Child pornography cases spike on P.E.I.

P.E.I. RCMP are adding a second internet child exploitation investigator, and the officer is arriving just as new crime statistics show child pornography incidents are rising quickly.

The police-reported incident crime statistics report from Statistics Canada began capturing child pornography cases in 2011 and recorded zero cases on P.E.I. until 2016, when it recorded 20. There were another nine in 2017. The latest report, released this week, recorded 20 in 2018.

"While we're fortunate to not have a lot of people producing child pornography, the sad thing is that for every image of child pornography out there somewhere there was a child abused," said RCMP Staff Sgt Kevin Baillie.

P.E.I. has had a dedicated internet child exploitation investigator since 2013, but in recent years RCMP has found that officer has faced challenges in keeping up with the workload. The province has agreed to fund a second officer for the unit, starting in September.

Baillie said many of the tips followed up by local investigators come in from the national internet child exploitation centre in Ottawa. Officers there are watching sites where images are traded, and pass information they find to local detachments.

But Baillie said tips come in locally as well.

"We've had people take computers to a facility to be repaired and someone repairing the computer has come across child pornography," he said.

"In some cases someone living with the offender stumbles across the child pornography accidently and reports it to the police."

The RCMP are also working with other police forces on the Island.

While RCMP are adding resources to work on these cases Baillie said child pornography, and the exploitation that goes with it, is not likely to go away soon.

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