National Hotline Reveals Over 40 Daily Online Child Abuse Cases Ahead of School Year
As the new school year approaches, alarming data from Israel's National Hotline 105 for child protection online has been revealed for the first time by News 14. In the first half of 2026 alone, the hotline handled 7,488 cases of online harm to children, averaging more than 40 incidents daily. Since its establishment in February 2018, the hotline has addressed over 87,000 cases.
The data highlights that most abuse occurs not from strangers but from peers aged 13 to 14, within the same social circles that extend from classrooms to mobile phones. The majority of victims are children aged 12 to 16, with girls representing 54% and boys 46%. TikTok is the leading platform for these incidents, accounting for 24% of cases, followed by WhatsApp at 20% and Instagram at 13%. On TikTok, 39% of cases involved bullying and public shaming, whereas on WhatsApp, sexual offenses were more prevalent, comprising 31% of incidents.
About 21% of all reports involved bullying and harassment, which may not always meet criminal thresholds but include teasing, sharing embarrassing videos, and hate pages. Social exclusion now extends beyond school gates into viral WhatsApp and TikTok groups. Sexual offenses made up 26% of cases, and 9% involved threats to life.
Despite the severity, only 5% of reports come from educational institutions, while 41% are from victims themselves and 30% from parents. This gap underscores the challenge facing the education system in adapting to the blurred lines between school and digital social environments as the new academic year begins.
