Prevention / National Awareness Campaign
Classification: Unclassified
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes
Branch / Agency: CSCCB
Issue:
Prevention of Online Child Sexual Exploitation.
Proposed Response:
- It is imperative that we keep children safe from online sexual exploitation and abuse. The Government of Canada is staunchly committed to protecting children from these crimes.
- We know that children are spending considerable amounts of time online for positive activities such as education and socializing with friends, but this also leaves them vulnerable to those who prey on children.
- Children, parents and caregivers need to be able to recognize the potential risks and know how to stay safe when online.
- In March 2021, Public Safety Canada launched a national awareness campaign targeting children, parents and caregivers to raise awareness of this crime and how to report it, as well as reduce the stigma associated with reporting.
- Public Safety Canada also supports complementary prevention and awareness activities through partners such as the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which develops and makes available public education and awareness materials on child safety issues.
Prevention of Online Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)
Background:
Public Safety National Awareness Campaign
As part of Budget 2019, Public Safety Canada received $2.5 million over three years for the development of a national awareness campaign on online CSE. Informed by public opinion research, the campaign’s objectives are to: raise the profile of the issue; increase knowledge of technology-facilitated violence, abuse and exploitation; reduce the social stigma associated with disclosure; and help Canadians, particularly children, as well as parents, teachers and others in regular contact with children, to identify online CSE and pathways for reporting and disclosure.
The longer-term goal of this campaign will be to increase the number of reported incidents of online CSE in Canada to cybertip.ca. The target audiences for this campaign are Canadian youth aged 10-17, and caregivers of youth aged 5-17.
The newly developed campaign website, Canada.ca/child-exploitation, features information and resources for youth, caregivers and educators. In addition, an advertising campaign targeting caregivers was in market from March 1st to 31st 2021. The Ads were posted on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Native Touch (mobile), streaming platforms (Bell Media, CBC/SRC, Rogers), news websites and search engines. All ads directed to the campaign website. The strategy for next fiscal year is currently in development.
Canadian Centre for Child Protection Awareness and Education Materials
In addition to managing Cybertip.ca, the national tipline where Canadians can report suspected case of online CSE, as well as Project Arachnid, a web-crawler that sends take down-notices to Internet service providers, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) also develops and provides public education and awareness materials on a wide range of issues. Examples of C3P’s educational work include:
- “Kids in the Know”, a kindergarten-through-grade-ten personal safety program designed to empower children and reduce their risk of abduction and sexual victimization.
- “Teatree Tells: A Child Abuse Prevention Kit”, “My First Safety Book”, and “Keep and Speak Secrets”, are age-appropriate and engaging materials that provide children with a standard of measure for what is ‘okay’, what is ‘not okay’, and who to tell if something ‘not okay’ happens. These tools also provide families with resources to help with conversations about boundaries and talking to safe adults.
- “Don’t Get Sextorted” which educates tweens and teens about what sextortion is and how it can happen. This resource also provides a unique way to prevent it: downloadable naked mole rat gifs and memes; the perfect alternative to send when asked for a nude.
Contacts:
Prepared by: Mathilde Brière-Audet, Senior Policy Advisor, 613-302-3277
Approved by: Talal Dakalbab, Assistant Deputy Minister, Community Safety and Countering Crime Branch, 613-852-1167
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