UPDATED Sept 2024

To be very clear, engaging in the creation, distribution, or consumption of images or videos depicting child sexual abuse material is illegal. Not only does this material perpetuate sexual violence against children, it also strips them of their humanity.  The National Crime Agency in the UK found child sexual abuse material can be located on the surface web with as few as three clicks through commonly used search engines, and its ready availability online normalizes and perpetuates harmful actions against children.

We believe that it is important to once again emphasize that the vast majority of pre-teens and teens are doing super uber cool things online, and we adults need to start acknowledging this fact. Although the internet gives us the power to connect with people around the world, it also allows for private and immediate access to both children and to those who want to prey upon our kids for exploitation.

For the purpose of this chapter, it is important that we define the difference between “sexual exploitation” and “online exploitation”:

Sexual Exploitation

“When anyone under the age of 18, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, forces or entices a child into engaging in sexual activity in return for something received by the child and/or those perpetrating or facilitating the abuse.”

https://bit.ly/3BHfm2H

Online Exploitation 

“The use of information and communication technology as a means to sexually abuse or sexually exploit children”

https://bit.ly/3tghCuI

Grooming

The Manipulative process sexual predators use to identify, coerce, and silence their victims

https://bit.ly/3L73BrD

CSAM 

“Child Sexual Assault  Material” refers to any digital content that depicts the sexual abuse of children.

CSEM

“Child Sexual Exploitation Material” refers to any material that exploits children sexually, including images, videos, or even digital conversations that may be used for grooming or luring minors into illicit activities.

UPDATE: In Feb 2023 the Canadian House of Commons passed Bill C-291 which is an Act to amend the Criminal Code of Canada and to make consequential amendments to other Acts to replace the legal term “Child Pornography” with  “Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Material. It is presently before the Senate awaiting adoption into law.

When it comes to onlife predation and exploitation, the research shows us that most who will target our kids will be someone who both the child and parent either knows, loves, or trusts.  Pre-COVID, one of the best studies as to who these online predators were, showed that only around 11% of youth between the ages of 12-16 years of age were approached online by someone they did not know. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1054139X18301344

In a recent 2022 research paper, ” Prevalence of Online Sexual Offences Against Children In The USA” the researchers found that in about 18.7% of cases they looked at, the offender was someone the youth did not know, love, or trust. However, this same research found that in 55.5% – 79.5% of the time the perpetrators were in-person intimate partners, friends, and acquaintances https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2797339?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=101422 . This research further supports the fact that teaching “stranger danger” is not best practices then it comes to dealing with this online challenge.

During the clutches of COVID,  law enforcement had seen an anecdotal increase in onlife luring and predation. Here in British Columbia, law enforcement had seen an anecdotal increase of 45% during COVID.  As the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office Child Predator Section stated:

“The same number of predators exist, it’s just that their opportunities and tools have changed.  There are more ways for them to access children, and we have gotten better at catching them. They have easier access to their victims and to children because they are online at a younger and younger age”

In 2020, according to the Canadian Centre For Child Protection, they saw an 80% increase in reports of adults contacting children ages 8-12 years of age wanting to engage in sexual activities via online live streaming.

Once again, we turned to the teens who follow us on social media and asked them the following question:

“Have you received an inappropriate sexual message, solicitation, or offer online from someone you did not know, since school has been shut down because of COVID”

296 teens replied, and 27% (79) stated “yes”, and 73% (217) stated “no”.  Yes, this is anecdotal, but it gives a reasonable snapshot of what teens are actually experiencing online.

Of greater concern, in a 2022 study “online Sexual Solicitation of Children and Adolescents” they found 10.2% of “high-risk” teens reported meeting someone offline or having sex with someone offline whom they had met online. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891524522001055 

According to the “Global Threat Assessment” 2019 report, it is estimated that there are approximately 750,000 people who are looking to connect with children online for sexual purposes at any one time – but is this number accurate or even relevant when it comes to keeping our kids safe.

Unpacking the “750,000 Predators” Statistic – Shifting Focus To What Really Matters!

