e-2884 (Health)

The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that children are safe from sexual abuse and exploitation, including when they are online. The Criminal Code of Canada provides a robust framework for protecting children from sexual exploitation, both online and in person. This includes offences such as possessing, making, accessing or distributing child pornography (section 163.1), making sexually explicit material available to a child (section 171.1) and luring a child (section 172.1), in addition to a range of other child-specific sexual offences. Canada’s laws addressing child sexual offending also apply extra-territorially, meaning that prosecutions may occur in Canada for offences allegedly committed by Canadian citizens or permanent residents abroad.

An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide Internet service came into force on December 8, 2011. This Act requires a Canadian provider of Internet services to report child pornography that they find on their servers in the ordinary course of conducting their business to police. As the designated organization under this Act, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) also receives and processes reports of child pornography and child abuse on the Internet. C3P is a non-governmental organization that operates Cybertip.ca, which forwards child sexual exploitation leads to the appropriate authorities. C3P also provides public education and awareness materials, as well as support and referral services. In addition, C3P operates Project Arachnid, an automated web crawler that detects and processes tens of thousands of images per second and sends take down notices to online service providers to remove child sexual abuse material globally.

In 2004, the Government of Canada created the National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet (National Strategy). The National Strategy focuses on law enforcement, prevention and education, and support for Cybertip.ca, Canada’s national tip-line for reporting online sexual exploitation and abuse. The National Strategy was renewed in 2009, bringing the total investment in fighting CSE online to over $18 million per year for Public Safety Canada, the RCMP and Justice Canada. In 2019, the Government of Canada announced an additional $22.24 million over three years to combat this crime. Public Safety Canada is the lead department on the National Strategy.

Senate Public Bill S-203, An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material, proposes measures to restrict access to sexually explicit material online, including through a new offence and new powers to compel Internet Service Providers to take steps to prevent the sharing of sexually explicit material to a young person. This bill will be debated in accordance with the rules that govern Senate Public Bills.