Online Sexual Offences Against Children up 220 Percent in 10 Years

Online sex crimes against Canadian minors have jumped 220 percent in the past decade, according to data from Statistics Canada. Christian Wiediger/Unsplash

Online sex crimes against Canadian minors have jumped 220 percent in the past decade, according to newly released government data.

Child pornography cases make up a large portion of online sex crimes involving Canadian children with such incidents quadrupling between 2014 and 2022, according to a Statistics Canada report. Numbers have jumped from 32 incidents per 100,000 children in 2014 to 125 incidents in 2022.

There have also been 15,630 incidents of online sexual offences against children with online luring accounting for the majority of the reports, StatCan said. A total of 2,492 online sexual offences against children occurred in 2022.

Together, incidents of child pornography and online sex offences have jumped from 50 incidents per 100,000 children in 2014 to 160 incidents by 2022, the report found.

“These significant increases could reflect an actual rise in this type of crime, increased awareness and reporting among the general population or more resources and training for police to better detect online child sexual exploitation—or a combination of these factors,” report author and StatCan analyst Laura Savage wrote.

The increase in child pornography was driven by a rapid rise in online cases, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all online child sexual exploitation offences reported to police between 2014 and 2022, the StatCan report said. Seventy-two percent of the 45,816 incidents reported were related to making or distributing child pornography.

Creation and distribution of child pornography rose 33 percent between 2021 and 2022 alone, the report said.

Only 3,926 of the more than 40,000 incidents resulted in a charge being laid or recommended against an accused, the report said. Fifteen percent of possessing or accessing child pornography reports resulted in charges compared to only 6 percent of incidents involving the creation or distribution of such content.

Other Online Sexual Offences

After child pornography, online luring is the most reported offence against children and youth in Canada, the report said.

“Some offenders may engage in online communications with a child for the purpose of arranging an in-person meeting,” Ms. Savage wrote. “However, many child luring offenders do not meet their victims offline and, in these situations, the sexual offence is perpetrated entirely online.”

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection reported an 815 percent increase in reports of online luring through its national tip line between 2018 and 2022. Police-reported data revealed a 53 percent increase of luring incidents during the same period.

Aside from pornography, luring accounted for 75 percent of online sexual offences against children in 2022, the report said. The rate of luring increased 69 percent between 2014 and 2022, from 15 incidents per 100,000 children and youth in 2014 to 26 incidents per 100,000 by 2022.

The majority of victims—84 percent—were girls, while 82 percent of those victimized were between the ages of 12 and 17; the average age was 13.

Criminal courts in Canada processed more than 30,000 charges related to online sexual offences against children between April 2014 to March 2021, the report said. Thirty-four percent of the charges laid resulted in a guilty finding and 63 percent were stayed, withdrawn, dismissed, or discharged. Seventy-eight percent of the guilty verdicts resulted in jail time.

Forty-four percent of charges in youth court during the same period led to a guilty finding with 62 percent sentenced to probation.

Offenders and Victims

Boys and men made up the vast majority of those accused of online sexual offences against children from 2014 to 2022. Ninety-seven percent of incidents of invitation to sexual touching, 96 percent of luring incidents, and 90 percent of possessing or accessing child pornography reports involved a male.

Teens were most likely to be both the victims and perpetrators of non-consensual distribution of intimate images, the report said. Youth between the ages of 12 and 17 years accounted for 97 percent of the victims, with 86 percent being girls.

Those accused of this offence tended to be similar in age to the victim, with the median age being 15 for boys and 14 for girls, the report said, adding that one-quarter of the perpetrators for this particular offence are female.

“Most victims of this offence knew their perpetrator,” Ms. Savage said, adding the most common accused-victim relationships from 2015 to 2022 were “casual acquaintances” making up 33 percent of all cases.

Twenty-eight percent were current or former dating partners, 21 percent were friends and 14 percent were victimized by a stranger.