Online child sexual exploitation is one of the most disturbing public safety issues facing society today. Online child sexual exploitation includes a wide range of behaviors and situations. Most commonly this includes grooming, live streaming, consuming child sexual abuse material, and coercing and blackmailing children for sexual purposes.

This could include:

1. An adult engaging a child in a chat about sexual acts
2. An adult sending nude or pornographic images of themselves to a child or exposing themselves via live streaming
3. Asking a child to view pornographic images/videos
4. Asking a child to perform sexual acts, expose themselves or share a sexual image
5. Taking or making and sharing or showing indecent images of children

Online child sexual exploitation is often thought of as adults abusing children, however, research indicates that more and more child exploitation material is being shared via social media, and is being produced by children themselves.  This is sometimes called self-generated sexual content and often takes the form of ‘sexting’ which is requesting, capturing and sharing of explicit material.

A child may be or feel pressured, forced or coerced into taking and sharing these explicit images with their peers or friends. If you or your child discovers sexual content of themselves has been shared online, contact cybertip.ca or Call Us @ 780 229 0759.

It’s important to have open and honest conversations with your children, and ensure they’d feel comfortable telling a trusted adult if they are contacted by someone they don’t know.

Understand what children See, Say and Do online