Parliamentary Committee Notes: Online Child Sexual Exploitation
Issue:
Crimes of child sexual exploitation online (OCSE) are on the rise in Canada and abroad. According to Statistics Canada, the overall rate of online child sexual offence cases, including child pornography offences, has increased by 217% since 2014. Certain groups, such as Indigenous and LGBTQ2S+ youth communities, are more vulnerable to the crime. In the last few years, the sexual extortion of youth, either for financial motives or for more self-produced nude images, has become a concerning trend.
Proposed Response:
- This Government is concerned with the increase in crimes of child sexual exploitation online, and is committed to stopping perpetrators from abusing children through technological means.
- Online child sexual exploitation is a crime that knows no border and targets the most vulnerable in our society.
- Unfortunately, this crime continues to increase in scope and reach, and due to the anonymity which perpetrators hide behind online, and the shame felt by children who are victimized, the crime remains largely under reported.
- While all children are vulnerable, we know that certain groups are more at risk, including Indigenous youth, LGBTQ2S+ communities, children with disabilities, or in foster care.
- We are seeing recent concerning trends of the sexual extorsion, or sextortion, of youth. Trends show that boys are targeted for financial motives, while girls are forced to provide ever more explicit pictures of themselves.
- Public Safety Canada continues to lead the National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet, in partnership with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Justice Canada, and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, a not-for-profit organization. Budget 2022 approved $41.6 million over five years and $8.9 million ongoing to Public Safety Canada, to increase prevention and awareness activities, reduce the stigma associated with disclosure, enhance Canada's ability to pursue and prosecute offenders, expand knowledge on the issue and enhance collaboration among partners and stakeholders combatting this crime
- Through the National Strategy, we are supporting prevention efforts. This includes a national awareness campaign targeting parents and caregivers, raising awareness of the crime, and encouraging adults to talk to their youth about online threats.
- Public Safety Canada is also has school campaigns in the Greater Toronto Area and the Ottawa region to raise awareness and educate grade 7 and 8 students on online child sexual exploitation and cyberbullying. The intent is to expand this campaign to other regions in Canada, and offering it in a virtual setting, which will further expand its reach.
- Other awareness initiatives directed towards at-risk youth groups are also ongoing in high schools across Ontario and Nova Scotia to educate male teenagers on violence against women and girls.
- More needs to be done to better understand how these crimes impact at-risk youth groups to ensure their safety is protected online.
- We will continue to work domestically, with provinces and territories, and internationally with our allies to enhance coordination of efforts in combatting this important issue and further protecting children’s safety online.
Background:
Online child sexual exploitation (OCSE) is one of the digital age’s most pressing safety issues that continues to increase in terms of scope, reach and impacts. The sexual exploitation of children is a heinous crime, and is a serious concern for the Government, law enforcement agencies and partners in other orders of government and internationally.
The National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet (National Strategy) was launched in April 2004 and was renewed on an ongoing basis in 2009. Public Safety Canada (PS) is the lead for the National Strategy and partners with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Justice Canada (JUS) and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), a national charity dedicated to the safety of children.
PS coordinates and oversees the implementation of the National Strategy and leads the development of OCSE policy. PS also provides contribution funding C3P for the operation of Cybertip.ca, Canada’s national tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children. Cybertip.ca triages reports from the public regarding the online sexual victimization of children to appropriate services such as C3P’s support team, law enforcement, or to child welfare agencies, depending on the situation.
PS also supports C3P for operation of Project Arachnid, an innovative, victim-centric set of tools to combat the growing proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the internet. Launched in 2017, Project Arachnid unifies automated CSAM detection methods with a team of dedicated analysts around the world to quickly send removal notices to electronic service providers (ESPs).
The RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre is the national law enforcement arm of the National Strategy; it is the central point of contact for investigations related to OCSE across the country and internationally when the victim or offender is Canadian.
JUS reviews and develops legislation, and provides training, legal advice and support to federal strategy partners and others.
The Strategy aims to:
- Provide coordination and oversight of federal efforts to combat OCSE;
- 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/videos;
- Facilitate research on OCSE to increase understanding of the scale/scope of the issue and inform action;
- Increase public awareness and reduce the stigma associated with reporting; and
- Work with digital industry to find new ways of combating this crime.
Ongoing investments under the National Strategy total over $27 million per year. Some of PS and RCMP funding was provided through the It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence (the GBV Strategy) through Budget 2017 ($1.3 M per year for targeted awareness campaigns).
Key initiatives under the National Strategy are: contributing to increased public awareness of this crime through a National Awareness Campaign, supporting C3P’s operation of Cybertip.ca and Project Arachnid, providing support to Provincial and municipal Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Units specialized law enforcement teams that investigate this crime and rescue victims, supporting a prevention program for individuals at-risk of offending, support to Statistics Canada to collect and analyze data on this crime in Canada to inform efforts to combat this crime, and knowledge sharing events for partners and stakeholders combatting this crime.
The Government of Canada expanded its commitment to combatting online child sexual exploitation through Budget 2022, with an additional $41.6 million over five years and $8.9 million ongoing to Public Safety Canada. This funding builds on a Budget 2019 investment of $22.4 million over three years to support the following activities:
- Increase prevention activities, raise awareness, and reduce the stigma associated with disclosure;
- Enhance Canada's ability to pursue and prosecute offenders; and
- Expand and share knowledge on the issue and enhance collaboration among partners and stakeholders combatting this crime.
Budget 2021 provided $20.7 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, for the RCMP to enhance its ability to pursue OCSE investigations, identify victims and remove them from abusive situations, and bring offenders to justice, including those who offend abroad.
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