Online child sexual exploitation incidents in Canada: From the police to criminal courts

Release date: March 11, 2025
More information PDF version
Infographic: Online child sexual exploitation incidents in Canada: From the police to criminal courts
Description: Online child sexual exploitation incidents in Canada: From the police to criminal courts

Online child sexual exploitation includes online sexual offences against children, such as luring and invitation to sexual touching, and online child pornography.

Cases of online child sexual exploitation experience attrition at all stages of the criminal justice system.

Attrition refers to the phenomenon whereby, at each stage of the criminal justice process, some cases “drop out” and do not proceed. Fewer cases remain or are retained throughout the entirety of the process.

From 2014 to 2021, 16% of online child sexual exploitation incidents reported by police resulted in charges being laid or recommended against an accused. Of these incidents, 53% proceeded to criminal court.

Once in court, 72% of adult criminal court casesNote 1 of online child sexual exploitation resulted in a guilty finding for the most serious offence in the case.

Physical assaults were more likely to be retained at the clearance and chargingNote 2 stages and drop out at other stages of the criminal justice system

Table 1 Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 1 For every 1,000 physical assaults involving a child or youth victim reported by police and For every 1,000 online child sexual exploitation incidents reported by police, calculated using number units of measure (appearing as column headers).
  For every 1,000 online child sexual exploitation incidents reported by police For every 1,000 physical assaults involving a child or youth victim reported by police
number
Did not lead to charges 844 630
Led to charges, but did not go to court 73 101
Went to court, but did not lead to a guilty findingNote 3 23 130
Led to a guilty finding, but not to a sentence of custody 7 106
Led to a guilty finding and a sentence of custody 52 33

Source: Savage, L., 2025, “Online child sexual exploitation: Criminal justice outcomes of police-reported incidents in Canada, 2014 to 2021,” Juristat, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 85-002-X.

More information

Note of appreciation

Canada owes the success of its statistical system to a long-standing partnership between Statistics Canada, the citizens of Canada, its businesses, governments and other institutions. Accurate and timely statistical information could not be produced without their continued co-operation and goodwill.

Standards of service to the public

Statistics Canada is committed to serving its clients in a prompt, reliable and courteous manner. To this end, the Agency has developed standards of service which its employees observe in serving its clients.

Copyright

Published by authority of the Minister responsible for Statistics Canada.

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Industry, 2025

Use of this publication is governed by the Statistics Canada Open Licence Agreement.

Catalogue no. 11-627-M

Frequency: Occasional

Ottawa

Date modified: