Increase in sextortion cases prompts call for legislation to combat predators
The spike in online sextortion cases in Winnipeg has alarmed police and augmented advocates' calls for Canada to begin regulating social media platforms to help protect children from predators.
The typical child victim is in their teens, but investigators from the Winnipeg Police Service have met victims probably as young as 10 years old, Det. Sgt. Mike Olson told the Free Press.
'The frequency (of sextortion) has increased substantially,' said Olson, who has spent 12 years with the force's internet child exploitation unit in two separate stints. 'I've noticed in my time with ICE the point where far back enough it wasn't a thing to the point now where it's extremely prevalent.'
The unit probably receives at least 100 reports per year of children being sexually extorted, he estimated. Police and safety advocates say many victims do not come forward.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Cam Mackid, deputy chief of investigations for the Winnipeg Police Service.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Cam Mackid, deputy chief of investigations for the Winnipeg Police Service.
Typically, cybercriminals pose as someone else in direct messages to manipulate victims into sending one or more nude images of themselves. They threaten to share the images with family, friends or others unless the victim sends money or more images.
Some victims have died by suicide after being threatened.
The police service's 2024 statistical report, released Wednesday, said 15 was the most frequently reported age of victims of violent cybercrimes such as extortion, uttering threats and sexual offences. The median age was 20.
'The age really shocked us, the 15-year-old male being the highest category of victimization,' Cam Mackid, the deputy chief of investigations, said Wednesday.
Mackid said it is difficult to identify perpetrators because a lot are based overseas and conceal their identities. He believes many parents are unaware of the risks.
The Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection has handled more than 7,000 sextortion cases across Canada in the last three years, said Jacques Marcoux, the organization's director of research and analytics.
'The numbers are shocking. If we get 10 a day, there's probably a hundred who aren't coming in per day,' he said. 'It's rampant.'
The RCMP has called sextortion a public safety crisis.
'The age really shocked us, the 15-year-old male being the highest category of victimization.'–Cam Mackid, deputy chief of investigations
Most cases involve boys or men aged 15 to 24, while Instagram and Snapchat are the most common platforms used by victims, Marcoux said. Neither Snapchat nor Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, responded to a request for comment Thursday.
The Manitoba government is updating its school curriculum to help educate students about 'contemporary issues' such as sextortion, a spokesperson said.
The increase in cases is attributed to organized crime groups that operate abroad, Marcoux said.
A 2024 intelligence report by the U.S.-based Network Contagion Research Institute said a West Africa-based group known as the Yahoo Boys was responsible for a majority of financial sextortion that preyed upon minors.
In 2024, RCMP said a 26-year-old man in Nigeria was charged after a 14-year-old B.C. boy died by suicide after being sexually extorted online by someone who had posed as a teenage girl.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Jacques Marcoux, with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, says the Winnipeg Police Service's online exploitation stats are not surprising, as this type of crime is rampant.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Jacques Marcoux, with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, says the Winnipeg Police Service's online exploitation stats are not surprising, as this type of crime is rampant.
'We're frustrated with the fact that the narrative when these (cases) happen, the questions we all collectively ask is what should parents do, what do kids need to do to keep themselves safe, instead of asking questions about why is it that we have these inherently dangerous digital environments that are completely unregulated, where the companies are completely unaccountable for ensuring that their own users are safe,' Marcoux said.
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection has called on the federal government to reintroduce legislation that imposes duties of care and obligations on social media companies, Marcoux said, 'to ensure they mitigate risks and ensure these environments are safe to begin with.'
Prior to the April 28 election, Prime Minister Mark Carney promised legislation to protect children from online exploitation and sextortion.
'It is true to say that Canadian kids probably have a less safe experience online than kids in other countries right now.'–Jacques Marcoux
'Canada is actually behind the ball on a lot of these things,' said Marcoux, noting laws that exist in the United Kingdom and Australia. 'It is true to say that Canadian kids probably have a less safe experience online than kids in other countries right now.'
A proposed online harms law died when Parliament was prorogued in January. Part of the bill would have created a regulatory framework, with baseline safety requirements and fines for non-compliance, in a bid to hold social media platforms accountable and reduce exposure to harmful content.
Marcoux and Olson said it is important for parents to speak to their children about sextortion and other online dangers.
Olson said children should only communicate with people they know 'in person.' Screen time should be limited and monitored.
'Having devices in bedrooms at night is not a good idea whatsoever,' he said.
Many parents face decisions about whether to equip their children with a cellphone or other electronic devices, and at what age.
Olson's view, which he shares while speaking to parents, is that 'heavy rules' should be in place when it comes to phone use by anyone under 18.
'I know we can't remove them from our kids' lives in our current climate of our society, but I believe that children maybe under 16, at least, shouldn't have these devices,' he said.
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'I don't think it's safe. The amount of danger it puts them or could potentially put them in is, I think, more than any of us truly understand. Kids are going to make mistakes, and kids are going to be tricked by people, but when it happens where it's involving potentially anyone in the world that wants to try that with a child, it just opens them up to so much more potential harm that I don't think is worth the benefit of actually having a device or having it that often.'
Police and advocates say fake accounts used for sextortion tend to be newly created, have low friend or follower counts, or contain pictures that appear to be professional or stock photos.
Reverse image searches could confirm the photos are stock images or stolen from another account.
While chatting via direct message, the person will typically make excuses not to video chat, if requested.
chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca
Chris KitchingReporter
Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.
Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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