In the wake of troubling new research showing less than 40 percent of Dominican teenagers feel secure navigating digital spaces, the country’s top justice official has called for urgent, systemic upgrades to how the nation prevents, investigates and prosecutes online sexual violence against children and adolescents.
Justice Minister Antoliano Peralta outlined the government’s priority during a landmark national consultation hosted by UNICEF, in partnership with global child protection bodies ECPAT International, Interpol, Safe Online and the Dominican Ministry of Justice. The cross-sector gathering brought together key stakeholders from across the Dominican government, including the National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI), the Attorney General’s Office, the national judiciary, the Ministry of Interior and Police, the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL), and the Government Office of Information and Communication Technologies, to assess the growing harm of online violence and sexual abuse against minors.
Peralta emphasized that the Dominican state bears a fundamental legal and ethical obligation to both prevent and penalize all forms of digital sexual violence targeting young people. To meet this obligation, he said authorities are advancing three core priorities: improving inter-agency coordination to eliminate response gaps, strengthening support and protection frameworks for survivors of abuse, and updating national legal frameworks to keep pace with rapidly evolving digital threats.
New data presented at the consultation laid bare the stark disparities in online safety facing different groups of young Dominicans. While just 37 percent of all teenagers report feeling safe online, the share drops sharply for adolescent girls, with only one in four saying they feel secure in digital environments.
Two major studies — the Kids Online survey and Adolescents and Internet Use report — were presented during the event, highlighting deep structural inequalities that exacerbate risk for vulnerable youth. The research found that internet access for Dominican teenagers remains shaped by gaps in connectivity, device access and digital literacy, with half of all adolescents relying solely on mobile phones to go online. This overreliance on mobile-only access is most pronounced in low-income households, putting already marginalized young people at greater risk of exploitation.
Even for adolescents who have grown up immersed in digital culture, the research revealed a widespread lack of skills to identify and avoid online risks, leaving many exposed to grooming, abuse and exploitation.
Carlos Carrera, a participating child protection leader, warned that online sexual violence is a fast-growing threat that demands unified action from both public sector institutions and specialized global and local agencies. Attendees also raised particular alarm about emerging technologies, specifically generative artificial intelligence, noting that new tools lower barriers for bad actors to create non-consensual explicit content and facilitate the online exploitation of minors.
Despite the pressing challenges highlighted, the consultation also noted ongoing progress on both national and international fronts. The Dominican Republic is an active participant in the global Disrupting Harm initiative, a multinational effort designed to crack down on online child sexual exploitation. UNICEF also reported that it is working alongside the Dominican Ministry of Education to roll out targeted safety resources, including the E-mentors and E-pana platforms, to help adolescents and their families build skills for safer, more responsible internet use.