Preventing Online Sexual Exploitation
Date: May 4, 2020
Classification: Unclassified
Branch/Agency: CSCCB
Issue:
Canada’s measures to protect women, children and youth from sex trafficking, sexual assault and online sexual exploitation.
Proposed Response:
- The Government of Canada remains committed to protecting vulnerable and marginalized populations, preventing their abuse, and prosecuting human traffickers and all those who sexually exploit children online and offline.
- We continue to work closely with key partners, including the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking and the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre, to combat these heinous offences.
- Budget 2019 included new investments of $22.24 million over three years to raise awareness and reduce the stigma associated with the reporting of online child sexual exploitation, increase Canada’s ability to pursue and prosecute offenders, and work with digital industry to combat this crime.
- In September 2019, the Government of Canada launched the comprehensive National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking, which brings together federal efforts under one strategic framework, and is supported by $57.22 million over five years and $10.28 million ongoing.
- We will continue to do everything we can to protect vulnerable populations, including women and children, bring perpetrators to justice, and stop human trafficking and online child sexual exploitation.
Background:
Legislative Framework
Canada’s criminal law provides comprehensive legal protections against all forms of sexual abuse and exploitation of children, and contains prohibitions against possessing, accessing, making and distributing all forms of child pornography, including where committed via the Internet, social media and/or other technology. Canada’s definition of child pornography (commonly known as child sexual abuse material) includes not only actual depictions of child sexual abuse, but also fictitious depictions, as well as written and audio forms of child pornography that may fuel the market for these materials or normalize this behavior. It also prohibits the use of the Internet to communicate with a child for the purposes of facilitating the commission of a sexual offence.
In 2011, Canada introduced An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service. The Act imposes reporting duties on Internet service providers when they are advised of an Internet address where child pornography may be available to the public or if they have reasonable grounds to believe that their Internet service is being or has been used to commit a child pornography offence.
Since 2015, in order to better protect victims and respond to emerging trends, the Criminal Code also prohibits the non-consensual distribution of intimate images (section 162.1) and empowers the courts to order the removal of intimate images from the Internet (section 164). These changes were made to the law by former Bill C-13, the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, which was referred to in the letter. Courts are also authorized to order the disposal or deletion of child pornography, and advertisements of sexual services from print materials or made available through computer systems in Canada, which includes the Internet.
Human Trafficking
On September 4, 2019, the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking was announced. It consolidates efforts of all federal departments and agencies that work to address human trafficking domestically and internationally. The new initiatives included in the National Strategy enhance prevention, protection, and prosecutorial efforts focused on this crime.
The Criminal Code contains several specific human trafficking offences, including: trafficking in persons; trafficking of a person under the age of eighteen years; materially benefitting from human trafficking; and withholding or destroying documents to facilitate this crime.
Online Child Sexual Exploitation
The National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet was launched in April 2004 and renewed on an ongoing basis in 2009. Public Safety Canada is the lead for the National Strategy and partners with the RCMP, Justice Canada and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), a not-for-profit organization responsible for operating Cybertip.ca, the national tip-line. Public Safety also works with international partners, such as the Five Eyes, to better understand the threat of online child sexual exploitation and to find solutions to better protect children and youth.
Voluntary Principles to Combat Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
The Five Country Ministerial meeting in July 2019 in London included a joint session with digital industry representatives (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Roblox, Snap, and Twitter) to discuss the role digital industry plays in combating online child sexual exploitation on their platforms. One of the outcomes of the meeting was an agreement among the Five Eyes that government officials would work with digital industry to develop a set of voluntary principles to guide private sector efforts in this regard.
The Voluntary Principles were officially announced by the Five Eyes at an event in Washington, DC on March 5, 2020. In parallel, digital industry partners involved in the development of the Voluntary Principles, as well as additional industry stakeholders, issued statements of support for the Voluntary Principles. The intent is that the principles will be adopted by a wide spectrum of companies, provide a shared framework to combat online child sexual exploitation, drive collective action, establish a baseline standard for safety, including encourage initiatives to ascertain the age of users, and complement initiatives specific to each partner country.
Contacts:
Prepared by: Mathilde Brière-Audet, Senior Policy Adivsor, 613-302-3277
Approved by: Trevor Bhupsingh, 613-769-3042
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