Research by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection sheds new light on child sexual victimization online in Canada and gaps in tech industry, government response

Winnipeg, Canada — A new report by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) provides unprecedented details on the online sexual victimization many teenagers in Canada face on popular social media platforms and other online services.

The nationally representative survey of 1,279 Canadian teens aged 13–17 who were sexually victimized online found, among other key findings,

• Nearly 9 in 10 (86%) participants were sexually victimized in private communication environments (e.g. private messaging, video calls or private groups);
• 2 in 5 (39%) participants were sexually victimized on Snapchat®, significantly more than on any other platform;
• Over half (52%) of teen victims had been sent an unwanted nude or sexual image, and 1 in 6 (17%) teen victims had someone make a fake nude or sexual image of them;
• Over 9 in 10 (93%) teen victims think Canada should legally force apps and platforms to prevent harm online. Most also thought safety measures would help.

Despite the severity of these harms, only 1 in 5 (20%) teens reported their victimization directly to an app or platform. Of the teens who did not report to an online service, the most cited reason was a belief that the app or platform would not help (43%).

When reports were made about nude or sexual images of them to the online service where they were being distributed, 2 in 3 (67%) teens waited more than a day for platforms to remove the images — delays that increase chances of further distribution and victimization.

“These findings add to the long list of evidence that children in Canada are being preyed upon online and I hope these critically important insights, based on the lived experiences of children in our country, can help contribute to shaping future online safety laws in Canada,” said Lianna McDonald, Executive Director of C3P.

“The results also highlighted some key gaps in the previously proposed Online Harms Bill, notably that it would have failed to subject the most common digital environments where kids are harmed, such as private messaging services, to any duty of care toward children,” she said.

The report includes a number of recommendations for the development of a made-in-Canada online safety framework, similar to what exists currently in several other countries such as the UK, the EU and Australia. The recommendations include:

• Imposing duties of care and responsibilities onto private messaging services and a broad range of other online services based on risk;
• Requiring online services rapidly detect and remove sexual images of children;
• Preventing unsafe or inappropriate adult–child interactions in digital spaces;
• Considering Criminal Code amendments to address emerging threats like AI-generated deepfake nudes;
• Requiring online services adopt safety-by-design codes that prioritize child protection and their best interests.

The full report, including detailed findings and policy recommendations, is available here.

About this survey:

C3P developed a questionnaire and commissioned Léger, a market research and polling firm, to conduct an anonymous online survey. The survey was available in English and French. The 1,279 survey participants met the following criteria:

• Were 13 to 17 years of age (inclusive) at the time of the survey;
• Lived in Canada;
• Experienced at least one form of online sexual victimization.

To ensure nationally representative results, the data was weighted on age, gender, and province based on demographics from the 2021 Canadian census.