Table 4
Police-reported online sexual offences against children, by type of offence and victim characteristics, Canada, 2023

Table 4
Police-reported online sexual offences against children, by type of offence and victim characteristics, Canada, 2023
Table summary
This table displays the results of Police-reported online sexual offences against children, by type of offence and victim characteristics, Canada, 2023. The information is grouped by Victim characteristics (appearing as row headers), Non-consensual distribution of intimate images, Luring a child, Total online sexual offences against children1, Invitation to sexual touching and Other online sexual offences against children2, calculated using percent and number units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Victim characteristics Total online sexual offences against children Table 4 Note 1 Luring a child Non-consensual distribution of intimate images Invitation to sexual touching Other online sexual offences against children Table 4 Note 2
number percent number percent number percent number percent number percent
Note 1

Includes online sexual violations against children and other online sexual offences where a victim was identified as being aged 17 years or younger at the start of the incident.

Return to note 1 referrer

Note 2

The category other online sexual offences against children is a catch all category that encompasses all sexual violations against children (excluding online child pornography) which were facilitated by, or involved the use of, technology.

Return to note 2 referrer

Note: An incident is considered to be an online incident if it was flagged as a cybercrime. An incident is flagged as a cybercrime when the crime targets information and communication technology (ICT), or when the crime used ICT to commit the offence. ICT includes, but is not limited to, the Internet, computers, servers, digital technology, digital telecommunications devices, phones and networks. Crimes committed over text and through messages using social media platforms are also considered cybercrime activity. Calculations are based on victim records, where the most serious violation against the victim was identified as the cyber violation. For some incidents, the victim was 17 years or younger when the victimization began, but was an adult when the victimization ended. As such, the victim age in these incidents was recoded to the age when the victimization began. The data exclude the Quebec City Police in 2014 and 2015, the municipal police service of Calgary from 2014 to 2016, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) from 2014 to 2017, both the Saint John Police Force and the Canadian Forces Military Police from 2014 to 2019 and Dryden, a detachment of the OPP in 2022. Percent calculations exclude incidents where victim gender or victim age was unknown. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.
Total 1,801 100 1,071 100 481 100 50 100 199 100
Girls 1,381 77 864 81 344 72 34 68 139 70
Boys 420 23 207 19 137 28 16 32 60 30
Children (aged 11 years and younger) 326 100 242 100 28 100 12 100 44 100
Girls 268 82 212 88 19 68 7 58 30 68
Boys 58 18 30 12 9 32 5 42 14 32
Youth (aged 12 to 17 years) 1,475 100 829 100 453 100 38 100 155 100
Girls 1,113 75 652 79 325 72 27 71 109 70
Boys 362 25 177 21 128 28 11 29 46 30
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