Sixty-four people have been arrested and 348 charges have been laid in a province-wide investigation into the distribution of child sexual abuse material, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has announced.
Known as Project Aquatic, the case involved 129 separate investigations from 27 police services across the province, the OPP said during a May 8 news conference in Scarborough. The investigation began Feb. 19 into the sexual exploitation of 34 child victims and ended Feb. 29 with the arrest of 64 people connected to the making, possession and distribution of “child sexual abuse material.”
Thirty-four child victims were identified as part of the investigation, OPP Detective Staff Sergeant Tim Brown told reporters, adding that another 30 children were “safeguarded” as part of the investigation. Det.-Sgt. Brown said the safeguarded children were removed from “a dangerous position” where they could be “offended against.”
There was a wide age span among both victims and offenders, Det.-Sgt. Brown said.
While he didn’t give specifics, he said victims could include “infants, and we do see infants that are abused and victimized for sure, right through up until early teens and teenage years.”
The alleged offenders ranged in age from teenagers to senior citizens, police said with the youngest being a 16-year-old from Windsor charged with possessing, accessing, and making available child pornography. The oldest alleged offender was an 89-year-old Toronto man was charged with possession of child pornography.
All of those charged in connection with the case live in Ontario with the exception of one Alberta man.
Det.-Sgt. Brown said some of those charged as part of the investigation “had been previously released for offences” and were out on bail, but he did not provide any specifics.
Police said one individual set up a meeting with undercover investigators with the intention of meeting a child “for a sexual purpose.”
Another suspect was in possession of approximately 21 terabytes of data containing child sexual abuse material, the OPP said in a press release, adding that more than 600 digital devices were seized as part of the investigation.
As technology continues to evolve and improve, the number of child sexual exploitation cases increase, Det.-Sgt. Brown said.
“The tools used by predators who wish to harm our children are more sophisticated and harder to trace, from advanced encryption to the dark web,” he said. “These factors add to the complexity of police investigations.”
AI-generated images add to that complexity, he said, because investigators now have to differentiate between “real and synthetic victims.”
Canadian Centre for Child Protection associate executive director Signy Arnason told reporters the number of AI-generated sexual abuse images her team finds is constantly on the rise.
“To say it’s a nightmare would be an understatement,” Ms. Arnason said.
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which runs cyber tip.ca, flagged 2,600 such images in 2022 compared to 3,700 in 2023.
“This year, in one month alone, we saw 500, so we’re probably on course for 6,000, at least this year,” she added.
Project Aquatic is part of the OPP’s ICE Strategy that, between 2006 and 2023, has completed 82,082 investigations resulting in 29,025 charges laid against 7,493 people.
