Online child sexual exploitation: Criminal justice outcomes of police-reported incidents in Canada, 2014 to 2021
Highlights
- Police-reported incidents of online child sexual exploitation in Canada in 2023
- There were 19,516 online child sexual exploitation incidents reported by police in 2023, translating to a rate of 262 incidents per 100,000 children and youth in Canada—a 59% increase from the rate reported by police in 2022.
- Online child pornography incidents accounted for 87% of online child sexual exploitation (OCSE) incidents in 2023, most (87%) of which were for making or distributing child pornography. Incidents of online sexual offences against children made up the remaining 13% of total OCSE incidents.
- Around 3 in 10 (31%) of incidents of online sexual offences against children were cleared by police in 2023. Of this proportion, 76% resulted in charges being laid or recommended by police.
- Criminal justice outcomes of online child sexual exploitation incidents reported by police between 2014 and 2021
- Of all online child sexual exploitation incidents reported by police between 2014 and 2021, 92% did not result in a completed court case before the end of 2022/2023.
- Most online child sexual exploitation incidents did not make it past the police clearance stage: four out of five (77%) incidents reported by police between 2014 and 2021 were not cleared (i.e., not solved).
- Once in court, 72% of adult criminal court cases linked to a police-reported online child sexual exploitation incident (where at least one OCSE charge was retained) resulted in a guilty decision for the most serious offence in the case. In comparison, 52% of adult criminal court cases linked to police-reported incidents of physical assault resulted in a guilty decision for the most serious offence in the case.
Advancements in digital technologies continue to change the ways humans live. The Internet has become an integral part of everyday life with many Canadians relying on it for work and education, business and banking, and entertainment and socializing. The Internet has also changed the way people commit crime, allowing for new criminal opportunities like identity theft, extortion, and the sexual exploitation of children and youth. Perpetrators can use the Internet to gain access to children across the world, removing the geographical barriers that exist with offline offending (Kloess & van der Bruggen, 2021).
Younger generations are being raised in an increasingly digital and interconnected world. Greater access to—and increased use of—smartphones among children and youth allows them to be constantly connected, leading to concerns about online safety. The 2023 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth
asked parents several questions about their children’s Internet use. When asked how often they speak with their child about online safety, the large majority (90%) of parents of youth aged 12 to 17 years said “sometimes” or “often.” This proportion dropped to 74% among parents of children aged 11 years and younger. Parents of youth were also more likely than parents of children to report that they speak with their child “sometimes” or “often” about online privacy (87% versus 64%, respectively).
Online child sexual exploitation (OCSE) captures a wide range of criminal offences, including luring, invitation to sexual touching, and non-consensual distribution of intimate images (see Text box 1). Canada’s criminal laws prohibit all forms of sexual abuse and exploitation and make it illegal to possess, access, make and distribute all forms of child pornography, including child pornography generated from artificial intelligence (see Savage, 2024).
It is also against the law to use the Internet to communicate with a child for the purposes of facilitating the commission of a sexual offence.
In 2004, Public Safety Canada—in partnership with Justice Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police—announced Canada’s National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet (National Strategy) as a commitment to combat child sexual exploitation online. The National Strategy highlights the prevention efforts taken to better protect children and youth online, including increasing investigational capacity,
enhancing public education and awareness, and providing support for further research on OCSE. Several updates have been made to the National Strategy since 2004, and the federal government continues to work in partnership with countries across the globe to address OCSE at an international level.
It is difficult to measure the true prevalence of OCSE because police-reported data for this type of crime is susceptible to underreporting and underestimation, particularly because it involves young victims who may not know how to report or are scared to ask for help. Complementary data and research from external sources like the Canadian Centre for Child Protection—a National Strategy partner—and Cybertip.ca
are essential to better understand the prevalence of this type of crime.
This Juristat article is divided into two sections. The first section, which uses police-reported data from the Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey, builds upon previous reports (Ibrahim, 2022; Savage, 2024) by providing the most recent data on the prevalence and nature of OCSE incidents reported by police in 2023. The first section examines the characteristics of OCSE incidents, victims, and accused persons. The second section of the Juristat article uses a linked data file to explore how OCSE incidents reported by police between 2014 and 2021 proceeded through the criminal justice system, from police to courts.
This Juristat article was produced with funding support from Public Safety Canada.
This is a lengthy article, please continue reading at:
In the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey
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Governor signs law voiding NDAs for child sex abuse victims
A law championed by Branson area State Representative Brian Seitz to remove the restrictions which allowed non-disclosure agreements to silence victims of sexual assault has been signed into law by Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe.
Trey’s Law, which was folded into Senate Bill 81, was signed by the governor in a ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion on Tuesday, June 10.
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