Niagara police report large increase in child exploitation referrals amid a drop in charges filed

While Niagara Police reported a steep rise in referrals regarding child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) over the past three years, the amount of opened investigations and charges filed peaked in 2020.

Niagara Regional Police are required to submit a yearly report to the Services Board regarding investigations into child pornography and online exploitation.

NRPS has a dedicated team, the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit to investigate local incidents of this exploitation. The three assigned detectives both investigate complaints from the public and engage in proactive investigations into identified targets.

ICE will collect enough evidence for a search warrant before raiding a home in the region, leading the the arrests of people who possess, distribute or make child pornography, as well as those who use the Internet to lure children into sexual activity.

In 2007 the ICE unit joined the Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet which has led to interjurisdictional cooperation with other police forces provincially, federally and internationally.

Part of this strategy included the RCMP development of Operational Child Exploitation Analysis Network (OCEAN) first introduced in March 2019.

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Microsoft, Google, and Meta (parent company of Facebook) and others all monitor their networks for illegal exploitative content. Once identified by online moderators the contents sent to the RCMP, who in turn flip the investigation to their local partners.

ICE has seen a steady rise in RCMP referrals through the OCEAN system since its 2019 rollout. They received 65 referrals in the first year of the program. That number more than doubled to 149 in 2020 and more than double again to 324 in 2021.

“OCEAN referrals continue to increase due to exponential advancements and ease and use of technology for communication across the world,” wrote the NRPS in their report. “Furthermore, technology partners continue to join the fight to combat online Child Exploitation giving police agencies access to more and more users.”

In 2019 those referrals contributed to 90 total investigation which resulted in 18 arrests and 62 charges filed. These too increased in 2020 with 106 investigations leading to 19 arrests and 95 charges filed. Numbers dropped in 2021 however with 98 investigations launched, 16 arrests and 65 charges filed.

Over years ICE has been challenged by the increasing size of data storage. Mobile phones have grown in popularity due to the storage increase, which can now reach a terabyte (TB) of data well more than an average computer.

“More storage means a significant increase in the number of hours spent by investigators categorizing images impacting the ICE Unit’s ability to take on new investigations,” police say. However the categorization process is “mandatory and imperative” in contributing to the provincial strategy and identifying victims.

“The ICE Unit has also seen an increase in reports of “self-exploitation” and “sextortion”. Both are examples of someone under the age of 18 taking explicit photos of themselves and making them available to others using the internet either voluntarily, or under duress,” police said. 

The three specially trained detectives are aided at the moment by a fourth temporary team member. This team “has ensured and maintained a consistently high-quality, specialized response to these types of incidents.”

However the federal funding used to pay the fourth member is set to expire in April. Losing the fourth investigator will reduce the work capacity of the ICE unit.

Fully training an ICE member takes two years through mandatory Ontario Police College and Canadian Police College courses and Provincial Strategy lessons. “Ongoing training is required to address the continually changing and emerging technologies of the Internet as well as the technical abilities of offenders,” the report said.

“The daily subject matter and nature of these investigations can be psychologically and emotionally draining for even the most resilient of investigators,” according to police. This strain has led to “psychological testing is conducted prior to the confirmation of an applicant, and annual follow-up examinations are conducted”