International Efforts and Cooperation
On This Page:
- G7 Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Working Group
- Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
- International Agreements
The Internet is a powerful and important creation, which has brought incredible change and benefits throughout the world. But along with these benefits, there are harms that arise from its misuse. Industry has many tools at its disposal to influence its design, and a central role to play in ensuring children are protected.
Canada works closely with international partners to combat online child sexual exploitation. This includes not only the exchange of information regarding new and emerging threats, but also the sharing of best practices and lessons learned in combatting this crime.
G7 Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Working Group
Canada engages with international counterparts through the G7 Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Working Group, which monitors progress on delivering the G7 Action Plan to Combat Action plan to combat Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. G7 Interior and Security Ministers agreed to the action plan in September 2021, which aims to encourage industry to play its part, strengthen domestic regimes, strengthen law enforcement cooperation, and protect children around the world. Members include Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Consult the G7 Interior and Security Ministers' Statement issued following the 2022 yearly meeting held in Eltville am Rhein in Germany.
Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
In March 2020, the Five Country Ministerial (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States) launched the Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, in consultation with six technology industry partners and the WeProtect Global Alliance. Since then, G7 Interior Ministers have added their support, and a total of 19 companies have endorsed the Principles.
The Principles provide a common and consistent framework to combat online sexual crimes against children and drives collective action between governments and industry partners.
Canada’s work with Five Eyes partners, in consultation with industry stakeholders, to develop and refine the Voluntary Principles represents a leading example of cross-sector and cross-jurisdictional collaboration to keep children safe from online sexual exploitation and abuse.
- Industry made 29.4 million reports to the U.S. based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2021 alone.
- The Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s (C3P) Project Arachnid, a web-crawling technology solution to identify child sexual abuse material, sent over 11 million notifications to 1,000 tech companies, spanning nearly 100 countries over the last five years.
- In response to C3P’s requests, companies removed more than six million images and videos of child sexual exploitation and abuse from circulation.
- In March 2022, the Five Country Ministerial issued a Statement on the Second Anniversary of the Launch of the “Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse”.
- Canada is committed to engage in a constructive dialogue with key national stakeholders from the technology industry to raise awareness of online child sexual exploitation and collaborate on preventative efforts.
Canada is a member of The WePROTECT Global Alliance to End Child Sexual Exploitation Online (WPGA). The WPGA is an alliance of countries, industry partners, and civil society, who work together to enhance global efforts to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse. Their efforts focus on developing a comprehensive assessment of the global threat environment, raising awareness, and increasing international cooperation. In October 2022, Canada joined the newly established Global Taskforce on Child Sexual Abuse Online , an initiative of the WeProtect Global Alliance.
Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) is an international law enforcement alliance that works together, including through operational collaboration and intelligence sharing, to address child sexual exploitation online. The RCMP represents Canada at the VGT international commitments.
International Agreements
The Government of Canada endorses a number of international agreements to protect children from sexual exploitation, including but not limited to:
- The Universal Declaration on Human Rights
- The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and two Optional Protocols
- The Convention on Cybercrime (The Budapest Convention)
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