A/HRC/34/45 Online. 5 WePROTECT has secured high-level commitments from Governments, the information and communications technology industry, international organizations and civil society. It supports comprehensive national action on prevention and response to inform and empower children and to fight impunity within and across borders. 7. As these examples illustrate, the recommendations of the United Nations study on violence against children (see A/61/299) remain as valid today as they were 10 years ago, and their potential for promoting a quantum leap in global efforts to protect children from violence has not diminished. Nor has the urgency of this cause. As a recent study has highlighted, over the past year at least one billion children between 2 and 17 years of age — half the world’s children — endured some form of violence.6 8. Trafficking in persons continues to increase, and in some regions more than 60 per cent of victims are children. Countless millions of children are involved in exploitative work and slavery-like practices. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18 and one in nine is married before age 15, and children below 15 years represent 8 per cent of victims of homicides globally. 9. Violence in the community is widespread. As highlighted by the Special Representative in her study Protecting Children Affected by Armed Violence in the Community,7 launched during the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, held in October 2016 in Quito, 300 million children below the age of 5 are thought to be exposed to community violence. Indeed, in many parts of the world, armed violence is often associated with gang activities and organized crime, an environment of violence that shapes children’s daily life and generates fear, insecurity, and a pervasive sense that impunity prevails. 10. Bullying and cyberbullying torment millions of children. These insidious forms of violence are among children’s top concerns and a key reason why children contact a helpline. As highlighted by the Special Representative in her new study on this topic, Ending the Torment: Tackling Bullying from the Schoolyard to Cyberspace, 8 whether verbal, psychological or physical, whether in schools or outside of education facilities, bullying is often associated with discrimination and stereotyping of children who are in vulnerable situations (see box). 11. In his report on protecting children from bullying (A/71/213), the Secretary-General addressed this question in detail, presenting important findings from an online opinion poll promoted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in cooperation with the Office of the Special Representative. More than 100,000 children and adolescents were surveyed and 9 out of 10 considered that bullying was a problem; two thirds reported that they had been victims and one third of these children had told no one. 5 6 7 8 4 See www.weprotect.org/. See http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2016/01/25/peds.2015-4079. United Nations publication, Sales No. E.16.I.15. United Nations publication, Sales No. E.16.I.14.