Former California state senator Aisha Wahab was sworn in Wednesday as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first Afghan American to serve in Congress.

Wahab, 39, will serve the remainder of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s term through the end of the year. Swalwell resigned in April following allegations of sexual misconduct by multiple women.

During her remarks after taking the oath, Wahab spoke about her journey from foster care to Congress and described the American Dream as a promise that a person’s past does not determine their future.

“I walked into Congress carrying the beating heart of a former foster care kid,” Wahab said.

Wahab was born in New York to Afghan refugees and was raised in the foster care system, first in New York and later in Fremont, California. She previously served on the Hayward City Council and represented California’s 10th Senate District. She holds a doctorate in social work from the University of Southern California.

She defeated BART Board President Melissa Hernandez in the Aug. 18 special election for the remainder of Swalwell’s term. Wahab also won two crowded June primaries and will face Hernandez again in the Nov. 3 general election.

In her congressional remarks, Wahab called for cooperation between Democrats and Republicans, saying Americans are struggling with the rising costs of housing, utilities, groceries, education, healthcare and other basic necessities.

“As a policy maker, my goal is simple: to work with each and every one of you to deliver for the American people, regardless of party,” Wahab said.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren introduced Wahab on the House floor and highlighted her background and work on behalf of foster youth and vulnerable communities.

“Today, she makes history as the first Afghan American elected to Congress,” Lofgren said.

About 20 million internet-using children across ​21 countries were subjected to sexual exploitation or abuse on digital platforms in a single year, with most cases occurring ‌on social media platforms, a new report by the U.N. children’s charity said on Thursday.

More than one in five children aged 12 to 17 across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe experienced at least one form of sexual abuse or exploitation on online platforms in the year before being surveyed, the UNICEF report estimated, Reuters reported.

Roughly 15 ​million children in the countries surveyed were exposed to unwanted sexual content, 9 million were pressured into sexual conversations or sharing sexual ​images, and 4 million had sexual images shared without their consent, the report found.

The number of children subjected to ⁠this abuse globally is certain to run into many tens of millions, it said.

The research, which UNICEF described as one of the largest studies ​of its kind, was based on national representative surveys collected between 2020 and 2025 of around 21,000 internet-using children in the 21 countries, which ​included Kenya, Pakistan, Brazil and Serbia.

SOCIAL MEDIA FOCUS

Almost 60% of reported abuse occurred on social media platforms, led by Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, while 14% took place in online gaming, the report found.

A spokesperson for Meta which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, said the surveys go as far back as 2020, before the company introduced ​protections UNICEF recommends such as automatically defaulting teens into private accounts and preventing adults from messaging teens they are not connected to. It added ​that it defines WhatsApp as a private messaging app and not a social media platform.

“While the report doesn’t provide any specific evidence of abuse, we’ll continue to ‌fight child ⁠exploitation aggressively across our apps and support law enforcement in prosecuting the criminals behind it,” the Meta spokesperson said.

Snapchat pointed Reuters to a blog post by Global Head of Platform Safety Jacqueline Beauchere, who said the company was actively combating online sexual extortion through proactive detection, account removals, user reporting tools and safety features designed to protect vulnerable users.

TikTok said it has built a range of safeguards to protect minors, including restricting certain features ​for younger users, making accounts for ​under-18s private by default, and ⁠using technology to detect potentially predatory behaviour.

The UNICEF report said more than half the cases involved someone the child already knew, including friends, relatives or romantic partners, while 38% of children first encountered the perpetrator online.

Fewer than ​1% of cases involving children were reported to the police, a social worker or a helpline, according to ​the research.

The report ⁠also highlighted growing concerns over artificial intelligence. Across nine countries where data was collected, an estimated 1.1 million children reported having AI-generated sexual images or videos created depicting them.

Children who experienced tech-facilitated sexual exploitation were around four times more likely to report suicidal thoughts or self-harm and reported significantly higher levels of ⁠anxiety than ​their peers, the research said.

“These experiences cause profound emotional and mental distress. Many children suffer ​in silence, unsure where to turn for help,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

UNICEF urged governments and technology companies to strengthen safety measures on digital platforms, update ​laws to address evolving forms of abuse including AI-generated content, and improve child protection and reporting systems.