In some 2022 research conducted by the Internet Watch Foundation they found

“The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) identified 250,000 websites that contained child sexual abuse content last year, more than 1,000 of which allowed users to purchase material using cryptocurrencies. This is up from 81 in 2018.”

In 2023, the National Centre For Missing and Exploited Children received 36.2 million reports of suspected CSAM https://www.missingkids.org/cybertiplinedata Of interest in those CSAM cases that were reported to police, less than 1% were attributed to a “stranger” – 99% the offenders were someone who the child either knew, loved, or trusted!

THORN, a private company that builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse and works with law enforcement around the world, identified 6 risks groups of youth, we added a seventh, who are more prone to sexual predation and exploitation:

1. Teens in ministry/government care or foster care
2. Teens who have substance dependence
3. Teens who identify LGBTQ
4. Youth who are homeless
5. Youth with an emotional, psychological, or physical disability
6. Runaways, and
7. First Nations Youth

These risk groups, given their heightened vulnerability, lack of stability, financial challenges, and desire for affection, are prime targets of commercialized exploiters (pimps) both online and offline. A great example to demonstrate this fact is the first conviction for human trafficking of a pimp/human trafficker, Reza Moazami, in the Province of British Columbia

https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/daphne-bramham-bc-court-cases-offer-timely-glimpse-into-prostitutions-reality

Eva Veldhuizen-Ochodničanová, in their 2022 article, “Tactics Used In The Online Grooming of Children”, stated that the Internet offers offenders new ways in which to sexually exploit children. This includes but is not limited to:

a) production, possession, and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM);
b) live streaming of child sexual abuse;
c) sexual extortion;
d) harassment of children;
e) sharing of self-generated sexual content involving children; and
f) unwanted exposure of a child to sexual content.

The reason “why” online predation will occur can fall into one, or a combination of the following five reasons:

1. To obtain or share explicit photos/videos of children
2. To meet a child in person and engage in sexually illegal behaviour
3. To engage in sexualized conversation and/or online role-playing behaviour
4. To receive some sort of financial benefit (sextortion)
5. The Machiavellian enjoyment of psychologically, emotionally, physically, and socially controlling another person including a child

When it comes to those who will prey upon and exploit youth online, there are four groups to be aware of

1. Pimps – commercial sex traffickers
2. Peers – Friends and romantic partners
3. Family – dad, mom, brother, uncle, grandfather
4. Sexual Predators – known and unknown

Predator Typologies

Within these groups there are also three typologies of predators and exploiters:

1. Sexualized Troll Harassers
   • Usually has very little sexual motivation
   • Very Machiavellian – Cappers & E-Whoring
   • The goal is to upset their target
   • Often motivated for financial gain via sextortion
   • The weaponization of intimate images often falls under this category
   • Very rare that those in this typology will be a pedophile

According to the Australian e-Safety Commissioner Office, about 1/3 of Child Sexual Abuse Images available online worldwide are self-produced.

Presently on the deep web, sometimes called the dark web, there is what is called an “E-Whoring” economy, where people will sell manuals on how to capture people online for the purpose of sextortion. Here are a couple of examples that we found:

“Today, I’m sharing my collection full of paid e-whoring e-books bros. My collection contains; ewhore packs, traffic sites, traffic guides, ewhoring secret methods. All worth almost $400”

“I started doing the VCW ewhoring method, bit when I go into chatrooms, how do I know that people are interested in paying for a camshow? Should I just straightforward ask it or not? Asking like a girl is no problem for me, but figuring out if they eventually will pay is hard. Also the VCW I’m using looks real as fuck. When they ask for what I look like, should I like, should I keep my fake cam open the whole time for close it after I do command. Do these men figure our it’s fake or not?”

“If you are asking how cappers do it, I can tell you that they use multiple videos of the same girl broken into sections. Sometimes the boy will ask the girl to wave.  The capper always has a video ready to insert in that doesn’t look too obvious of a cut.  Most of the time the capper has to chat with the boy and him comfortable before he shows.  I once spent almost 1 hour with a boy. 15 minutes was warming him up and 30 minutes was him jacking as he took a long time to cum. I had to loop my bait several times but he never noticed.”

