New Police Funding To Combat Online Child Exploitation

Police in B.C. will soon have more tools to enhance their efforts in protecting children online and strengthen abilities to pursue, disrupt and prosecute offenders.

“Children and youth are spending more time online than ever. Sadly, that increases their vulnerability to predators looking to take advantage of them,” said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.

“Online child exploitation happens every single day, and as social media platforms continue to grow, we must ensure our children are protected from those trying to hurt them. That’s why we continue to work with the federal government to equip police with the necessary tools to support units tasked with the very difficult job of investigating these horrendous crimes.”

Through the Federal Contribution Program to Combat Serious and Organized Crime, Public Safety Canada has allocated $3.5 million over three years to B.C. to bolster the efforts of municipal police departments in combating online child sexual exploitation.

The funds will be used for staffing, equipment and training, to strengthen investigation capabilities in collaboration with the B.C. RCMP’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit.

Many police departments throughout the province complete ICE investigations, but they do not have resources solely dedicated to internet child-exploitation files.

Until recently, the Vancouver Police Department was the only independent municipal police department in B.C. with a dedicated ICE Unit.

In 2021 as part of a pilot project, other police departments developed an integrated Capital Regional District ICE Team.

The funding will allow all municipal police departments to increase the training and capacity of officers, leading to more investigations.

B.C. ICE has noted a substantial increase in reports of exploitation incidents, such as child luring, grooming and child sexual exploitation material with more than 28,000 investigations opened between 2020 and 2023.

To learn more, visit Government of British Columbia.