Canadian Centre for Child Protection

Cybertip.ca (French: Cyberaide.ca) is Canada's official tip-line for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children. It is owned and operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, in partnership with local law enforcement agencies and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, whose National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre coordinates and supports national investigations into child sexual exploitation.[3]

Initiated on 26 September 2002 as a two-year pilot project,[5] the Government of Canada recognized and announced Cybertip.ca in May 2004 as the national tip-line for the Canadian public reporting of online child sexual exploitation.[3] The site had its full launch in January 2005, and has since received over 40,000 suspected cases from the Canadian public.

Cybertip.ca accepts and addresses online and telephone reports from the public regarding child pornography (child abuse images and material), online luring, children exploited through prostitution, travelling to sexually-exploited children, and child trafficking. Staff examine reports from the public and forward those that are deemed potentially illegal to law enforcement in the appropriate jurisdiction. Although the majority of Cybertip.ca's reports are provided online, the public is also able to contact the tipline by phone.

As the central clearinghouse for online child exploitation, Cybertip.ca maintains a regularly updated list of specific foreign-hosted Internet addresses (URLs) associated with images of child sexual abuse, and provide that list in a secure manner to participating internet service providers (ISPs).

Launched in January 2007, Project Cleanfeed Canada is designed to reduce accidental access to child sexual abuse images, as well as create a disincentive for those trying to access or distribute child pornography. Participating ISPs include Bell Canada, Telus, Shaw, Rogers Communications, Vidéotron, Bell Aliant, and SaskTel.[6]

As of 2021, over 10,000 reports are processed by Cybertip.ca each month.[7]

Reports to Cybertip.ca are submitted by the public under one of eight reporting categories:[2]^: 22

• Agreement or arrangement with another person to commit a sexual offence against a child — 0.40%
• Child pornography (Child sexual abuse material)[lower-roman 1] — 95.95%
• Child prostitution — 0.38%
• Child sex-tourism — 0.22%
• Child trafficking — 0.14%
• Luring — 1.98%
• Making sexually explicit material available to a child — 0.31%
• Non-consensual distribution of intimate images — 0.64%

In 2018-2019, Cybertip.ca processed 1,474,075 reports, marking a 945% increase from 2017-18. Of the reports processed, 98% were attributed to Project Arachnid; Of the child sexual exploitation reports processed, 99% were forwarded to law enforcement agencies, child welfare agencies, and/or INHOPE member hotlines, or a notice was sent to an electronic service provider; nearly 1.2 million notices were issued to electronic service providers in relation to child sexual abuse material[lower-roman 1] detected on their service.[2]^: 21

Kids in the Know (KIK) is a national, interactive safety education program, helping to increase students' personal safety and reduce their risk of victimization, both online and offline.[8] Launched in 2004, Kids in the Know was created to help children from kindergarten to high school using the unique information taken into account from the operation of Cybertip.ca.[3] The program meets the curricula outcomes mandated by ministries of education in all jurisdictions across Canada.[9]

MissingKids.ca is Canada’s missing children resource centre, offering families support in finding their missing child, as well as providing educational material to help prevent children from going missing.[7][10]

MissingKids.ca works in collaboration with Réseau Enfants-Retour to provide missing children services to Quebec residents. In turn, Réseau Enfants-Retour helps MissingKids.ca in offering case management support to Francophone families.[10]

MissingKidsALERT is MissingKids.ca's notification system providing information to the public in the search for missing children. The service is targeted and precise, notifying those who have signed up in the event of a missing child in their region. The service can also complement the existing AMBER Alert systems in Canada, as well as being used in cases that fall outside of the protocol of AMBER Alert.[11]

Project Arachnid is an automated crawler developed by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection to detect images and videos on the internet and the dark web based on confirmed digital fingerprints of illegal child sexual abuse content.[12]

As of 5 May 2021, since its launch in 2017, Project Arachnid has processed more than 127 billion images; over 37.9 million images have been triggered for analyst review; over 7.2 million notices have been sent to internet service providers to remove child sexual abuse material;[lower-roman 1][2] and 85% of the notices issued relate to victims who are not known to have been identified by police.[13]

Aiming to work in collaboration on a global scale to reduce the availability of child sexual abuse material, the initiative is supported, in part, by the Secretary of State for the Home Department in the United Kingdom.[9] Hotlines and organizations around the world have worked with the Centre on Project Arachnid, including:[9]

• Australian Government eSafety Commissioner
• Centar za nestalu I zlostavljanu djecu (Centre for Missing and Exploited Children Croatia)
• Child Focus Belgium
• ECPAT Sweden
• Innocence in Danger Germany
• Jugendschutz.net
• Lastekaitse Liit — Estonian Union for Child Welfare
• National Association for People Abused in Childhood
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (US)
• National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
• Pelastakaa Lapset (Save the Children Finland)
• Red Papaz (Columbia)
• Suojellaan Lapsia (Protect Children)