What are the risks?

The following list is based on the 39,000 + reports Cybertip.ca has fielded from the public since 2005. While four out of five threats involve the increasingly sophisticated techniques sexual offenders use to lure, groom and abuse children/adolescents, reports also indicate that children/adolescents are willingly engaging in risky Internet behaviour.

The top 5 risks to Canadian children on the Internet are:

1. Sexual offenders targeting online games that have chat rooms including interactive web games, computer and console games.
2. Sexual offenders hijacking instant messaging accounts and coercing children/adolescents to send nude or partially clothed images of themselves. Between 2005 and 2006, reports of this threat doubled.
3. Sexual offenders using 3D animated characters, referred to as avatars, to engage children/adolescents in online conversations.
4. Sexual offenders targeting social networking sites where children/adolescents are encouraged to create online diaries and connect with new people.
5. Youth sending nude images to peers without understanding that the images can be forwarded or permanently posted online.

For further information on what you can do to better protect your child/adolescents from these threats, click here.

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