Prepared for Public Safety Canada
For more information on this report, please contact Public Services and Procurement Canada at tpsgc.questions-questions.pwgsc@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca
This public opinion research report presents the results of an online survey conducted by Ekos Research Associates Inc. on behalf of Public Safety Canada. The research study was conducted with 1,199 members of the general public and 1,015 parents of children between the ages of 8 and 18, in September 2023.
Cette publication est aussi disponible en français sous le titre : Recherche sur la sensibilisation du public à l’exploitation sexuelle des enfants en ligne.
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© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, 2023
The Government of Canada’s National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation was launched in 2004 and expanded in 2009. In 2020, the Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Voluntary Principles was released to provide a framework to combat online sexual crimes against children and coordinate action between governments and industry partners. Public Safety launched a national awareness campaign in March 2021 that focused on changing the attitudes and behaviours of Canadians on the subject of online child sexual exploitation, a reprehensible crime causing life-long harm and suffering to victims. According to the Public Safety website, online child sexual exploitation (OCSE) is defined as when children are tricked into seeing or participating in online encounters of a sexual nature. OCSE is one of the most disturbing public safety issues facing society today. It continues to harm past and present generations of children in Canada and abroad[1]. It includes:
The awareness campaign was renewed in the fall of 2022 to continue to increase awareness levels of OCSE by increasing public and parental understanding that children (persons under 18) who engage in sexting could be at risk of OCSE. Canada’s Criminal Code serves to protect children from all forms of child pornography, the use of the internet to lure children, from sexual contact or touching, and the procurement of children for illicit sexual activity. Public Safety (PS) Canada has been leading the National Strategy.
The objective of the current research is to track changes in awareness in the general public and among the target group of parents with children between the ages of 8 and 18 since the baseline established early 2020 and the first tracking survey conducted in March 2022. It is also designed to measure changes in awareness and attitudes and behaviours related to online child sexual activity among parents, and through second-hand reporting, among children 8 to 18.
The OCSE Public Awareness Research Survey was conducted online between September 6 and 19, 2023. The survey included 1,015 Canadians aged 18 and over with at least one child between the ages of 8 and 18 and is compared with 1,199 members of the general public aged 18 and over. Each randomly recruited probability sample carries with it a margin of error of ±3.2%. The margin of error for key segments within each sample is between ±5% and ±10%. The sample source is an in-house Probit panel of randomly recruited Canadians. The survey instrument was delivered online as well as by telephone and available in both official languages. The average length of the survey was 13 minutes online and 21 minutes by telephone. The overall response rate for the survey was 14%. Appendix A presents further details on the methodology for the survey.
Online safety for children is a concern among both parents and the general public in Canada. Over two in three disagree that kids today live in a safe online environment. The majority agree that digital service providers should be able to proactively seek out child abuse material on their platforms, even if it meant less online personal privacy for Canadians.
More than half of parents (58%) and the general public (57%) report hearing, reading, or seeing at least something about OCSE, an increase from 2022. Over four in five believe OCSE is a significant problem outside of Canada. More than six in ten parents and member of the general public feel OCSE is a problem in Canada, and only slightly fewer believe it to be a problem in their province. As jurisdictions narrow locally, relatively fewer perceive OCSE to be a problem (your city; four in ten, or your neighbourhood; one in four).
Fewer than six in ten parents (59%) and members of the general public (54%) agree they would give up some of their online privacy rights in order to protect children from sexual exploitation online, on par with 2022, but a decrease from 66% in 2020.
Parents outline the various ways their children are online; predominantly on a phone or tablet, home computer, school computer, or gaming system. Just over one in three mostly or always monitor their child’s online activity at home, although more than one in four rarely or never do. Four in ten check browser history, or keep the computer in a common room, while slightly fewer block sites. Among parents with children on social media, about two in three follow their child’s social media at least some of the time. Monitoring is higher for younger children and decreases as they get older. Most parents (63%) report that their child interacts with friends and family only. As children get older, they are more likely to interact with friends of friends, celebrities, and parents of friends.
