STATEMENT: The Lawful Access Act would strengthen protections for children as new data reveals most online sex crime cases remain unsolved

The Honourable Gary Anandasangaree, Minister of Public Safety, re-introduced measures that would help reduce barriers Canadian police face when investigating the growing number of online crimes against children. Bill C-22, referred to as the Lawful Access Act, has the support of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P).

These changes would, among other things, modernize and clarify the ways law enforcement in Canada gain access to critical information from electronic service providers to help advance investigations into individuals who offend against children using the internet.

Over the last several years, the technology available to offenders has continued to evolve at an extraordinary pace, and the number of cybercrimes has continued to rise. But the legal framework and rules by which police operate have not kept pace or functioned efficiently to reverse the tide. Meanwhile, our agency witnesses severe violations of children’s privacy and safety every day. Last year alone, C3P processed over 28,000 reports to Cybertip.ca — Canada’s tipline to report the online sexual exploitation of children. Between 2022 and 2025 we have seen a 125% increase in sexually explicit deepfake images and videos of children as well as a 344% in luring reports between 2020 and 2025.

Reports to police mirror Cybertip.ca’s findings, highlighting the rapid growth of harms targeting children and the increasing complexity of investigating cybercrimes. Police-reported online child sexual exploitation incidents rose 374% between 2014 and 2024; however, 94% of online child sexual abuse and exploitation material incidents and 76% of online sexual offences against children did not result in charges in 2024.¹ In these cases, police had either not identified an accused offender or police lacked sufficient evidence to lay or recommend charges. Recognizing these challenges, the bill tabled today represents an important step forward.

Of special interest to C3P, Bill C-22 includes changes that would:

• Lessen the barriers and streamline the process for police in Canada to lawfully obtain information from internet service providers to support crime investigations;
• Require that electronic service providers maintain the capacity to act on and fulfill lawful requests for information by authorities;
• Clarify the circumstances under which Canadian law enforcement can make use of electronic data that was provided by an external source.

We look forward to continuing to study this bill and work with the Government of Canada to support online child protection measures. We welcome the opportunity to contribute critical information to further strengthen this bill at the committee stage.

1. 1 Statistics Canada. (2026). Online child sexual exploitation: A statistical profile of police‑reported incidents in Canada, 2024. Laura Savage. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2026001/article/00002-eng.htm ↩