Since 2014, when nationally representative cybercrime data first became available, the number of police-reported online child sexual exploitation and abuse incidents has generally been on an upward trend. These incidents involved online sexual offences against children, where a victim has been identified, as well as incidents of child pornography, where the actual child victim has not been identified by police. In 2020, the overall rate of online child sexual exploitation and abuse was 131 incidents per 100,000 children and youth compared with 50 incidents per 100,000 children and youth in 2014. While this crime may be on the rise in Canada, part of this increase could also be related to better training of police officers to detect this crime and increased willingness of victims to report.
Within the Canadian context, online child sexual exploitation and abuse encompasses a wide range of behaviours including those related to child sexual abuse material, sexting materials, sextortion, grooming and luring, live child sexual abuse streaming and made-to-order content.
In a Juristat article released today entitled "Online child sexual exploitation and abuse in Canada: A statistical profile of police-reported incidents and court charges, 2014 to 2020," an analysis shedding light on the characteristics of online child sexual exploitation and abuse incidents that came to the attention of police is presented. The article also examines related court charges and cases from adult criminal and youth courts in Canada.
Self-reported victimization studies have consistently found that, in general, only a fraction of sexual offences are reported to police. Other research suggests that crimes involving child victims are potentially even more underreported to authorities as some children may fear reporting, or may be unable or not know how to report or seek help.
Additionally, the proliferation of smart devices with instant messaging and live streaming capacities, along with improved anonymity capabilities allowing offenders to better hide their activities, increase the difficulty of investigating online child sexual exploitation and abuse. As a result, police-reported data likely underestimate the true extent of this form of abuse in Canada.
Information presented in the article, including trends and profiling of incident, victim and accused characteristics, provides a national reference for informing policies and programs aimed at combatting crimes of this nature.
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