Online child sexual exploitation is now at epidemic levels and that has police concerned

Police finally had a name — and the suspect was one of their own.

For months, Alberta's Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit sleuthed someone who uploaded two videos showing child sexual exploitation to Snapchat. In late April, investigators learned the suspect's identity: Evan Peacock, a 33-year-old RCMP constable stationed in St. Paul, Alta.

Investigators searched his home, seizing evidence for the forensics team. Peacock, who served more than three years, was arrested and charged with several child pornography offences.

He was released from custody with conditions and suspended with pay. But Alberta RCMP charged him again in June, following an investigation into a man soliciting sex with girls online.

The incidents, which have yet to be proven in court, fall into the realm of online child sexual exploitation — an umbrella term for numerous forms of abuse, such as child pornography, sextortion and online grooming.

It is a growing space that is becoming more difficult to police, experts say. Tens of thousands of cases are reported to Canadian law enforcement, including Albertan agencies, but countless go unreported.

• Have a story or knowledge to share about online child sexual exploitation? Please fill out this form so CBC News can connect with you. Tips can also be sent to the reporter (email below).

"It really exploded when we had the [COVID-19] pandemic," said Signy Arnason, acting executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. 

"We had more kids online, increased amount of time — and equally more offenders online looking to harm kids in some capacity."

ICE case intake skyrockets

ICE, a faction of Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT), investigates offences involving child pornography, computer-related child sexual abuse, luring over the Internet, voyeurism and child sex trafficking.

Its cases have more than tripled in six fiscal years, from about 1,050 in 2018 to more than 3,800 in 2023, according to its latest annual report.

Data provided by ALERT shows its ICE unit laid about 1,280 charges throughout the last three fiscal years. More than two-thirds were related to child porn — or, child sexual abuse material. Each incident can result in multiple charges.  

Reports of online child sexual exploitation and abuse can come from various sources, such as police complaints and Cybertip — the national tipline operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

Social media companies and international agencies, such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States, may also flag incidents or materials they detect.

The RCMP's National Child Exploitation Crime Centre received nearly 103,000 total complaints and reports in fiscal 2022 — an increase of 26 per cent from the previous year, an RCMP spokesperson said.

Cybertip data shows reports from Alberta grew each year from 2020 to 2023 — the only years for which its publicly available data accounts.

A fraction of those reports were forwarded to local law enforcement or child welfare agencies, but that proportion has also grown. Of the nearly 1,500 reports from Alberta last year, one-third were passed along to such organizations, data shows.

Alberta's judicial system, meanwhile, is hearing hundreds of more cases related to online child sexual exploitation, according to data obtained from the justice ministry.

CBC News requested data relating to cases heard in the Court of Justice and Court of King's Bench, from fiscal 2013 to 2023, that involved charges often associated with online child sexual exploitation, such as luring and child pornography offences.

The courts heard roughly 1,500 such cases combined in fiscal 2013, data shows. The caseload reached more than 2,500 in fiscal 2021 — the most during the decade requested.

Last year, the courts heard almost 2,200 cases.

Sexual extortion on the rise

Sexual extortion, or sextortion, is the most rampant exploitation crime right now, officials say. Sgt. Kerry Shima, acting head of the ICE unit, described sextortion as an epidemic.

"It's completely out of control — and, disturbingly, it's probably the most underreported crime that I've ever seen," Shima said.
A conversation sparked on social media can turn sexual, leading to requests for nude photos or sexual videos. But now, more offenders are going further: once they receive the abusive material, the threats begin. 

Organized crime groups are perpetrating sexual extortion schemes more often, forcing police to manoeuvre international law to go after them.

More than 6,500 sextortion cases have been reported to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection in the past 18 months, Arnason told CBC News in June. 

From 2021 to 2023, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre — a federal agency that tracks fraud and identity theft — received 1,715 reports of extortion that started on social media.

The anti-fraud centre believes most of those cases, which affected people of all ages, were sextortion incidents — but those are just the ones it knows about. 

It estimates only five to 10 per cent of fraudulent incidents are reported.

Historically, financial sextortion was targeted toward adults, but now teenagers — particularly boys — are the main victims, Arnason said.

As such schemes garner success, more people are trying to pull them off because money can be made, she said.

"Part of the challenge is that a lot of these schemes are incredibly successful," Arnason said. 

Working within borders

Under international law, the involvement of criminal organizations based outside of the country can obstruct Canadian police during investigations, said Robert Currie, a law professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Countries can be "very picky" when it comes to international law enforcement, he said. Each country has its version of criminal law, so they're careful when interacting with other countries in that realm.

"International law says we do the criminal investigation on our soil and you do it on your soil," Currie said. "If there are solutions, they're around co-operation."

Canada, for example, has the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act. 

The legislation allows for Canada to obtain court orders on behalf of other countries for things like search and seizure, gathering evidence and extradition.

Canada can still help countries with which it does not have a treaty, but certain conditions have to be met and the scope is more limited, according to the justice ministry's website.

Currie noted, however, that law enforcement often communicate informally across borders.

"They feed each other information. To an extent, they feed each other evidence — and it's got to be this kind of cross-border co-operation model, because of the limits on enforcement," he said. "These are hard cases because of that."

Alberta's ICE unit navigates similar channels, but co-operation varies depending on the location, Shima said.

American law enforcement, as well as intelligence alliances such as the Five Eyes — between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States — co-operate well, he said.

Investigations alongside countries with no agreements are more difficult, he said.

"The Internet has no boundaries," Shima said.

"It's not to say that [arrests] can't happen. It's just very complicated sometimes."

In cybercrime cases, international law acknowledges that a crime can be committed in two jurisdictions — the offender being in one, the victim in another, Currie said. Canadian police cannot enter another country, but the offender — when arrested — can be tried in Canada.

Currie highlighted the case of Amanda Todd, a teenager from B.C., who killed herself in 2012 after being cyberbullied and sexually extorted by Aydin Coban, a Dutch man in the Netherlands.

The B.C. Supreme Court sentenced Coban to 13 years in prison in 2022. Conversion hearings were held in the Netherlands in 2023 to align the punishment with Dutch law. A Dutch judge sentenced him to six years.

Hurdles to overcome

Alberta's ICE unit has seven to nine investigators working at any given time, spread throughout the province.

Once it receives a report, Shima said, the agency will triage it based on location, then further by seriousness.

"We have to because we have too many files for us to work on all at once," he said.

The unit deals with a lot of child pornography collectors and traders, sometimes seizing large collections of abusive material, Shima said. But victims of sextortion are a higher priority.

With few investigators, the ICE unit manages investigations to avoid overwhelming the forensic examination teams and create court delays, Shima said.

Currie echoed that Canadian police don't necessarily have the resources needed for cybercrime investigations.

Officers need better training on international law, such as who to contact in a specific country, and law enforcement agencies need greater cyber expertise, he said.

"There will never be less of these cases," Currie said. 

"This is a growth industry — and organized crime gangs are as large and sophisticated as they have ever been."

If you, or someone you know, have been affected by online child sexual exploitation, there are some resources to which you can report the incident or get support:

• Local police
• Crime Stoppers: online or 1-800-222-8477
• Cybertip: online or 1-866-658-9022
• Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868
• The Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 9-8-8

If in immediate danger, call 9-1-1.