We will look at the topic of sextortion in chapter 21.

2. Online Pedophiles

• According to clinical sexologist Dr. Marlene Wasserman, an expert on pedophilia, she estimates that 1-3% of the general population would fall under this category.
• Here the offender will have sexual compulsions and fantasies for, or a primary sexual attraction to, adolescent boys or girls
• there’s a proven link between viewing CSAM and attempting to make direct contact with children. https://tsjournal.org/index.php/jots/article/view/29

NOTE – There is a movement by some to rebrand the use of the word “pedophile” to “Minor Attracted Person” given the stigma attached to the word pedophile – this is not something that we agree with. However, you may come across this term, or the use of its acronym MAP, thus why we wanted to bring this to your attention.

Within this typology of offender there are three subcategories:

• Collectors – these offenders do not want to have a face-to-face encounter with their target. The goal is to obtain child sexual abuse material.
• Travelers –  also know as “Contact Driven Predators” – these offenders will travel vast distances for a face-to-face encounter that will lead to sexual exploitation.
• Manufacturers – these offenders will collect, exchange, and sell child sexual abuse material. According to the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, there are approximately 47 million known Child Sexual Abuse Images in circulation globally. According to some research done in 2021 by the Internet Watch Foundation, only about 8% of CSAM material that is traded is sold for financial gain.
• Chatters – also known as “Fantasy Driven Predators” – these offenders want cybersex only.

3. Sexualized Child Abusers and Exploiters

• Not motivated by pedophilia
• Extremely exploitive due to a target’s vulnerability
• Extremely opportunistic and situational in their predation
• Often target based upon impulse, curiosity, anger, and a desire for power
• This is often where the parent, teacher, coach, priest, and others fall into
• This is also where the commercialized exploiter like pimps fall into

According to a 2020 report from the US-based Human Trafficking Institute https://bit.ly/3gnPHDa

• Teens under the age of 18yrs made up 55% of sex trafficking cases to law enforcement
• Of this 55%, 12% were 13yrs or younger, and 89% we between the ages of 14yrs to 17yrs
• 41% of teens who were recruited were recruited online
• Most commercialized exploiters were not operating as an organized crime enterprise, but rather as an individualized exploiter

Note: it has been our investigational experience, which has been confirmed by teens that we have spoken to,  that the individualized commercial exploiters (pimps) have moved to virtual platforms, such as OnlyFans, where they have rebranded themselves as “influencers” whose “clients” will have to pay a significant “referral fee”

This 2024 report by “2 Know – Knowledge To Prevent” https://www.suojellaanlapsia.fi/en/2know-research-report explores the factors that lead to CSAM offending. Including:

• Motivations for online child sexual abuse offending

• Facilitators of online child sexual abuse offending

• Situational factors of online child sexual abuse offending

• Barriers to online child sexual abuse offending

The goal of this research is to help develop effective strategies to combat this issue. By offering insights into what drives this behavior and providing practical recommendations, the report supports efforts to eliminate online child sexual abuse. It’s intended as a resource for policymakers, researchers, law enforcement, and child protection professionals.

How Peer Influence and Online Culture Can Sometimes Trap Vulnerable Teens into Exploitation

The Grooming Process

These online predators and exploiters are good at what they do. Many are very computer savvy, often have a successful career, and are often male with an average age of 25 years.

Here are some of the self-generated reports to NCMEC made by some of the social media platforms that are more popular with youth:

• Tiktok: 288,125 reports (154,618 in 2021) 
• Instagram: 5.0 million reports (3.4 million in 2021) 
• Facebook: 21.2 million reports (22.1 million in 2021) 
• Discord: 169,800 reports  (29,606 in 2021)
• Snapchat: 551,086 reports (512,522 in 2021) 
• Twitter: 98,050 reports (86,666 in 2021)
• Omegle: 608,601 reports (46,924 in 2021) 

Once an offender has identified a potential target, they begin grooming—a process that involves manipulation through tactics like catfishing, pretending to be someone they’re not, or luring the child into inappropriate activities online. Their goal is to shift from what seems like friendly, harmless interaction to eventual sexual exploitation. To do this, they often show fake affection, give special attention, offer rewards, and even send gifts like iTunes cards or game codes, all to make the child feel comfortable and normalize the relationship.

