Nairobi, Sept. 5 -- The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has called for stronger safeguards from digital platforms and better protection for children as online sexual abuse increasingly takes place on platforms children use every day.

In its latest report, the agency ranked WhatsApp and Facebook as the top digital sites where children are sexually abused in Kenya. WhatsApp was responsible for the largest proportion of reported incidents of online sexual abuse involving children aged 12 to 17, accounting for 53.3 percent of cases, while Facebook accounted for 51.6 percent.

These figures show that abuse is occurring on platforms that children routinely use for communication and socialising.

YouTube was involved in 15.8 percent of ...