In 2002, legislation in Canada was passed making child online luring a criminal offense. Online luring is defined as when a person (usually an adult) connects with a child/ youth through technology (texting, direct messaging, or chatting in an app/game/ website) to make it easier to commit a sexual crime against them. In Feb 2023, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection reported nearly a 10 fold increase in reports of online sexual exploitation and abuse of children/youth to their national tipline cybertip.ca since 2018.
Adults find it difficult to understand online luring and how grooming is used to gain intimate images of children/youth
that are then used to extort money or more intimate images. Grooming tactics like falsely identifying online as a
peer, complimenting or being especially supportive, promising gifts, pitting the parents against the child/youth, are
used to develop a close relationship with the child/youth. They convince their victim may believe that they have a
close relationship. The perpetrator will share an intimate photo of themselves with the victim in order to make the
victim feel comfortable with this behaviour (normalizing). Or they might take photos of the child/youth without their
knowledge while live-streaming. Intimate photos are then used to extort money or additional images/video with the
threat of sharing the first image with friends or family. Threats, intimidation and harassment are commonly used to
get what they want. This is a deliberate process of establishing a emotional bond with a child/youth in order to lower
their resistance. Sexual aggressors are very adept in doing this. The survivor is left feeling ashamed, embarrassed and
isolated. They falsely believe it’s their fault and don’t know who to turn to for help or how to report to police. This
can lead to devastating outcomes. That is why it’s important that victims get the help and support they need.
Sexting/Sextortion
There was a 150% increase of reports to Cybertip.ca involving sexting between Dec 2021 and May 2022.
According to Statistics Canada, sexting (sharing intimate images, messages or self-generated sexualized images) is
quite common among youth. This leads to an increased risk of sharing images beyond the intended recipient. In stats
from 2014 through 2020, many of the accused were intimate partners with an average age of 15 years. 79% of these
crimes occurred on Snapchat or Instagram .
91% of these crimes involved teen boys being extorted for money. Teen girls are commonly extorted for additional
intimate images. Organized, international criminal networks are most often involved. When the accused is a child/
youth, the Youth Criminal Justice Act is employed to hold the accused accountable through a diversionary program or
a fine.
The non-consensual sharing of an intimate image is when private material is shared on purpose without consent
from that person. If the material involves someone under the age of 18, it may be illegal to distribute regardless if
consent was provided or not.
Cybertip.ca
- When reporting through Cybertip, you have the option to remain anonymous (you must request your name is
not disclosed)
- Information about what steps you can take to keep images from being spread online
- Website includes tips/guide for parents of the survivor & perpetrator as well as educators
- provincial resources and other online resources