These predators take their time and carefully observe the online profiles of potential targets, paying attention to factors like age, gender, hobbies, and even usernames that hint at vulnerability or suggestive content. They often ask subtle, leading questions to test the child’s boundaries. They’re most interested in children who have less supervision from parents or caregivers, particularly those who spend a lot of time alone, like in their bedrooms.

Because parents often teach “stranger danger,” these offenders aim to make the child feel safe with them, no longer viewing them as a stranger. They play the long game, patiently building trust and rapport over time. This is why the concept of “stranger danger” is outdated and doesn’t fully protect children. Instead, we should be teaching them about “situational danger”—recognizing risky situations, regardless of who the person is.

Traditionally, parents have told their children to never talk to strangers, but research shows that the person most likely to harm your child is not a stranger but someone they already know and trust—someone you likely know and trust, too. While parents emphasize avoiding strangers, they inadvertently contradict this by encouraging their child to interact with unfamiliar adults in daily life:

“Answer the nice man’s question!” “Say hello to the nice lady.” “Tell the nice man your name.”

The reality is, no matter how often you tell your child not to talk to strangers, they’ll inevitably do so in their everyday lives—whether it’s with a new store clerk, a teacher, or a babysitter. Over time, your child may start to question the idea that strangers are dangerous because most strangers they encounter are friendly and harmless. This is why it’s important to focus on teaching children how to identify risky situations, rather than just avoiding people they don’t know.

**Important teaching point**

“DON’T TALK TO STRANGERS” isn’t a rule, but a highly flexible and incomprehensible concept that only mom and dad understand, if they truly understand it at all.

Stranger Profiles

Children do not easily understand stranger profiles. In fact, when we teach children between the ages of 5 and 10 years about safety, we ask them the following question, “What does a stranger look like?” Some of the answers we get back from the children include:

• Someone who wears dark clothing
• Someone who likes to wear a hat and sunglasses
• Someone who dresses in dirty clothing
• Someone who stinks
• Someone who likes to wear a mask and wig

Although all cute answers, it proves the fact that children do not understand “stranger” profiles, and that most have their own unrealistic beliefs of whom they believe their real threat will actually be.

Teaching “Stranger Danger”

A fellow child safety advocate in the United States, Gavin De Becker, has stated the following:

“If you are a parent who is trying to scare your child safe there will be two likely results; it won’t work and the parent loses credibility or, it will work and the child will be afraid.”

Mr. De Becker further goes on to say,

“Fearful Children are easily exploited by sexual predators who threaten to harm parents, pets, or the children themselves. These predators use fear to control; they almost never have any intentions of carrying out the threats. Children are so afraid of strangers that they will comply with any order. Most predators are interested in children who will co-operate because they are afraid.”

Teaching “Stranger Danger,” in our opinion, is nothing more than attempting to scare the child safe, which doesn’t work, and according to De Becker, plays right into the hands of a child predator. In fact, speak with any educator and they will tell you that when a child is frightened, learning stops. This is an important reason why we believe that when teaching children, we need to “enlighten and not frighten.” Every time we go to an elementary school, we often go to the school’s library and look for the book, “Berenstain Bears Stranger Danger,” and about 95% of the time, we find it. This book is dark, scary, and gothic in artistic form, and bases the content on scaring children to fear strangers. This book should be removed from all schools because the underlying message it promotes, “stranger danger,” is flawed.

