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CANADIAN CHILDREN TARGETED ON THE INTERNET
Through the Internet, a growing number of
men in foreign countries are now targeting Canadian children
for pornography and sex purposes. This cross-border activity
into Canada has been enhanced by two factors: (1) Canada's
age of consent for sex is set at only 14 years, and is lower
than most other western nations, and (2) Canada is one of
the world's most wired countries: there are more than 10 million
Internet users in Canada.
What is truly alarming is that, according
to statistics provided by Microsoft Canada, 99% of children
in Canada have access to the Internet and 25% have been approached
by a stranger online. More shocking is that 15% have actually
gone out to meet an Internet stranger without their parents
knowing. Some have never returned home
In short, the Internet has become a massive
vehicle that criminals use to hire and abuse Canadian children
and to distribute illegal material.
According to Canadian police, paedophiles
searching for prepubescent sex partners with chat software
share common techniques that law enforcement officials refer
to as "grooming" the child. Predators often target
neglected, needy children, many from broken homes, and use
tactics, such as offering gifts or money, expressing affection,
paying attention to and exploiting things that are bothering
the child, or offering some sort of help to the child. As
they continue to "chat" on the Internet, predators
pick up more and more information about the child and his
or her location. Some predators dedicate years to "grooming"
just one child.
One-third of child molesters were reportedly
abused as children themselves, and there is a connection between
the age they were molested and the age of the victims they
seek. Other paedophiles target children because they are socially
unsuccessful with adults; they may molest a young girl because
she is less threatening than a woman. (Girls are targeted
far more frequently than boys on the Internet.)
Solutions to Preventing Luring Children
on the Internet
- Raising the Age of Consent
It is clear that Canada must raise the age
of consent from 14 years to at least 16 years of age, but
preferably to 18 years of age. This is crucial to deter international
paedophiles. Raising the age of consent to 18 years of age
is not unreasonable since adolescents cannot purchase cigarettes
or alcohol until they are at least 18 years of age. Moreover,
they are given special protection under the criminal justice
system until 18 years of age. So why are they being permitted
to consent to sexual activity at an earlier age? Pregnancy,
sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, and sexual,
physical and emotional abuse caused by their adult sexual
partners will haunt these children for the rest of their lives.
Liberals Refusal to Raise Age of Consent
On April 23, 2002, the Alliance Party brought
a motion before the House of Commons to raise the age of consent
to 16 years of age. This was soundly defeated by the Liberals
under the direction of the former Justice Minister, Martin
Cauchon. The reasons given for opposing this motion by the
Liberals was that adolescents should not be restricted regarding
expressing themselves sexually. This objection makes no sense,
especially since the Criminal Code provides in S.150.1(2)
that no charges may be laid if the accused is fewer than two
years older than the complainant. Also, the Liberals claimed
that the age of consent was a complex matter that required
further study and consultation. This, too, makes no sense
since the provincial and federal Attorneys General have discussed
this issue at length at their annual federal/provincial meetings
in October 1998 and December 1999, and concluded that the
age of consent must be raised to 16 years.
Why then the reluctance on the part of the
Liberal government to raise the age of consent? A clue to
its reluctance might be in the fact that several homosexual
organizations have been adamantly opposed to raising the age
of consent on the grounds that such a move would severely
affect gay and lesbian youth. They claim, for example, that
it would give "homophobic parents an extra weapon to
use against their children", and that it would motivate
school boards and public health departments to change their
sexual health curricula and other outreach to be less available
to young people (Xtra, March 23, 2000). It appears that Mr.
Cauchon responded favourably to these small, self-interested,
special interest groups even though he and his government
had a grave duty to protect vulnerable children. His failure
to do so in order to appease homosexual lobbyists is playing
politics with the lives of children.
- Increase Funding for Manpower and Police
Training
Canadian police departments do not have the
manpower to effectively prevent the Internet being used to
lure children. Searching hard drives for evidence is a laborious,
time-consuming task. For this, police also need proper forensic
training. It takes up to five years to acquire the knowledge
to use the computer as a crime scene. Further, it takes at
least 3 to 10 days to analyze a computer suspected of being
used for pornographic purposes. One such computer can yield
thousands of pages of information that must be removed for
purposes of analysis. This is not an easy undertaking.
Since it is children that the police force
is trying to protect, its efforts in this regard should be
a priority. It is absolutely crucial that funding be provided
for police departments across the country to undertake this
work, armed with the necessary skills and training.
- Vigilance of Parents
According to Staff Sgt. McKay of the Ottawa
police force, (Ottawa Citizen, May 15, 2004), "nobody
on the high-tech crimes team will ever leave their kids with
a male babysitter" and "they don't allow sleepovers
because [the paedophile] could be your friend, your cousin,
your uncle …". Many paedophiles also gravitate to
positions where they have contact and authority over children.
That is why some paedophiles become Scout leaders and teachers.
Parents should be ever alert to this unpleasant reality.
Too many parents, however, are not aware of,
or do not understand, the scope or severity of the dangers
their children face online. According to police, there are
a few simple steps for parents to take to reduce the dangers.
The most important thing is to set up computers in common
areas of the home, where the children can't hide out chatting
with a stranger on the Internet. (You wouldn't allow your
child to talk to a stranger on the phone from a closet.) Parents
must also monitor the time their child spends on the computer,
and what their children are doing on it. It is the parents'
responsibility to do so.
For children who have unlimited, unsupervised
access to the Internet, it is a grim and dangerous world out
there. Something has to be done.
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