 99 per cent of solicitations are made by men, mostly (43 per cent) youth or young adults, and are overwhelmingly (70 to 75 per cent) addressed to girls, with 14 to 17-year-olds being particularly at risk.135 With respect to user-generated content such as “sexting”, girls may be disproportionately victimized. A 2012 study described the gender-dynamics involved in sexting as follows: “Sexting is not a gender-neutral practice; it is shaped by the gender dynamics of the peer group in which, primarily, boys harass girls, and it is exacerbated by the gendered norms of popular culture, family and school that fail to recognise the problem or to support girls. We found considerable evidence of an age-old double standard, by which sexually active boys are to be admired and ‘rated’, while sexually active girls are denigrated and despised as ‘sluts’. This creates gender specific risks where girls are unable to openly speak about sexual activities and practices, while boys are at risk of peer exclusion if they do not brag about sexual experiences.”136 Technology plays an important role in exacerbating this effect, with mobile phones and other devices, social networking sites, and other communication technologies facilitating the objectification of girls by allowing the creation, exchange, collection, ranking and display of images.137 Girls also suffer more frequently from cyberbullying. A survey conducted by Microsoft found that worldwide, 37 per cent of children 8-17 years old had been subjected to a range of online activities such as mean or unfriendly treatment, being made fun of or teased, or being called mean names. Of that number, 55 per cent were girls.138 Similarly, girls seem to suffer more from cyber-bullying, with 37 per cent of those who had been bullied online in the past 12 months stating they had been very upset after the attack and 24 per cent reporting they had felt fairly upset, as opposed to 23 per cent respectively of male victims of bullying.139 Conversely, harm from exposure to inappropriate content most often affects boys. Because boys make up a larger percentage of video game players, they tend to see more of the violent and sometimes gendered content that commonly characterizes the online gaming environment. In other contexts, adolescent boys who seek out pornography with particular kinds of material in mind can find that searches retrieve more graphic and violent material than they expected. On the other hand, girls may be exposed to a higher proportion of harmful content in the context of child sexual abuse material and sexually explicit self-generated material sent by perpetrators during a grooming process.140 Youth identifying themselves as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender may be more likely to receive online solicitations and can experience higher degrees of cyber-bullying or harassment. In particular, boys who are gay or __________________ 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 24 U.S. Department of State, 2008. Trafficking in Persons Report. P. 9. Available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/105501.pdf. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, 2008. Enhancing Child Safety & Online Technologies: Final Report of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States. P. 20. Retrieved from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/ISTTF_Final_Report.pdf. NSPCC, 2012. Children, Young People and ‘Sexting’. Summary of Qualitative Study. P. 12. Available at http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/resourcesforprofessionals/sexualabuse/sexting-research-summary_wdf89270.pdf; see generally Ringrose, J., Gill, R., Livingstone, S., Harvey, L., 2012. NSPCC, 2012. P. 14. Cross-Tab Marketing Services & Telecommunications Research Group for Microsoft Corporation, 2012. Online Bullying Among Youth 8-17 Years Old – Worldwide. Executive Summary. Available at http://www.microsoft.com/security/resources/research.aspx#onlinebullying. Staksrud, E., 2011. Ybarra, M., Mitchell, K, 2005. Exposure to Internet Pornography among Children and Adolescents: A National Survey. CyberPsychology and Behaviour 8:473-485; Mitchell, K., Finkelhor, D., Wolak, J., 2003; Wolak, J., Mitchell, K., Finkelhor, D., 2007; OECD, 2011. The Protection of Children Online. Risks Faced by Children Online and Policies to Protect them. Available at http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/science-and-technology/the-protection-of-children-online_5kgcjf71pl28-en. V.14-03040