The Faults of Teaching Stranger Danger:

“All Adam’s small life we taught him not to take candy from a stranger, all the things that we thought were appropriate. But we also taught him to respect authority figures unequivocally: that he should be a little gentleman. I think if we had put more emphasis on the fact that he had the right to say no, maybe the outcome of his case might have been different… …he might have been alive today if he wasn’t such a little gentleman”

– John Walsh

Besides some of the concerns that we have already mentioned, there are several other faults to teaching stranger danger:

1. The message implies that strangers are only bad people, and not someone you know.

What good is this rule when many who want to abduct or sexually exploit your child will be someone who you and the child know, love, or trust?

2. The message implies that if in trouble, don’t seek help from a stranger.

The irony here is that if the child needs help or assistance, and you or another safe person or safe place is not near, the ability to approach and ask a stranger for help is the single greatest asset your child could have.

3. The message provides a false peace of mind.

We have heard many parents say that they don’t need to hear our message about child safety, because they have taught their child not to talk to strangers.

4. The message does not allow children to develop their own inherent skills of evaluating people and behavior.

This is a skill that is needed throughout life, but parents often teach their children to not pay attention to this important safety instinct.

Point number four needs to be emphasized. Children who are allowed to communicate with strangers are exercising their intuition, which is needed to stay safe, thus learning what FEELS comfortable and what does not. A child who can actually approach a stranger in public is less likely to be a victim than a child who is taught to never talk to strangers.

This important fact is something that we nurtured in our son as he was growing up. At the age of four, when we would go to a restaurant, our son, Brandon, would ask for crayons and paper. If the waiter or waitress did not bring him his favorite colored crayon (orange), he would ask us to approach the waiter to get him one. Instead,we would have Brandon approach any of the waiters who he thought would help and ask them for his orange crayon. Another way we would nurture my son’s intuition was when we were out shopping at the mall. Often Brandon would ask us for the time and instead of providing him with an answer, we would encourage him to approach a man or woman who he thought could provide the time, and ask them instead, which he freely did. Again, in both circumstances, Brandon was learning to approach people whom he did not know (strangers) who he felt were safe for him to get assistance from.

Remember, from a child’s perspective, it is much easier to understand dangerous situations and actions, rather than stranger profiles. I hope I have convinced you that we need to get away from teaching “stranger danger” because it just doesn’t work.

“Teaching children to avoid all strangers isn’t useful. If children develop a fear of strangers, you’re setting up a dangerous situation. If they’re ever alone and in trouble, they’re isolated from help”

-Careful Not Fearful

Parent Tip:

The Internet and social media have changed the traditional “binary” meaning of the word friend/stranger. To say a “follower” or “subscriber” is not the same thing as a friend, is often factually incorrect in today’s onlife world; doing so will only result in your child ignoring your message of online safety as “Boomer” logic.  Sometimes an online follower can be a friend, and sometimes not. However, sometimes a friend can also be an online frienemy.  Identifying anyone online, either known or unknown, who has bad intentions, based upon a label (friend, follower, subscriber) can often be a significant challenge for youth (and even adults), in today’s onlife world. Once again, this is why parents need to move away from stranger danger, and start teaching situational danger which is much more desirable to keep our kids safer in the onlife world. It is much easier for youth to understand dangerous situations, rather than a “stranger profile”, whatever that means in today’s onlife world.

Understanding The Grooming Process

A relationship will often be established on a social network, online gaming platform, or app that is popular with youth.  Prior to connecting with their target, these offenders will often, not always, unknowingly “creep” their prey to learn their likes and dislikes. The offender will then modify their online profile and screen name that matches closely to their target’s interest, which again helps to build psychological rapport.

Once contact has been made with their target, the offender will shower them with likes, follows, and compliments, again in an attempt to break down the stranger stigma to further build rapport (CSEM). Other strategies used to gain a child’s trust include:

• Praising the child for their maturity and intelligence
• Flattery
• Offering gifts, money, toys, and treats
• Offering to take the child on trips
• Offering support, love, stability, and protection
• Listening to and validating feelings by mirroring the child’s emotions and language
• Showing interest in hobbies, goals, likes, and dislikes that mirror those of their target
• syncing their language with that of the child
• Will promise drugs, alcohol, or adult entertainment
• Sharing secrets and making the child feel important
• asking if they have a picture of themselves in a bathing suit
• asking if they have a boyfriend or a girlfriend

