Online Child Sexual Exploitation
Classification: Unclassified
Branch/Agency: CSCCB
Proposed Response:
- The Government takes a comprehensive and coordinated approach to protecting children from online sexual exploitation.
- Public Safety Canada has been leading the National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet since 2004 and partners with the RCMP, Justice Canada and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
- Budget 2019 included new investments of $22.24 million over three years to support Public Safety Canada’s efforts to raise awareness and reduce the stigma associated with reporting, increase Canada’s ability to pursue and prosecute offenders, and work with digital industry to combat the sexual exploitation of children online.
- These complement ongoing investments of over $18 million annually to Public Safety, the RCMP and Justice Canada.
Financial Implications:
- The 2020-21 Main Estimates included vote appropriations for Public Safety of $8.7 million to better protect children from sexual exploitation online and $917,000 to implement the Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence. The Main Estimates also included $1,900,000 dedicated towards countering online child sexual exploitation under the Contribution Program for Child Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking.
- This will enable Public Safety Canada to develop and launch a public campaign to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation online, and help to increase the awareness of groups at risk of being victimized. In addition, the department will support capacity building for law enforcement and judicial professionals, to increase their ability to investigate and prosecute online child sexual exploitation, and engage with digital industry to develop new tools to combat this crime.
- This funding will also enable Public Safety Canada to continue to support the Canadian Centre for Child Protection to manage Cybertip.ca, the national tip-line where Canadians can report suspected cases of online child sexual exploitation and the implementation of “Project Arachnid”, a web-crawling tool to identify child sexual abuse material online.
Background:
Online child sexual exploitation is one of the digital age’s most pressing safety issues and it 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 levels 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 renewed on an ongoing basis in 2009. Public Safety Canada (PS) is the lead for the National Strategy and partners with the RCMP, Justice Canada (JUS) and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), a not-for-profit organization.
The Strategy aims to:
- Provide coordination and oversight of federal efforts to combat child sexual exploitation online;
- Support law enforcement capacity to combat online child sexual exploitation;
- Enable the reporting of online child sexual exploitation to proper authorities;
- Support victims of online child sexual exploitation online by facilitating the removal of imagery/videos;
- Facilitate research on online child sexual exploitation 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 together with digital industry to find new ways of combating this crime.
PS coordinates and oversees the implementation of the National Strategy and leads the development of online child sexual exploitation policy.
Public Safety provides contribution funding to C3P to operate Cybertip.ca, the national tip-line, and for Project Arachnid, a web-crawling technology solution to identify and increase the rate of removal of child sexual abuse material.
The RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre is the national law enforcement arm of the National Strategy, functioning as the central point of contact for investigations related to the online sexual exploitation of children across the country and internationally when the victim or offender is Canadian.
Justice Canada reviews and develops legislation, and provides training, advice and support to federal partners and others.
Recent investments of $22.24 million over three years, starting in 2019–20, support Public Safety Canada’s enhanced efforts to raise awareness of this serious issue and reduce the stigma associated with reporting, increase Canada’s ability to pursue and prosecute offenders, and work together with industry to find new ways to combat the sexual exploitation of children online.
Ongoing investments for partners under the National Strategy total over $18 million per year.
Contacts:
Prepared by: Mathilde Brière-Audet, Senior Policy Advisor, 949-9075
Approved by: Trevor Bhupsingh, A/ADM CSCCB/991-4281
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