Industry’s Role In Protecting Children Online

It is evident that child sexual abuse imagery and its growing availability on the internet is a social epidemic substantially impacting the lives of children, survivors and all those trying to protect them. In November 2019, The Canadian Centre for Child Protection launched a short survey for the public to weigh in on the responsibility industry bears in protecting children online. In just 18 months, 21,000+ people completed the survey with these notable results:

In November 2019, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection launched a short survey for the public to weigh in on the responsibility industry bears in protecting children online. Since then, 22,000+ people^* completed the survey with these notable results:

• 85% felt a technology company who does not remove child sexual abuse imagery on its service companies should be criminally charged. Another 15% felt companies should be fined for failure to remove.
• 89% felt governments should pass laws that require technology companies to meet safety standards that include penalties for non-compliance.
• 95% felt that technology companies who are notified that stolen images of children are being reposted/shared in a sexual context on their services and platforms should be required by law to remove the stolen images.

Read the full results

Download Survey Results

The survey remains open for further public input. To participate, click here.

Learn more about how C3P is using technology to combat this global epidemic through Project Arachnid.

Child Protection and Rights Framework

C3P’s framework, How We Are Failing Children: Changing the Paradigm, raises critical awareness about the ways industry has failed to effectively respond to the removal of child sexual abuse images online, along with proposing principles of action to put the protection and rights of children at the forefront.

Read a summary of the framework, or the full report here.

1. * As of February 1, 2023 ↩