At some point, the offender will often ask their target to move away from a public discussion, to a more private discussion via email, text messaging, or direct messaging, something known as “off-platforming”. The goal, cut the prey from the herd to decrease the likelihood of getting caught. Once off platformed the offender will engage in more sexualized coercion such as:

• asking about sexual development
• asking about sexual activity
• engage in sexualized role play, sometimes using avatars or cartoon characters

It is also at this point that the offender will encourage their target to not tell anyone because they just wouldn’t understand.

Once rapport and trust have been built, the offender will often pay for their targets travel to meet them, offer quick cash, offer modeling opportunities, will not take “no” for an answer, and will continue to push their target’s boundaries. Pimps will offer the lure of making easy money, offer gifts, and even invite their targets to “all-age” and “hotel parties” that they themselves pay for as a part of the grooming process. As Heidi Olson, a well-known sexual assault nurse and expert on this topic stated about pimps:

“How do these children fall victim so easily? Some pimps are reported to have seemed caring and genuine at first.  These traffickers are not thugs, they have a strategic business model.  Pimps start by making promises and fulfilling them. They promise their victims food and shelter, take them to the movies, and buy them a cell phone, and get them tattoos. Pimps provide an identity for vulnerable kids.  As the pimp earns trust, the pimp begins to break the kids in for sexual services.”

If the goal is sexually inappropriate conduct over the internet, the offender will break down the barriers of their selected target slowly, they do not want to shock and awe.  They will often introduce sexual content; sexually explicit comments, questions about sexual development and flattery, into the conversations to test the waters.

Once their target has taken the bait, they will now start to send inappropriate pictures and videos in an attempt to desensitize their target based upon an incremental process.

Once hooked, and an intimate text, pictures, or video has been obtained by the offender, they will often reveal their true identity and resort to extortion if their target is withdrawing from further interactions such as threatening to send their target’s texts, pictures, or video that they now possess to parents, friends, and teachers if they don’t send more pictures or money.

Is the Grooming Process Illegal

In Canada, as well as many other countries around the world, it is illegal to solicit anyone under the age of 18 for sexual purposes. This includes luring and grooming over the internet, sending child pornography, and inviting sexual contact.

How To Minimize The Risks

• No matter how well-educated, youth are still vulnerable.
• Pre-teens and younger teens should have no unsupervised access to the Internet- this is especially important for those who are 13 years and younger
• Do not allow any use of tech in the bedroom or bathroom. Remember the offender wants privacy with your child.
• Be your child’s best parent and not their best friend – stop abdicating your responsibility about talking about this issue to others
• Get involved with what your kids are doing online and trust your gut instinct. If you feel something is wrong with your child dig deeper.
• The information in this chapter needs to be compounded over time – this is not a “one off” discussion, and remember that “stranger danger” does not work.
• Is your child ready for a digital device like a cellphone, make sure you pick the right one. (see Chapter 13)
• Remember, most social networks require users to be 13 years of age.
• Look for life changes that may indicate human trafficking such as multiple cellphones, changes in clothing and property without the financial means to do so, significant changes in friends, a new older boyfriend, references to bitcoin, PayPal, Venmo, WePay that are used for cash transactions, being picked up and dropped off by people you do not know, skipping school or a sudden drop in grades, disappears often from family events, changes in lingo “boyfriend” = “daddy” or “Friends” = “wives”, “sisters” or “stable”. Here’s a great testimonial YouTube video from a survivor who was groomed by her “older boyfriend”,  and then sexually exploited at the age of 14 yrs 

• Where reasonable and appropriate to do so, consider using monitoring software and hardware. (see Chapter 14)
• Ensure privacy settings are in place for each and every app and social network.
• Learn and teach your child how to report inappropriate behavior.
• Make sure they are using appropriate screen names that don’t identify gender or age. Remember pedophiles are very age and gender-specific.
• Before allowing your child to download a new app, have them complete the “Due Diligence Report”. https://thewhitehatter.ca/due-diligence-report/
• Implement our “Family Collective Agreement”. https://thewhitehatter.ca/blog/the-power-of-a-social-media-and-technology-family-collective-agreement/
• Download our free “White Hatter App”. https://thewhitehatter.ca/app/

