Child sexual exploitation refers to situations where youth (under the age of 18) are forced or incited(1) to exchange sexual acts or images for material items such as food, shelter, drugs, clothing and/or non-material items such as protection, love, and belonging through the use of power, control and manipulation. Child sexual exploitation includes all charges related to child sexual abuse images offences, age of consent offences as well as prostitution under the age of 18(2).  Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

In this section we will explore the following topics:

• What are signs that someone is being sex trafficked or sexually exploited?

• How has new technology impacted sexual exploitation and sex trafficking? 

• Who are the traffickers?

• Where does the demand for sex trafficking and child exploitation come from?

• Important definitions

Choose the right words: Child prostitution or child sexual exploitation? 

Media often refers to sexually exploited youth as “child prostitutes” or “sex workers”. Doing so, they present youth victims of sexual exploitation as “consenting participants” in the commercial sex trade which can inadvertently legitimize sexual exploitation and contribute to the stigmatization of the victims who are presented as having “chosen this work”. This language also ignores the fact that sexual exploitation is a human rights violation and that there is no element of choice for sexually exploited youth(3). It is important to understand that no one can consent to being trafficked, and that no one under the age of 18 can consent to being involved in the commercial sex trade. For this reason the terms child sexual exploitation and/or sex trafficking should be used instead of child or youth prostitution.

Sexual exploitation and human trafficking in Canada 

Human trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through sexual exploitation or forced labour(4).

One of the most common misconceptions about human trafficking is that it doesn’t happen in Canada. Nonetheless, between 2008 and 2018 there were more than 1700 reported cases of human trafficking and almost of all the victims were women or girls. 

Ontario is known for having about two thirds of all police-reported incidences of human trafficking in Canada(5). 

Human trafficking is, however, a vastly under-reported crime and it is difficult to assess it’s actual extent. 

Myths vs. facts

Child sexual exploitation and human trafficking are largely misunderstood. These are some of the most common myths: 

Who is at risk? 

Anyone can be at risk of being targeted for sex trafficking, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, family history, housing situation, race, ancestry, religion, or geographic location.

While being young and female(7) is the number one risk factor to being targeted by sex traffickers, individuals belonging to these vulnerable groups have a higher risk than average of being targeted and exploited by sex traffickers:

• Indigenous women and girls

• 2SLGBTQ+ identified youth

• Racialized individuals

• Migrants and new immigrants

• Persons with disabilities

• Children in/exiting the child-welfare system

• Children and youth involved in the youth justice system

• Marginalized youth

• Individuals with mental health and/or addictions needs

• Individuals with a history of experiencing violence or neglect

• Individual with a history of child sexual abuse

• Socially and economically disadvantaged individuals 

• Youth experiencing homelessness and missing youth

• Youth who question their security and sense of belonging to their community, school or family

How does it happen? 

The following stages are known to be part of the tactics used by traffickers in the recruitment and exploitation of youth. While commonly used, it is important to keep in mind that these can vary depending on the situation and context. 

1. Luring

• Initial contact can be made in person or online through which traffickers begin to build trust and emotional ties with their targets.

• During this period, traffickers work to understand their victims’ vulnerable points, and leverage insecurities and needs for affection to make the victim dependent and thus more vulnerable.

• Traffickers often prey on victims who are looking for attention, affection, the promise of a better life, a job opportunity, or to fit in. 

2. Grooming

• Traffickers purposely fulfill their target’s emotional, economic and social needs in order to  manipulate them and make them increasingly reliant (and/or indebted) to them.

• Traffickers pretend to be emotionally interested in their targets and even become their close friends or romantic partners.

• Traffickers may purchase expensive items and gifts for victims, invite them to parties and trips, and provide drugs and alcohol.

3. Isolation

• Traffickers isolate their targets from friends and family as a method of control.

• Eventually, victims will be likely isolated from people or areas that are familiar to them. They can be moved from location to location, relocated to new cities, rural areas or provinces, often with little or no contact with the outside world.

4. Manipulation methods:

• Financial pressure/owing debits, e.g. asking victims to “repay” them for gifts and drugs/alcohol that they previously provided (“I did that for you, now you need to do this for me”);

• Leveraging the emotional bond that the victim has for the trafficker (e.g. “if you loved me, you would do this for me”);

• Emotional/physical abuse;

• Learned dependence/helplessness. 

5. Threats: 

• Threats to disclose personal information or images (e.g. “If I tell everyone/show everyone what you’ve done, no one will love you anymore”);

• Intimidation or threats to harm the victim or their loved ones (e.g. “If you don’t do this, you’ll force me to hurt your sister/friend/pet”).

What are signs that someone is being sex trafficked or sexually exploited? 

Youth can show different signs of being involved in sex trafficking. These include:

• Being defensive and aggressive to exhibiting feelings of fear, anxiety, depression, tension, and submissiveness;

• Avoiding eye contact, experience mood swings, have inconsistencies in their stories, and express anxious behaviour regarding law enforcement;

• Skipping class and/or withdrawing from friends/activities that they used to be close with;

• Being reported as chronically missing;

• Having sexualized content on their online profiles;

• Being secretive or lying about their activities and/or secretive about their “boyfriend” or new friend group;

• Having money, clothes, hair/nails done, hotel room keys, fake ID that they cannot afford/explain;

• Having a new tattoo (especially if it is a boyfriend’s name or symbol)

• Using drugs/alcohol that they cannot afford/explain;

• Frequently speaking about Bitcoin, Airbnb or Hotel Parties;

• Exclusively take ride hailing/sharing services, like Ubers and/or taxis to move around, or having different cars picking them up all the time; 

• Possessing multiple cell phones and often changing their phone numbers.

