Online child exploitation cases up nearly 500 per cent since 2011: NS RCMP
Posted Feb 9, 2018 11:24:00 AM.
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HALIFAX – As Ottawa commits millions to combat online child exploitation this week, Nova Scotia RCMP said the number of cases in the province has skyrocketed in the last several years.
The Trudeau government announced Wednesday it was investing $4 million over five years to help fund a database to search for child abuse material online and funding toward cybertip.ca, which allows people to report child porn online. The federal cash will also aid victim supports.
Cst. Mandy Edwards is with Nova Scotia RCMP's Internet Child Exploitation Unit (ICE) and said the problem has been on the rise, with a 488 per cent increase in the number of cases in Nova Scotia from 2011 to 2017.
Edwards said this is largely due to the growth of social media and the number of children with access to an Internet-enabled device.
“Technology is growing and the social media platforms that we can communicate [on] have multiplied such as Facebook or Instagram,” Edwards said, noting that Omegle and Kik are now more popular among younger users.
She recommends parents, schools and education system teach children how to best use the Internet safely to ensure they don't risk being exploited.
She said this type of “prevention and open discussion” could go a long way in helping protect young people from being abused or exploited.
Child are at risk anywhere the Internet is available, Edwards says, whether it be a McDonald's or a local public library.
She said with such a drastic increase in the number of cases, any help from the feds like that announced this week, could go a long way.
Between 2015 and 2016 there was a 41 per cent increase in child porn incidents in Canada, according to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which is on track to investigate more than 90,000 tips this year.
