Hamilton, Halton, Niagara locals among 63 charged in child exploitation bust

A joint investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and 25 other police services has led to 63 people being arrested including residents from the Hamilton, Halton and Niagara regions. Project Time was initiated by the Provincial Internet Child Exploitation Strategy.

Detectives say a total of 213 charges were laid and 154 investigations are still ongoing.

The project identified individuals who made, possessed and distributed child sexual abuse material.

There are calls for Canada’s governments to step in to protect children from internet sexual abuse and exploitation.

The OPP were working with police forces including Hamilton, Niagara, Halton and 23 other forces across the province.

Officers say that eight of those accused were repeat offenders. Some suspects’ names are revealed, while others are withheld due to publication bans.

READ MORE: Man, 25, involved in Halton youth hockey charged with sexual assault of teen girl

The individual charges included offences such as possession of child sexual abuse material, accessing such material, unauthorized possession of firearms and bestiality.

Among the list of adult and youth male as well as adult females is one man from Hamilton, one man from Burlington, three men from Brantford, four adults from Welland, two men from Port Colborne, three men from St. Catharines and one from Niagara Falls.

Police acknowledge there’s a lot more to be done and technical experts say it’s time to hold tech companies like internet providers responsible for damage being done to children.

“As long as people choose to exploit children, as long as people choose to engage in that criminal activity, we’re going to be putting our efforts in to protect those victims and arrest and prosecute those offenders,” said Niagara Regional Police Const. Rich Hingley.

Tech analysts welcome the arrests, but say they don’t solve the problem.

“It is helpful, but it is just a dent in the overall problem,” said Jacque Marcoux , the Director of Research and Analytics for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. “There are millions, and millions, and millions of child sexual images in circulation internationally.”

READ MORE: Niagara police investigate blated child sexual assault near McLeod, Kalar roads

Marcoux says the problem is massive, even bigger than people imagine, reaching wide numbers of Canadian teenagers.

“Broadly speaking, there is a lot of research that suggests that about a third of Canadian teeangers — a third of teenagers generally — at some point in their teens will be subjected to some sort of online sexual violence,” said Marcoux.

He says the answer is to force the tech companies to change the systems that facilitate the sextortion.

“The companies can also design their platforms in ways that are safer for kids, and that can prevent strangers from communicating with children,” said Marcoux. “We need governments at all levels to step in and to hopefully impose duties of care, duties to act responsibly for these companies.”

The federal Department of Justice says it is taking action to protect children from online predators.

It says it’s restoring some mandatory minimum prison terms, increasing penalties for serious sexual offences, including non-consensual distribution of intimate images, creating new online sextortion offences, and strengthening Canada’s ability to prosecute Canadians who sexually exploit children abroad.

READ MORE: Police charge mental health worker accused of assaulting child at Welland school

The department is also giving law enforcement more time to lay charges against internet service providers that don’t meet reporting requirements, and requiring internet service providers to preserve data for 365 days, instead of 21 days.

“It is safe to say this will get worse before it gets better,” said technology analyst Carmi Levy.

Levy says AI is going to put even more tools in the hands of criminals and it’s time to force the companies to act.

“We need a better legislative landscape, we need the federal government to push more laws that provide protection in the digital space particularly for kids and to hold these technology companies more accountable for the dangers that offerings their apps, their websites, and their services expose users to,” said Levy.

The tech analysts say that we’re seeing the “tip of the iceberg” and that there’s a huge amount of predatory online sexploitation going on, and the police don’t have enough resources to keep up to it.

OPP say 51 victims were also identified, safeguarded and provided with support.

READ MORE: St. Catharines man facing internet child exploitation charges: Niagara police