How has new technology impacted sexual exploitation and sex trafficking? 

For more than a decade our society has gradually incorporated technological devices, applications and social media platforms to our everyday lives. Unfortunately, these are increasingly being used by traffickers in order to lure, groom and control youth.

Popular social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok as well as dating applications and live streaming services, are widely used to target vulnerable individuals.

After establishing a first contact online, traffickers can take several weeks or just a couple of minutes to exploit youth. Online platforms are used to build trust with their targets in order to arrange in person meetings,  or to secretly record them and sell their images in child sexual abuse sites or to blackmail them(8).

In addition, some digital applications used by children and youth offer different features that can be used by traffickers to track someone’s location or keep them under constant surveillance.

Who are the traffickers?

There are several stereotypes of traffickers in popular culture. Many of these stereotypes come from misleading representations in the media and many other times come from societal biases towards marginalized groups. 

While the vast majority of sex traffickers are men between the ages of 18-34, it is very important to understand that anyone, regardless of their identity, age and relationships with others, can be a trafficker (including family members, friends, and intimate partners).

Traffickers can appeal to their targets by presenting as overly affectionate romantic partners, close empathetic friends or simply by offering drugs, alcohol and shelter. 

There are several cases in which female-identified youth recruit their peers for child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking purposes. While these girls are forced to do this by their own traffickers as part of their experience of exploitation, this technique is often successful as their targets are likely to trust who they perceive to be their friends.

In addition, it’s not uncommon for traffickers to display an online persona with numerous friendships, economic success, pictures depicting travelling and luxury, and with many digital markers of status such as likes and followers, as these can be easily bought through the use of fake accounts and ‘bots’.

Where does the demand for sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation come from? 

For sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation to continue to exist there must be a demand. 

Often missed in conversations about child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking are the societal and cultural dynamics that enable these exploitative transactions.

The objectification of women and girls in mass media is still pervasive. Female-identified individuals are often presented as objects of consumption and disposal. Non-consensual relationships based on the dominance and control of women and girls by men are often glorified. Sexual encounters, money and material objects, such as cars, clothing and jewelry are often presented in western and westernized communities as  metrics to determine the value and status of men.  

A key goal of this resource is to help educators facilitate conversations with male-identified students to challenge cultural norms that enable gender-based violence including child sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.  

Important Definitions

Child Sexual Exploitation: Child sexual exploitation refers to situations where youth (under the age of 18) are forced to exchange sexual acts or images for material items such as food, shelter, drugs, clothing and/or non-material items such as protection, love, and belonging. Sexual exploitation includes all offences related to child sexual abuse images, age of consent offences as well as prostitution under the age of 18

Sex Trafficking: Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation

Human Trafficking: The recruitment, transportation, harbouring and/or exercising control, direction or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through sexual exploitation or forced labour. Human trafficking is a hidden crime and is an offense under Canada’s Criminal Code and Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Purchaser or John: An individual who pays for or trades something of value for sexual acts.

Branding: A tattoo or carving on a victim that indicates ownership by a trafficker/pimp/gang

Luring: Communicating with an underage person seeking to sexually exploit them

Grooming: Selective tactics used to prepare a youth for exploitation that can vary in length. In this process traffickers interact with their targets in person or online to gain their trust and create an emotional bond

Recruiting: The act of selecting and enlisting new individuals to be exploited

Consent: Voluntary agreement that is freely given. Pressure and coercion of any kind eliminate the possibility to consent.

Love bombing: Continuous and exaggerated displays of attention or affection in the form of gifts, compliments, flattery and praise in order to eventually gain emotional control over someone

Pimp Culture: The cultural and mediatic glorification of “pimp” as an identity and of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking through the objectification and control of women

Quota: A set amount of money that a trafficking victim must make each night 

Rape Culture: Rape Culture refers to the normalization of sexual violence through cultural narratives influencing all levels of social interaction. Rape culture can manifest in jokes, comments, TV shows, music, workplace interactions, and policy and law, among others. Consequently, male sexual aggression, sexualized violence and harassment against women and the 2SLGBTQ+ community, and re-victimization and victim- blaming are presented as inevitable and normal events.

(1) Criminal code of Canada  

(2)  Children of the Street Society, Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Children and Youth in Canada: A Prevention and Early Intervention Toolkit for Parents, p.4

(3) Elizabeth M. Saewyc, Bonnie B. Miller, Robert Rivers, Jennifer Matthews, Carla Hilario, and Pam Hirakata, “Competing discourses about youth sexual exploitation in Canadian new media”, Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 22, 2 (2013), p.97, 102.

(4)  Department of Justice (Canada), What is Human Trafficking? https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/cj-jp/tp/what-quoi.html

(5)  Trafficking in persons in Canada, 2018 https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/200623/dq200623b-eng.htm?CMP=mstatcan

(6) Children of the Street Society (2015) Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Children and Youth in Canada: A Prevention and Early Intervention Toolkit for Parents, p.6. 

(7) Canadian Women’s Foundation (2014)“NO MORE” Ending Sex-Trafficking In Canada., p. 27.

(8) Oppenheim, Maya. "Young girls groomed ‘within seconds’ of going on to livestreaming websites in ‘sinister’ trend." Independent, 25 Jan. 2020.