Government of Canada consults allies in fight against online child sexual exploitation
News release
March 29, 2018
Ottawa, Ontario
Public Safety Canada
The sexual exploitation of children is a vile and despicable crime. Today, the Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, reiterated the Government of Canada’s commitment to combatting this horrible crime. Minister Goodale held a national meeting that brought together expert stakeholders, including law enforcement organizations, provinces and territories, Indigenous organizations, academics, victim services, criminal justice, technology companies and communications service providers to share their knowledge and insights on this issue.
Every day, countless children are sexually abused and exploited. Images and videos of the abuse are circulated online and in most cases, never disappear. In 2016, the number and rate of police-reported child pornography incidents increased for the eighth consecutive year, up from 4,380 incidents in 2015 to 6,245 incidents in 2016. As a result, the rate increased by 41%, to 17 incidents per 100,000 population in 2016. This is 233% higher than the rate reported in 2006.
New technologies are enabling the online sexual exploitation of children, including the live streaming of sexual abuse using web cameras or cellphones, often for profit. The information gathered from this and previous consultations in 2016-2017, will help renew and modernize the current National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet, so that that it keeps pace with evolving technological threats.
Quotes
“The sexual exploitation of children is an intolerable crime that causes long-lasting harm to its victims. The Government of Canada is committed to working closely with stakeholders to combat this crime by modernizing our national strategy so it responds to the ever-changing technological environment and nature of online threats and most importantly, supports the needs of our young victims and their families.”
- The Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Quick facts
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The National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet is a Public Safety Canada-led initiative that brings together the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Department of Justice and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, as partners to provide a coordinated approach to enhance Canada’s efforts.
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In February 2018, the Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, announced $4,123,000 of funding over five years, and $857,000 a year ongoing to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection to continue its important work in protecting children from sexual exploitation, including the Arachnid crawler to quickly take down images and video from the internet.
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The RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre (NCECC) functions as the central point of contact for investigations related to online child sexual exploitation. The Centre provides a number of services to law enforcement agencies across Canada.
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Canada also works closely with international partners to combat online child exploitation by exchanging intelligence in the tracking of online predators and sharing best practices and lessons learned.
Associated links
Contacts
Scott Bardsley
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
613-998-5681
scott.bardsley@canada.ca
Media Relations
Public Safety Canada
613-991-0657
media@ps-sp.gc.ca
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