- Note 1
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Includes online sexual violations against children and other online sexual offences where the victim was identified as being aged 17 years or younger on the first recorded date of the incident.
Return to note 1 referrer
- Note 2
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Online child sexual abuse and exploitation material offences are cybercrime incidents involving offences under section 163.1 of the Criminal Code, which makes it illegal to make, distribute, possess or access child sexual abuse and exploitation material.
Return to note 2 referrer
- Note 3
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Includes online sexual offences against children and online child sexual abuse and exploitation material offences.
Return to note 3 referrer
- Note 4
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Other online sexual offences against children is a catch all category that encompasses all other sexual violations against children (excluding online child sexual abuse and exploitation material offences) which were facilitated by, or involved the use of, technology.
Return to note 4 referrer
Note: Counts are based on individuals who had contact with police as an accused person for a cohort (online child sexual exploitation) incident in 2024. If a person was accused of more than one cohort incident during the year, the most recent cohort incident was used. 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. Counts are based on accused persons identified in connection with an incident where an online child sexual exploitation and abuse offence was identified as the cyber violation. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre (NCECC) serves as the primary point of contact in Canada for investigations related to the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet. Working in partnership with specialized provincial Internet child exploitation policing units, police services across Canada and internationally, the NCECC forwards suspected cases of online child sexual exploitation (OCSE) to the appropriate police of jurisdiction for investigation. Due to a substantial increase in the volume and complexity of these cases (many of which involve Generative Artificial Intelligence), many police services do not have the resources to investigate all cases forwarded by the NCECC. As a result, these data reflect the number of police-reported investigations for the year, accounting for only a subset of suspected OCSE cases within Canada. In Canada, children under 12 years of age cannot be held criminally responsible and are excluded. Percent calculations exclude incidents where the gender or age of the accused person was unknown. The option for police to code accused persons as “non-binary” in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey was implemented in 2018. In the context of the UCR Survey, the term “non-binary” refers to a person who publicly expresses themselves as neither exclusively male nor exclusively female. Given that small counts of non-binary accused persons may exist, the UCR Survey data available to the public have been recoded with these accused persons distributed in the “men and boys” or “women and girls” categories based on the regional distribution of accused persons’ gender. This recoding ensures the protection of the confidentiality and privacy of accused persons. The data exclude the Saint John Police Force, as well as data from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and the Canadian Forces Military Police Group. Includes a small proportion of incidents where victim age was recoded. In some incidents, the victim was aged 17 years or younger at the time of the offence, but was aged 18 years or older when the incident was reported by police. Victim age was recoded to the age of the victim on the first recorded date of the incident. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.
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