Children have access to unlimited resources online, but also unlimited danger. In the digital age, parents must be hyper-aware of the things their children have access to online.
Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT), is an organization which works to reduce crime and mitigate harm in the province of Alberta through various specialized task forces. Its Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit investigate the sexual exploitation of children through the Internet and works to reduce harm through public education and prevention programs.
Mike Tucker, ALERT Communications Director, says as people become more reliant on digital media and online platforms, the danger to children increases exponentially.
“Just last year there were 894 active investigations. It’s more than doubled in the past six years,” said Tucker.
Some of the offenses investigated last year included: accessing and producing child pornography, computer-related abuse, child luring over the Internet, voyeurism involving victims under the age of 18 and child sex trade/tourism.
Lethbridge parent Amanda Shaw has children aged five and two. She says despite the young age of her children they still have access to getting things online.
“I shelter them from most of the stuff on the internet. I mean I let my older child watch YouTube if I’m the one that picks the video, but I try to limit the things they do online.”
The young mother also says despite the protections she put in place, she has a hard time keeping everything child-friendly.
“It starts with toy videos and then through the suggested videos YouTube puts up, they always end up somewhere they shouldn’t.”
According to Statistics Canada crime data, across the nation, there were 6,917 reported sexual violations of children in 2017. In Alberta from 2016 to 2017, total sexual offences against children rose by 150.
Tucker says the increase in child exploitation not only is devastating for Alberta families, it puts an incredible strain on police.
“We are on the reactive stage in terms of investigating child exploitation complaints. It really has been a stretch on police resources. Our investigations have gone through the roof, but our resources haven’t increased to account for that.”
Tucker adds the numbers only show a small piece of the puzzle, and the number of exploitation cases in Alberta and Canada is much higher than the statistics show.
“We have moved to a triage process and only investigate the reports that stand to cause the most damage. There are countless others don’t factor into the statistics,” he added.
Although in many cases the offenders have no direct contact with children and instead view pictures and videos online, Tucker says it’s key not to treat the offenses like victimless crimes.
“We have to remember; these are victims somewhere. It may not be in Alberta or a family member, but it’s someone’s child, somewhere in the world. By downloading and accessing this content, you’re fueling the need to produce it.”
According to ICE Investigations, 63 per cent of devices seized in child exploitation cases had images or videos of young prepubescent children under eight years of age. They found that as the age of the children decreased, the sexual abuse and exploitation became more extreme.
For Shaw, the thought her children may be at risk due to their online behaviours is a disturbing one.
“It terrifies me, just because I know how kids can get into trouble despite having parent restrictions.”
Having to witness accounts of child exploitation on an almost daily basis has led Tucker to believe the solution to the current problem won’t be easy but must start with parents.
“There is no magic bullet answer. Parents really just have to have open channels of dialogue with their children, and monitor the sorts of things children do online,” said Tucker.
Shaw mimics the idea put forth by Tucker.
“I’m hoping that as they get older I can create a comfortable enough relationship with them that they can come and talk to me about the things they see online,” said Shaw.
Alberta has taken many positive steps with legislative initiatives and a provincial strategy for dealing with child exploitation online however, Tucker believes it is still something the collective community must bear the weight of on their shoulders. “We have a collective responsibility to protect children not only today but forever.”
