What Is Sexual Exploitation
Sexual exploitation is the sexual abuse of children and youth under the age of 18 through the exchange of sex or sexual acts for drugs, food, shelter, protection, other basics of life, and/or money. Sexual exploitation includes involving children and youth in creating pornography and sexually explicit websites.
Child Sexual Exploitation has been identified as a major public health and criminal justice problem. As a result, the public needs to become better informed and aware of those who exploit children in order to employ the essential risk management strategies to keep children safe. Sex offenders who victimize and exploit children come from all walks of life. They are people with families, jobs, and neighbours - some are wealthy, some are poor, but all are engaged in criminal behavior.
If you see a youth who may be under the age of 18 working on “track”, please call 911 and be very direct about the situation in order to get the right response. Be very clear that this young person is in direct danger and that you are very concerned for their safety. Document the date and time you made this phone call and whom you spoke with so if you do not see a police response, and you do see the young person again, you can follow up with another call.
What is Online Sexual Exploitation
Online sexual exploitation involves the use of digital communication to sexually humiliate, manipulate or harm a youth. This can include:
- Engaging in sexual activities online i.e. cybersex
- Sending, creating, or distributing sexual images
- Luring youth to another city or country
Tips to Online Safety
- Learn about online exploitation before you speak with a young person about it.
- Learn about the websites your children and youth access and share information with them on how to keep safe and have fun.
- Keep all computers in common areas such as family rooms. This will help ensure that our young people are being protected from potential online predators.
- Web cams can be activated from outside sources without your knowledge. Always unplug them when they are not being used but more importantly do not buy them if you have a child in the home under the age of 18 years.
Resources and Support
The Safe Online Outreach Society's purpose is to educate the public about exploitation on the internet by doing research, creating materials and delivering presentations and workshops that will train youth, professionals and parents on how to recognize and respond to online sexual exploitation and assist children and youth affected by this issue.
www.safeonlineoutreach.com
Children of the Street Society take a proactive approach through public awareness, education and prevention strategies to decrease the number of sexually exploited children and youth while offering support to families.
www.childrenofthestreet.com
PLEA Community Services Society of BC www.plea.bc.ca
Be Web Aware is a national, bilingual public education program on Internet safety. The objective of everyone involved in this project is to ensure young Canadians benefit from the Internet, while being safe and responsible in their online activities.
www.bewebaware.ca
Cyber Wise is the National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet. There are resources for kids, teens, parents, teachers and professionals.
www.cyberwise.ca
The Sexual Exploitation Toolkit from the Justice Institute of B.C. works on preventing sexual exploitation, an important goal that many services in BC work toward through education and action.
www.jibc.ca/seytoolkit/prev.htm
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child can be found at the following web address.
www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm
Contact www.cybertip.ca or the 24-hour toll-free telephone line to report ANY information on sexually exploited children: 1-866-658-9022. This number is available throughout Canada.
