RCMP transparency spotlight - Operational use of technology to investigate child sexual exploitation

On this page

• About the National Child Exploitation Crime Centre
• Profile of online child sexual exploitation incidents reported to police
• Technology used by the NCECC
• Why the NCECC uses operational technologies
• How NCECC operational technologies work
• When the NCECC use operational technologies
• Learn more
• Footnotes

About the National Child Exploitation Crime Centre

The use of new and emerging technologies is essential for the RCMP's National Child Exploitation Crime Centre (NCECC). Established in 2004, the NCECC is the national law enforcement arm of Canada's National Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet. It is the central point of contact for investigations pertaining to online child sexual exploitation, both nationally and internationally when the victim or offender is Canadian. The NCECC undertakes investigations to locate offenders, assists in the identification of victims, and provides training, research, intelligence, investigative assistance and technological support for municipal, territorial, provincial, federal and international law enforcement.

Investigations into these crimes against children are becoming more and more complex as a result of ongoing technological advancements and due to offenders' widespread adoption of encryption and other anonymity tools. Increased engagement on the Dark Web further complicates these investigations.

The NCECC receives an increasing number of reports related to various online child sexual exploitation offences each year. In fiscal year 2023-24, the NCECC received 118,162 complaints and reports pertaining to suspected online child sexual exploitation offences, a 15% increase compared to the previous fiscal year. Reports are received from various Canadian and international sources, such as law enforcement agencies, Cybertip.ca (Canada's public reporting tip line), and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States. The NCECC also receives reports from various service providers, such as social media applications and online gaming platforms.

One of the biggest challenges is dealing with the high number of cases that are resource-heavy because of the large amounts of digital media to be processed by investigators. This can often involve thousands or millions of images and videos. Regardless of these challenges, the NCECC investigates these crimes to the fullest extent possible, collaborating with domestic and international partners to identify and remove victims from harm, conducting operational research, gathering intelligence, and examining new technical solutions to enhance this type of work.

Profile of online child sexual exploitation incidents reported to police

Online child sexual exploitation encompasses a wide range of offences, including child pornography ^{Footnote 1} and luring offences as per the Criminal Code of Canada. According to Statistics Canada, the following is the statistical profile of online child sexual exploitation incidents reported to police (2014-2022):

• Between 2014 and 2022, there were 15,630 incidents of police-reported online sexual offences against children and 45,816 incidents of online child pornography
• Making or distributing child pornography accounted for almost three-quarter (72%) of all incidents of child pornography between 2014 and 2022, while possessing or accessing child pornography accounted for 28% of incidents
  • The rate of online child pornography increased by 290% between 2014 and 2022
• The overall rate of police-reported incidents of online child sexual exploitation has risen dramatically since 2014, increasing from 50 to 160 incidents per 100,000 Canadian children and youth in 2022
  • This rate largely reflects the rate of child pornography, which increased by almost 400% from 32 to 125 incidents per 100,000 during the same time period

Technology used by the NCECC

The main information technology used to manage NCECC operations is the Operational Child Sexual Exploitation Analysis Network (OCEAN). OCEAN is an evidence database and file management system used by Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) investigative units across Canada to improve workflow, report tracking, analytics, and automation, as well as to share information across law enforcement agencies.

The NCECC also houses and manages the National Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) Database (a national repository of legally seized CSAM) and Project VIC Canada hash database (a national repository of CSAM hash sets).

The NCECC uses a number of different investigative techniques and operational technologies to collect and analyze investigative data, including comparison with the above-noted databases, in order to identify both victims and perpetrators of online child sexual exploitation.

Why the NCECC uses operational technologies

Many operational technologies used by the NCECC are specifically for identifying victims. They allow police personnel to efficiently process what would otherwise be an unmanageable amount of online CSAM, including images, videos and written text. By expediting these processes, police personnel can safeguard children earlier. These tools also help to disrupt the spread of CSAM online. This helps reduce the risk of revictimization of victims and reduce the police personnel exposure to this graphic and sensitive material.

How NCECC operational technologies work

Some of the essential operational technologies used by the NCECC were assessed and recommended for use by the RCMP's National Technology Onboarding Program (NTOP). Examples are below:

Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) Classifiers

Tools that use artificial intelligence to automatically search the contents of lawfully obtained digital images for indicators of child sexual abuse, flagging images of concern for assessment and validation by police personnel. These tools are significantly more efficient than manual human review of images, allowing police personnel to quickly filter through vast amounts of CSAM by eliminating those that do not appear to contain CSAM and by converting those that contain CSAM into hash values (further explained below).

Hash Value Datasets

Collections of hash values are unique digital fingerprints generated from files such as images, videos, or documents. A hash value is a fixed-size string of characters generated by a hash function, which uniquely represents the content of a file without revealing the actual contents. Hash values of new digital images can be easily compared against hashed CSAM datasets to quickly determine whether or not a particular image has been already identified as being CSAM. These datasets or databases such as Project VIC are particularly useful as they can be shared between law enforcement agencies without the need to share the actual CSAM images held in the National CSAM database.

To provide additional transparency, confirm that the RCMP meets its legal obligations under the Privacy Act, and ensure that privacy risks are identified, assessed, and mitigated, the NCECC also completed a program-level privacy impact assessment.

When the NCECC use operational technologies

The NCECC only uses operational technologies for processing evidence that has been lawfully obtained during an investigation.

Learn more

For more information on the NCECC's use of innovative technologies to support its mandate, consult the following resources:

• Parliamentary Committee Notes: RCMP Action Against Online Child Sexual Exploitation
• Use of artificial intelligence in child exploitation increasing, says RCMP
• Well-being a priority for child exploitation units
• Integrated units act fast to save kids from harm