(Montreal) The number of online sexual offenses against children increased by more than 200% from 2014 to 2022 in Canada, Statistics Canada revealed. And the scale of the phenomenon could be even greater than the figures suggest, according to the Canadian Center for Child Protection.
In an article published Tuesday, Statistics Canada indicates that the overall rate of online sexual offenses against children, including offenses related to child pornography, has increased by 217% since 2014.
This rate increased from 50 incidents per 100,000 children aged 0 to 17 in 2014, to 160 incidents in 2022. Regarding the rate of child pornography, it almost quadrupled from 2014 to 2022, according to the federal agency, going from 32 cases per 100,000 children and young people to 125 cases.
These data do not surprise René Morin, spokesperson for the Canadian Center for Child Protection, the organization that set up the Cyberaide.ca program, the Canadian central office for reporting cases of exploitation and abuse. sexual abuse of children on the Internet.
“It’s something we observe, year after year. Crimes against children on the Internet continue to increase, and that is why we have insisted so much for so many years that the federal government takes this issue seriously,” says he.
Mr. Morin believes that the legislation is not currently sufficient to protect children online, but welcomes the tabling of the bill on online harm, carried out at the end of February by the Minister of Justice, Arif Virani.
He adds that the figures presented in the Statistics Canada report could be lower than the crimes that are actually committed.
The numbers you see are incidents that are reported by the police. The reality is worse than that, because we know very well that crimes of a sexual nature are largely underreported.
René Morin, spokesperson for the Canadian Center for Child Protection
Statistics Canada estimates that this increase in sexual crimes against children online can be explained, in addition to the real increase in these types of crimes, by an increase in awareness among the population, by more resources and training of the police or by a combination of all these factors.
Mr. Morin believes that indeed, the population is better aware than before of this issue and of the resources to which they can turn.
“The number of reports we receive continues to increase from year to year,” underlines Mr. Morin, speaking of Cyberaide.ca, which deals with reports concerning the sexual exploitation of children on the web.
The spokesperson indicates that the increase in cases can also be explained by the police’s more efficient technological tools to tackle these crimes.
However, the Statistics Canada report indicates that two in five cases of online sexual offenses against children are resolved by the police. Cases may remain undisclosed due to insufficient evidence to bring an indictment, the document states.
According to Mr. Morin, this highlights the importance of all stakeholders surrounding the publication of illicit images mobilizing to protect young people online.
“For an image to end up on the internet, it doesn’t just depend on the person who publishes it on the internet. It depends on the server that will host the image, it will depend on the company that makes the server space available, it will depend, ultimately, on all the entities that provide the internet connection to this server. , he explains.
“The problem is very much there: how we force these actors to take the problem seriously, to put the safety of children before profits,” he adds.
Of the cases resolved by police, 74% resulted in charges being filed or recommended. A third of accusations of online child sexual exploitation lead to a guilty verdict, we can read in the Statistics Canada report.
The importance of reporting
Mr. Morin says it is essential that parents have regular conversations with their children about online safety.
“Our children are in danger in the digital space because they spend a lot of time there, and because, unfortunately, there are many malicious people on the Internet who have paedosexual inclinations, the figures show it,” he explains.
He believes that children must have the reflex to turn to a trusted adult for help if they are trapped by a criminal on the web. Mr. Morin also emphasizes the importance of making a report.
“Perpetrators of online crimes against children rarely target just one child at a time, often they will target dozens or even hundreds of children at a time. From the moment we make a report, a process is immediately initiated, the police authorities are informed. »
Mr. Morin specifies that Cyberaide.ca also has a support team to help parents and children who have to deal with such situations, and that the organization has technologies to try to delete images that are in circulation on the Web.
The Statistics Canada report also states that the majority of alleged perpetrators of online child sexual abuse are men and boys. The article states that “most cases involve solicitation of sexual touching (97%), child luring (96%), and possession of or access to child pornography (90%).” involved an alleged male perpetrator.
In cases of non-consensual distribution of intimate images, 86% of victims were girls.