Parents more often talk about certain aspects of online activities with their child, including who they talk to or interact with, what they talk to others about, and what sites they are visiting. Other online activities are talked about less frequently, such as what to do if they are asked to do something that makes them uncomfortable, sending sexual images or videos online, if someone is being exploited online, privacy settings, and grooming. Some OCSE topics are never talked about by a portion of parents, such as capping, sextortion and sexting, although parents of older children are more likely to talk about these.
When thinking of their ability to address OCSE with their child, nearly nine in ten parents say they feel responsible for talking to their child about internet safety, and about the same proportion disagree that they don’t have time to talk to their child about their online activities. Three in five feel they know how to talk about internet safety with their child. On the other hand, only one in seven say they keep resources about internet safety handy. One in three also feel they cannot keep up with the technology, apps and games their children are using and about the same proportion feel they do not know where to seek help about internet safety.
About half of parents agree that talking about online safety with their child makes them feel good and makes them feel safe. Just under half say this is a habit although this is more likely among those who have heard about OCSE, feel it’s a problem locally, or have come across inappropriate behaviour.
Nearly half of parents report that their child has come to them to discuss questionable online activity that they have experienced or heard about from a friend or peer, on par with 2022 but a significant increase from 33% in 2020. Similar to previous years, just over one in four parents have come across inappropriate behaviour geared towards their child or other youth online. Six percent report that their child has been a victim of OCSE. Inappropriate behaviour online has affected mental health, social relationships, and performance at school or work, according to parents.
Two in three parents say the amount of time their child spends online has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, while this was 90% in 2022. Just under half feel that the risk posed to their child from online activities has increased, a drop from 53% in 2022. Just over half of parents say they monitor or supervise their child during virtual learning daily or almost daily, an increase from 44% in 2022.
One in three parents have ever looked for information about OCSE and how to protect their kids, which has risen from one in four reported in 2022. In terms of information needed, most parents would like information on how to recognize the signs and symptoms of OCSE. About half want information on privacy and security measures to take or how to talk to their children about OCSE. Most parents would like to find information through a website or to receive information through their child’s school. A third prefer to receive information though social media, which has risen since 2022.
Familiarity with Cybertip.ca continues to be low, with only 14% of parents and 13% of members of the general public saying they are somewhat or very familiar with the website and/or the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. Awareness among the general public, however, has seen a modest increase 9% in 2022 and 8% in 2020. Among those who have some familiarity with cybertip.ca, more have used it to access educational resources. Relatively few have signed up for alerts or filed a report.
Detailed findings are presented in the sections that follow. Overall results are presented in the main portion of the narrative and are typically supported by graphic or tabular presentation of results. Bulleted text is also used to point out any statistically and substantively significant differences between sub-groups of respondents. If differences are not noted in the report, it can be assumed that they are either not statistically significant[2] in their variation from the overall result or that the difference was deemed to be substantively too small to be noteworthy.
Parents with children aged 8 and 18 are a key target group, therefore results for this segment of 1,015 are isolated throughout the report; referred to simply as "parents". The report also presents results for 1,199 members of the "general public"[3]. Results are compared throughout the report with a similar sample collected between 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Results for the proportion of respondents in the sample who either said "don’t know" or did not provide a response may not be indicated in the graphic representation of the results in all cases, particularly where they are not sizable (e.g., 10% or less). Results may also not total to 100% due to rounding. The programmed survey instrument can be found in Appendix B.
I hereby certify as Senior Officer of Ekos Research Associates Inc. that the deliverables fully comply with the Government of Canada political neutrality requirements outlined in the Policy on Communications and Federal Identity and the Directive on the Management of Communications. Specifically, the deliverables do not include information on electoral voting intentions, political party preferences, standings with the electorate, or ratings of the performance of a political party or its leaders.
Signed by Susan Galley (Vice President)