[When Someone You Met on Social Media or in a Game Asks for a Photo] 1,566 Children Were Victims in 2025, Nearly Half in Junior High | Japan NPA Final Figures and What Parents Can Do Today

In 2025 (Reiwa 7), 1,566 children in Japan became victims of crimes by someone they met on social media or in an online game. This is the final figure from the National Police Agency (NPA), up 80 (5.4%) from 1,486 the year before. Junior high students numbered 758, nearly half (48.4%), and elementary pupils numbered 167, up 31 (22.8%). This article turns the NPA numbers into what a parent can tell a child ahead of time.

How to read the numbers: In this statistic, "SNS" includes communication games and excludes registered dating sites. "Crimes originating on SNS" means offenses in which a suspect and a child who had never met got to know each other through SNS and the child was victimized before any relationship or acquaintance developed. The covered offenses include violations of the Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Prohibition Act, youth protection ordinances and serious crimes. These are counts of child victims in cases that were investigated, not of every child who was targeted.

The NPA numbers (2025, final figures)

• ▸Child victims: 1,566. The year before it was 1,486. By school stage: elementary 167 (10.7%), junior high 758 (48.4%), high school 579 (37.0%), other 62. Elementary pupils rose by 31 (22.8%)
• ▸Device used: smartphones for 1,529 (97.6%). Devices other than smartphones account for 37
• ▸Filtering: among the 771 victims whose filtering status was known, 688 (89.2%) were not using it
• ▸Who posted first: the child victim in 1,162 cases (74.2%), the suspect in 239 (15.3%). About three quarters of the starting points were the victim's own post
• ▸Serious crimes (violent and other major offenses): 598. Up 140 from 458. They include murder, robbery, non-consensual sexual intercourse, abduction and non-consensual indecent acts

It is not only "risky posts" that get targeted

The NPA also publishes what the 1,162 victims who posted first actually posted. What stands out is how ordinary many of the posts were.

• ▸Profile only: 210 (18.1%)
• ▸Everyday life: 173 (14.9%)
• ▸Hobbies and interests: 131 (11.3%)
• ▸Looking for friends: 129 (11.1%)
• ▸Seeking compensated dating 150 (12.9%), meeting-oriented 87 (7.5%), self-taken photos 69 (5.9%), running away from home 30 (2.6%), seeking advice 17 (1.5%), game streaming 4 (0.3%), unknown or other 162 (13.9%)

Profile, everyday life, hobbies and looking for friends together come to 643, about 55% (55.3%). In other words, "nothing odd was posted" is not a guarantee. A profile alone can be enough for a stranger to make contact.

Being pushed to send a nude image of oneself

The NPA warns that cases in which a child is threatened or cleverly deceived by a stranger met on social media into photographing and sending their own nude image are on the rise. In the NPA's 2025 final figures, among 1,273 child victims of child pornography offenses, 515 (40.5%) were this kind, which the NPA classifies as "damage involving images the child took of themselves", up 53 (11.5%) from 462 the year before. 283 were junior high students, 55.0% of the 515.

The NPA says an image is very hard to recover once it leaks and asks people to "not give out personal information" and to "not take or send photos of yourself in underwear or nude." It also warns of cases in which a child was lured out by someone met inside an online game and drawn into a serious crime.

How it unfolds, and where it can be stopped

• ▸① Contact: A stranger connects through the child's post or through in-game exchanges
• ▸② Deceive or threaten: The child is cleverly deceived or threatened into acting (the NPA's description)
• ▸③ Sent or lured out: The child is pushed to photograph and send a nude image, or is lured out from an online game
• ▸④ Hard to undo: Once an image leaks, recovering it is very difficult

What parents can do today

• ✓★Agree with your child, in words: "We do not take or send nude or underwear photos." This is what the NPA asks for. Say it up front, including "even if someone threatens you"
• ✓★Tell them in advance that they can come to you without being scolded. A word before anything happens works best (this is our view, not a step given by the NPA)
• ✓Check filtering and parental controls. The NPA encourages using both. About 9 in 10 (89.2%) of the victims whose status was known were not using filtering
• ✓Look at your child's social media and game profiles and visibility settings together. Harm has come even from profile-only posts. Leave out face photos, school names and anything that reveals where they are
• ✓Make it a rule to tell a parent before meeting anyone. Especially when it is someone known only from a game or social media, not a friend of a friend
• ✓If it has happened, listen without blame, keep the screens of the conversation, and consult the police. Contacts are in the "Where to get help" section below (this is our general advice)

Where to get help

When you suspect something but it is not an emergency, the police consultation line #9110. If someone is being threatened right now or safety is at risk, call 110. For consultations about sexual crimes, the police run a sexual-crime victim helpline, #8103 ("Heart-san"). If money was paid or a contract was forced, call the Consumer Hotline 188, which connects you to the nearest consumer center. These numbers are for Japan only.

If you share this, share these 3 lines

• ▸In 2025, 1,566 children in Japan became victims of crimes by someone met on social media or in a game (NPA final figures). Nearly half were junior high students. Many started from only a profile or everyday post
• ▸★Tell your child first: no nude or underwear photos, never send even if threatened, and you may come to us without being scolded. Check filtering too
• ▸If it happens, listen without blame, keep the screens, and call #9110 or the police. Call 110 if urgent. For money problems call 188

What we could not confirm

• ▸This year's (2026) numbers. The latest final figures I could confirm are for 2025. I found no first-half 2026 figures in the sources I could check
• ▸The actual number of contacts, including children who were not harmed. This statistic counts child victims in investigated cases
• ▸Step-by-step safety settings for each app or game. They differ by device and app, so I do not give them here. Check the NPA's awareness page and each service's own guidance

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