As part of the Seeing the Unseen project, the first national research reports from Hungary, Slovakia and Poland have now been completed. These studies provide an evidence-based overview of young people’s childhood experiences in the digital environment, with a particular focus on online abuse, help-seeking behaviour and protective factors.
The research was conducted in 2025 among 18–25-year-olds in all four Visegrád countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland), using a unified methodology and trauma-sensitive approach. The Czech report will be published soon.
Below, we highlight some of the most important findings from the first three national studies.
Hungary: Online abuse is widespread and begins early
The Hungarian study, conducted with 1,000 young adults, shows that 54% of respondents experienced some form of online abuse before the age of 18.
Key findings include:
- Nearly 1 in 10 respondents reported continuous or severe online abuse during childhood.
- The most vulnerable age group was 11–14 years old, when experiences such as trolling (29%), defamation (25%), and humiliation or exclusion (21%) were most common.
- Sexual abuse online affected approximately 10% of respondents during secondary school years Seeing the Unseen Report – Hung….
- Although most abuse was described as occasional rather than constant, the prevalence itself is striking: only 45% stated they had never experienced online abuse.
In terms of help-seeking, parents were the most trusted actors, followed by friends and siblings. Institutional actors — including schools and civil organisations — were trusted significantly less.
The full Hungarian report is available here:
Slovakia: Two-thirds experienced online abuse
The Slovak research involved 1,027 young adults across all regions of the country SK_Report-case study docx.
The findings reveal:
- 64.3% of respondents experienced some degree of online abuse during childhood
- 23.4% reported moderate to severe exposure (on a 1–7 scale)
- Exposure peaked between ages 11–15, when 65.6% reported some level of abuse, and nearly one quarter experienced high levels
- Around 12% described abuse as persistent (“all the time”), suggesting chronic victimisation rather than isolated incidents
The report also highlights significant gaps in digital education:
- 62.1% learned about online safety primarily from peers or through self-teaching, rather than through structured parental or school guidance
- Only 13.6% had access to a dedicated school course on digital literacy
Parents remain the primary source of support, while institutional trust (schools, police, civil organisations) is considerably lower
The full Slovak report is available here:
Poland: High prevalence and structural gaps
The Polish study, conducted with 800 respondents using the same unified methodology, confirms similar regional patterns:
- A majority of young adults reported experiencing some form of online abuse before adulthood.
- The most vulnerable age group was early adolescence (11–14).
- Help-seeking primarily relied on informal networks (family and friends).
- Structured, systematic digital safety education remained limited.
The Polish report reinforces the cross-country finding that online abuse is not an isolated phenomenon, but a widespread developmental risk affecting a substantial share of young people across the region.
The Polish report is available here.
The Czech national report will soon be published in full report format. Together, the four country studies will provide the first comprehensive, comparable regional data set on childhood online abuse and help-seeking patterns in the V4 region.
