Canada's Sextortion Boom Matches Pandemic Shift Online: 'It's Out of Control'

COVID-19coincided with the so-called "statistics fraud" boom, Canada said. New data from Statistics Canada suggests.

Experts are calling for more regulation, education and law enforcement as authorities aim to educate young people and parents about online sex crimes.

Sexual assault, or sexual assault, threatens to distribute private, often sexually explicit material online if the victim does not normally comply with financial demands. It occurs when you do.

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Crimes Obtained Almost 10 years ago, 15-year-oldAmanda Toddin Port Coquitram, British Columbia, used a flash card to explain that he was suffering from anonymous cyberbullying. After posting the video I did, I died of suicide. It has been viewed over 14 million times.

The trial of her alleged harassment Dutch citizen, Aidin Coban, began in British Columbia. June Supreme Court.

He pleaded not guilty to blackmail, harassment, communication with young people to commit sexual crimes, and possession and distribution of child pornography. He had not been charged with Todd's death.

Closing arguments for the case wrapped earlier this week, and the jury is currently discussing it.

Signy Arnason, Deputy Managing Director of the Center for Child Protection in Canada, said the problem had grown exponentially after Todd died in October 2012.

" It's out of control, "she said in an interview.

Police across the country have warned the general public about sexual assault scams targeting young people.

"Unfortunately, police around the world have said that some of these incidents kill victims. I'm tragically seeing it end with "Nova Scotia RCMP Internet Child Exploitation Unit Cpl. Mark Sovieraji said in a news release last week. "We encourage parents and guardians to discuss potential dangers with their children and emphasize that they can come to you for help."

Tuesday Police-reported extortion cases in Canada have increased by nearly 300% over the past decade, but crime has increased significantly during the pandemic, according to Statistics Canada data released in Canada.

Incidents of non-consensual distribution of intimate images involving adult or child victims increased by 194 cases in 2021, up 9% from the previous year and 52% compared to the previous five. Increased-annual average.

"The rise of these concerns is being driven by social media platforms and other electronic service providers," Lianna McDonald, Managing Director of the Center for Child Protection in Canada, said in a news release. "It must be a wake-up call."

Cybertip, a national hint line for reporting child sexual abuse online. "We received an unprecedented amount of reports from young people and sometimes worried parents about being a prey to aggressive extortion tactics," said ca. 300 online blackmail cases a month.

Wayne McKay, Professor Emeritus of Law at Dalhousie University, said the increase could be partially explained by awareness of cybercrime and better crackdowns, but research shows that children online Sexual abuse is often not reported.

Cyber ​​tip. A review of 322 sex cases received by ca in July found that if gender was known, 92% were related to boys or young men.

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"In this review, victims are sent nude images of their children from someone behind a fake account. A new tactic was also shown to be done, after which the criminal threatened to report the victim to the police, claiming that the victim possessed child sexual abuse material. Demand will continue soon, "the Child Protection Center said in a news release this week.

David Fraser, an internet and privacy lawyer at McInnes Cooper, a Canadian law firm in Halifax, has been accused of child pornography of his image, mainly because some young people haven't come forward. He said it was because he believed it could happen. He said this was a widespread misunderstanding, sometimes even among law enforcement agencies.

"You need to be very careful with the messages you send to youth, making sure there is a place where youth can go safely and get support before things get worse. To do that, "says Fraser.

He issued a 2001 Canadian Supreme Court ruling that established an exception to the "personal use" of the child pornography clause. I quoted it. Young people do not portray illegal sexual activity, are for private use only, and have the right to create their own intimate images as long as they are created with the consent of the people in the images. Stated.

Fraser wants to increase police resources and education on this issue.

"I generally see the police adopting existing laws and lacking the skills and ability to translate them into an online context," he said.

"Extortion is the extortion of someone by threatening to disclose the nude photos they were forced to provide, or the extortion of someone through other forms of conventional extortion.

Molly Reynolds, a lawyer at Torys LLP in Toronto, said the number of her civil lawsuits over sexual abuse has increased significantly.

"Demand is huge. It was a crisis at least 10 years ago and we are just beginning to understand it more broadly across Canada," she said. "Many people still can't get the police attention when they report this criminal activity."

She said that for an adult victim who knew the criminal, the civil court He said it tends to be a better option.

"If it could be a child pornography crime, law enforcement action could be seen It's more likely to be a consensual distribution or voyeur breach, "she said.

"(Children) can get better service through criminal proceedings in a sense, while adults often have to resort to civil proceedings."

Darren Laua, chief training officer at White Hatter, an education company for Internet security and digital literacy, said the law has not kept pace with technological advances.

He uses existing images and videos to create fake but reliable video footage, the so-called deepfake, which eliminates the need for coercors to force people to act explicitly. Therefore, he said that it would create new challenges.

"In reality, people are taking advantage of technology and sometimes trying to use it as a weapon. That's the problem of deepfake. Deepfake is especially sexual abuse using technology. I think it will be a weapon in terms of, "said Laur, a former Victorian military sergeant.

Reynolds agreed, but said he didn't think the law could "keep up with technology and the harm it could cause."

"The court has a huge role to play. I think. Interpreting what we already have and evolving it in the same way that technical risks evolve. People, criminal or civil, make these litigations easier. I need to bring it to court so that I can test the boundaries, "she said.

McDonald's, along with the Canadian Child Protection Center, has begun calling for more regulation on social media companies such as Snapchat and Instagram. .. The organization has found that most of the harm to children occurs.

"This is an ever-growing problem that raises the question of what these companies are doing to keep their children safe. Social media platforms It's unbelievable that an adult stranger can contact and target children directly without any impact, "she said in a news release Thursday.

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Laur Has been calling for the establishment of online regulators such as Australia's eSafety Commissioner for years.

"They basically have a blueprint for how to do this," he said. "In our country, we need something similar here."

The Department of Canadian Heritage said in a statement that the federal government "currently includes the possibility of establishing a regulatory body." We are developing an approach to address harmful content online. "

As part of this process, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said, "We are currently holding roundtables across Canada to hear from victims of online damage, including children and adolescents."

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