Public Safety Canada Webinar Series 2021: Combatting Online Child Sexual Exploitation for Criminal Justice Professionals

Hosted by Public Safety Canada, 2021

Introduction

Online child sexual exploitation (OCSE) is one of the most serious public safety issues facing society today. This heinous crime continues to affect generations of children in Canada and abroad. The rise of the Internet as a primary means of communication worldwide has facilitated easy, borderless access to, and sharing of, large quantities of images and videos of children being sexually exploited.

Public Safety Canada (PS) leads The National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet (National Strategy)launched in 2004. As the lead for the Strategy, PS works in collaboration with Justice Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P).

The Strategy provides coordination and oversight of federal efforts to combat OCSE. It includes initiatives that: support law enforcement capacity to combat OCSE; enable the reporting of OCSE to proper authorities; support victims of OCSE by facilitating the removal of imagery and videos; facilitate research on OCSE to increase understanding of the scale and scope of the issue; increase public awareness and reduce stigma associated with reporting; and engage with digital industry stakeholders to find new ways of combating this crime.

As part of the National Strategy, in early 2021 Public Safety Canada supported a series of webinars focused on sharing knowledge and raising awareness of issues related to the prevention, intervention and prosecution of online child sexual exploitation. Many partners and stakeholders, with a wide range of expertise and representing numerous sectors (e.g. education, social work, government, law enforcement, criminal justice and others), participated in these webinars.

The overall purpose of these webinars was to enhance knowledge and information sharing; better understand stakeholder concerns and priority issues; and inform forward- looking policy and program development.

Webinar 1: Impact of COVID-19 and Related Public Health Measures on Online Child Sexual Exploitation - January 27, 2021

Key Takeaways

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Webinar 2: Multi-Disciplinary-Team Model within Child and Youth Advocacy Centres (in collaboration with Justice Canada) - February 3, 2021

Key Takeaways

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Webinar 3: Provincial Models and Tools to Address Online CSE - February 10, 2021

Key Takeaways

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Webinar 4: International Developments and Collaboration on Online CSE - February 17, 2021

Key Takeaways

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Conclusion

Public Safety Canada would like to thank the presenters and participants for sharing their expertise and experiences. Without their participation, the 2020-21 stakeholder engagement webinar series would not have been possible.

A key takeaway from this webinar series was the importance of sharing information, disseminating knowledge, and inter-jurisdictional collaboration in order to more effectively prevent online child sexual exploitation, prosecute offenders, and support individuals affected by this crime.

The Government of Canada is committed to working with Provinces and Territories, non-governmental organizations, stakeholders, and international partners to combat the complex crime of online child sexual exploitation.

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