CANBERRA, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- More than 10 percent of Australian dating site users have been asked by fellow users to facilitate child sexual exploitation, a survey has found.

According to the report, which was published by government agency the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) on Thursday, 12.4 percent -- the equivalent of one in eight -- of dating app and website users said they had been targeted by predators on the services.

The survey asked 10,000 people if they had received a request on a dating service to facilitate photos of children they had access to, meetings with those children, information of a sexual nature about the children, sexual images of the children or an offer of payment for photos, videos or live streams of those children.

The AIC found that requests most often related to the respondent's own children.

Rick Brown, deputy director of the AIC, said there was growing evidence that child sexual offenders are using social media and dating services to target potential victims.

The report found that male and female dating app users were targeted equally but that younger people, non-native English speakers, Indigenous people and those with a long-term disability or illness were more likely to receive requests from predators.

"Offenders use these sites to target vulnerable groups or those with access to children," Brown said.

"Users should be discouraged from sharing images of, or information about, children, and dating service providers should prevent users from linking their dating profiles and social media accounts."

Among people who said they were targeted by child predators on dating services, 69 percent said they were asked questions of a sexual nature about their own children or children they have access to and 63 percent said they were offered payment for access to photos, videos or live streams of the children. Enditem

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