Self-exploitation by young children alarms authorities, shocks parents

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This article was published 12/02/2024 (913 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Children as young as five in Manitoba are trying to share nude videos of themselves on social media — often using a parent’s account — in a trend that has alarmed police and protection agencies.

Called self-exploitation, most kids are recording the images to be silly, but they don’t understand the consequences or dangers, said RCMP Cpl. Gord Olson.

“We’re seeing an uptick in the younger kids getting involved — a lot of elementary school students from five to nine, or 10 years old,” said the member of the RCMP’s Winnipeg-based internet child exploitation unit.

“A lot of times, a parent’s device has been used, and they don’t know. Kids that young should not have unsupervised access to devices.”

In 2023, the ICE unit received 652 reports of self-exploitation from social media companies, up from 242 in the previous year. RCMP believe it’s an under-reported trend.

“We know it’s happening at an alarming rate,” said Olson.

Abuse is suspected in a small percentage of cases, he added.

Young children shouldn’t be given unfettered access to smartphones or other devices, police and child-protection agencies say.

“Parents need to be on top of what their kids are doing on their devices,” said Olson.

The ICE unit is seeing “younger and younger kids” being given their own smartphones or tablets, he added.

U.S.-based social media companies are legally obligated to report child sexual abuse images detected on their apps or websites to the Virginia-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Last month, NCMEC said the majority of tech companies have not made even minimal efforts to combat child sexual exploitation on their platforms, most of which require users to be at least 13.

Olson said filters are supposed to stop posts from being uploaded, but he’s not naive to think all images are being caught.

When the ICE unit receives a self-exploitation report involving a Manitoba child, officers carry out checks to ensure the young person is safe.

“We try to figure out who’s doing this. Is there some coercion behind this?” said Olson. “Parents are just as shocked as we are when we’re making that phone call or knocking on that door.”

Parents were warned about self-exploitation, predators and other online harms, including sextortion and luring, on Safer Internet Day on Tuesday.

“We try to figure out who’s doing this. Is there some coercion behind this? Parents are just as shocked as we are when we’re making that phone call or knocking on that door.”– RCMP Cpl. Gord Olson

The RCMP described sextortion as a public safety crisis, especially for youths and young adults between the ages of 14 and 24.

Offenders often pose as someone else to manipulate victims into sending explicit photos or videos. They then threaten to expose the material unless the victim sends money, more images or both.

Last month, B.C.’s NDP government said it will introduce legislation to hold social media companies accountable for harms caused to children and adults, after two teens fell victim to sextortion and died by suicide.

The federal Liberal government has not yet followed through on promises of an online harms bill.

Sherry Gott, Manitoba’s advocate for children and youth, has recommended more efforts for prevention, early detection and intervention of child sexual exploitation.

Cybertip.ca received 27,429 reports of online child sexual exploitation in 2023, up from 18,891 the previous year, according to the Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), which runs the website.

Of the 2023 reports, 1,044 were from Manitoba (344 were forwarded to police or child-welfare agencies in the province).

Most reports were related to child sexual abuse material.

Cybertip.ca received 2,500 sextortion reports, an 88 per cent increase from 2022, and 2,785 reports of luring.

Contact usually begins on Instagram and moves to Snapchat, according to C3P, which said victims are becoming younger.

Camillia Layne of C3P and Val Caldwell, who gives internet safety presentations in schools, said younger children are typically contacted by predators while playing online games.

The predator then encourages the child to move the chat to a social media app.

Parents are urged to monitor their children’s activity and have regular conversations with them to find out which websites or apps they are using, and who they are communicating with.

“Parents are the front line of defence when it comes to their children being online.”– Camillia Layne of Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P)

“Parents are the front line of defence when it comes to their children being online,” said Layne.

Caldwell, who lives in the RM of Wallace-Woodworth in western Manitoba, said more schools are asking her to speak to students in Grades 2 and 3.

She said social media companies can do better to help protect children. She recently reported a sexual image of a minor, only to receive a message stating it did not go against the platform’s community guidelines.

The image wasn’t removed until the RCMP got involved.

“It should be immediately removed. It shouldn’t take hours,” said Caldwell.

Last month, police in Altona conducted a welfare check on a young girl, after being contacted by Interpol about an ongoing investigation in Europe.

“Somewhere in their investigation, it was linked to a computer in our area — to a youth possibly sending photographs,” said Altona Police Chief Dan Defer. “Someone requested images of her.”

After confirming the girl was safe, officers spoke to her parents.

“The biggest thing with parents is knowing what your children are doing online,” said Defer.

A 35-year-old man from Lethbridge, Alta., was charged last month after he allegedly coerced a Winnipeg girl into sending sexually explicit images over Snapchat, according to police.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca