Question 3: What do parents and caregivers need to know about online child sexual exploitation?

Transcript

Alyson: Online child sexual exploitation is a scary topic, but it is an increasing issue in Canada, and it's one we need to talk about amongst ourselves, and we also need to talk to our kids about it. So, what do we need to know about online exploitation and what do we need to look out for? Kristin?

Kristin: Thank you Alyson, and a scary topic indeed, but all the reason why it's so important to talk about it here. Online child sexual exploitation can take many different forms, and it can impact children and teens of any age, and any background. Offenders can be those who victims know personally, who they have met offline, but it can also be someone who they have never met, who they are only engaging with online and could be someone who is misrepresenting themselves online, who your child only thinks they know.

When we speak about online engagement, there is one thing that I want to touch upon which is important. Young people often view people they meet online as friends, even if they don't know them very well and have not met them offline. For them, having that large online presence in a large circle of friends is important to them and therefore they may be more willing or quick to invite individuals into their social circle online. In doing so, they might not necessarily fully understand the risks and implications. It's important as parents and caregivers to understand these nuances and differences in how younger people perceive these relationships online.

Back to online child sexual exploitation, broadly speaking there are two common ways that exploitation can happen. First of all, it can be when a child is sexually exploited offline, and the offence is recorded, and then shared online. The second most common form is when a child is targeted online by an offender, when images or imagery has been produced as a result of them being targeted. In both instances, the images or the recording can circulate online, it can be very difficult to delete them, or to remove them all, and it can be very damaging, as you can imagine, for young people involved and these victims. Also, as the imagery continues to re-circulate online, it continues to re-victimize the child.

In terms of what we are seeing at the RCMP, more specifically at the National Child Exploitation Crime Centre, we are seeing that this is becoming more and more prevalent over time. We're seeing more and more reports coming in. For example in fiscal year 2020-21, the RCMP's National Child Exploitation Crime Centre received over 52,000 reports, complaints, or requests for assistance related to online child sexual exploitation. This is a 510% increase in what we saw back in 2013-14, so we're seeing huge increases. Of course, the pandemic is not helping the situation, where there is now a heightened risk to children online, where they are spending more time, often unsupervised in light of our situation, and offenders are responding to this and taking advantage of this situation. Perhaps Noni can expand on what trends they are seeing at C3P.

Alyson: Please Noni take it away.

Noni: Sure thank you. Similarly, at C3P we are seeing the same types of increases. Since 2020 we've seen a 106% increase in reports related to kids who are receiving unwanted sexual messages and images, as well as being coerced into sending their own messages or live streaming sexual acts with individuals. Typically, now we are seeing younger individuals as it relates to this type of contact that's going on, as young as 8 years old, to 17 years old. We also are seeing a lot of young adults as well so 18–24-year-olds who also are experiencing a lot of distress in this space, and we are supporting them through that.

The impacts on kids who have these types of experiences is certainly different. It also is contingent on their age, but we are seeing harmful impacts and a lot of it is tied to the ongoing concern and stress with the fear of the ongoing circulation of their imagery, of what's been created. Not knowing what somebody is doing with the content that is being shared, and the fact that their trust has been betrayed is a major issue. They've shared the content, or they've live streamed with somebody under the guise of a relationship, or under the guise of it being consensual (in some instances from the beginning of it), and then somebody turns on them and starts to become incredibly malicious and starts to humiliate and use a lot of degradation tactics on these kids in a very aggressive way. That can be really harmful, the corrosiveness and the betrayal of trust, but also the ongoing managing of the harassment that ensues, it is very, very difficult.

There's an increase we are seeing happening, and that is a common impact on kids that we see impacts their wellbeing on a day-to-day basis of the intrusiveness of their concern with what's happening online. We do have a lot of support for kids in that regard, in helping them regain a sense of control of the content and getting help. Although a lot of kids are not telling anybody about it, it's important that they know where to go for help. Even if they can start the conversation, not having to go to an adult they know, but being able to go to a place where they can remain anonymous at the start and attempt to get them some more help and involve adults in their lives.

Another situation that we're seeing as well is something called "cappers". This is a newer scenario that we're seeing of individuals, "cappers", looking to get content by capturing images of children. During the pandemic, we saw an increase in individuals communicating for the purpose of securing children's images and boasting about how many they can get. These are more organized individuals wo are communicating with one another for the purposes of not a sexual interest in the children but purely to get pictures of those kids, get them to send pictures, or find pictures of them online, and then use those pictures to again cause harm and humiliation to those kids. That in itself is also something that is reportable, that can come into Cybertip as well as police, so that we can help kids through the distress and the concern over what's happening with the content that's been created.

Page details

Date modified: