A bill to stop internet sexual exploitation is being debated in the House of Commons. In November, the EFC submitted a
brief to the Justice Committee urging them to support
Bill C-270, the
Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation Act. The EFC’s brief pointed to the urgent need for the bill.
There are
devastating, lifelong consequences for those whose images are uploaded and distributed online. Children and youth face severe and extensive impacts when images of their abuse and exploitation are streamed and distributed.
One young woman told the Ethics Committee in 2021 how she was pressured to send the boy she liked an intimate video of herself when she was in Grade 7. She then discovered the video had been uploaded to pornography sites and viewed millions of times. As a result of this, the young woman dropped out of school and her social circle, and became homeless, fearful, anxious and suicidal.
In
police-reported incidents of the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, youth aged 12 to 17 years accounted for almost all (97%) victims with the large majority (86%) of victims being girls.
Lianna McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, described a
“tsunami” of victims coming to organizations like theirs for help to get their images removed from the internet.
Once a person’s intimate images or images of their abuse or exploitation are uploaded, what happens to those images is beyond their control. They may be downloaded, shared or reposted countless times.
A
report by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in February 2024 told of a professional take-down service that found 700 copies of one person’s intimate images on more than 80 websites. The report noted the devastating effects on employment, social network and mental health.
Commercial pornography sites must be held responsible to ensure exploitative and non-consensual images are not uploaded in the first place.
The onus must not be on children and youth to monitor commercial pornography sites to ensure that depictions of their abuse and exploitation are not posted or, if discovered, to ensure they are swiftly removed.
The onus must not be on victims of non-consensual uploads to watch for the content and ensure it is removed.
Bill C-270 would prevent illegal content from being uploaded in the first place. It would require companies who make and distribute pornography to verify the age and consent of those depicted
before the images are posted online. Bill C-270 puts the responsibility where it belongs.
Please contact your MP and ask them to support Bill C-270.
For more information and a sample MP letter, see
TheEFC.ca/C-270.