Hashtags: Parents could Be Unknowingly Chumming The Waters

One often overlooked prevention strategy, the role that sometimes parents unknowingly play when they post too much information online about their child, something that is more commonly known as “Sharenting”. According to Author Stacey Steinburg:

“Sharenting is often a positive way to connect and support one another during parenthood to improve our lives, child’s lives, and the lives of others in our community”

However, parental overuse of technology and social media can sometimes unknowingly share content about a child that can attract the attention of an online predator or sex offender. Unfortunately, sometimes today’s onlife parent has become the genesis of creating a “tagged” generation of youth, that is becoming very searchable by those who may have ill intent at their core.

One technique that predators and sex offenders will use to identify a potential target, the search of hashtags (#).  What is a hashtag, it’s a way to index a post or picture on a social network, like Facebook or Instagram, that makes a posting or picture very searchable and discoverable to anyone!  So, if you are hashtagging a picture of your child with their name, they now become very searchable by that name.

However, names are not the only challenge that parents need to be aware of, there are other hashtags that also draw the attention of child sex offenders.  Some of these hashtags include: #bathtime #pottytraining #nakedbaby #babypeeing #nakedtoddler to name just a few. Don’t believe us, Google the above noted hashtags and click on image results.

So, before you hashtag the next cute picture of your toddler or child with their name or what you believe to be a cute hashtag, ask yourself, “do I want to make this picture of my child both searchable and viewable by the world, especially by those who may want to prey upon them?” Think before you hashtag and post.

Knowledge, and the understanding and application of that knowledge, is power!

My Child Has Been Targeted Now What

Sometimes all the prevention and education strategies implemented will not be enough, and your child could still victim.  So, your child has been targeted successfully what should you do now:

• As hard as it may be do not overreact. Your child needs your support and not your criticism. Fear of judgment or unreasonable consequences is one of the main reasons why youth don’t come forward to let parents know that they need help. We like the “Talk” approach that is promoted by RAINN https://www.rainn.org/TALK

• Screen capture everything as evidence.
• We encourage families to next call the police. If you don’t want to connect with the police directly, you can also report the incident to https://cybertip.ca/en/report/ This site is operated by the Canadian Center For Child Protection (3CP), a not-for-profit group that works with law enforcement across Canada.  If a picture or video was shared, 3CP uses a web crawler known as “Project Arachnid” that will scour the Internet looking for the picture/video, if it was posted, and then work on getting it taken down.
• After contacting the police, and with their permission, block and delete the offender. There will be some cases where the police may want to conduct an undercover account takeover as a part of their investigation.
• Once the offender has been blocked and deleted, they will attempt to reconnect using a different profile, email, or text to keep the pressure on to comply.
• Set up Google Alerts https://www.google.ca/alerts to monitor your real name and any screen name that you used when interacting with the offender.

Here’s a great FREE Canadian 30-minute online course called, “Mobilizing Communities to Disrupt Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking in Canada” https://notinmycity.ca/learn/. The content of this course is excellent, very informative, and easily understood. This is a course that every Canadian (both adults and youth) should take. To fight this growing crime, awareness and education are key, and this program does just that!

Here’s a great 2023 resource for parents, caregivers, and educators from the US Department Of Homeland Security

https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/blue_campaign_youth_guide_508_1.pdf  

How To Report The Crime

Canada:

• Your local police
• Cybertips Canada – www.protectchildren.ca
• Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline –www.canadianhumantraffickinghotline.ca

United States:

• Your local police
• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children – www.missingkids.org
• National Human Trafficking Hotline – www.humantraffickinghotline.org

Great Interview with Mia Golden on the topic of youth online sexual exploitation

Here’s a FREE YouTube video we did based upon the information contained in this chapter.