A shared responsibility: Combating child sex trafficking & online child sexual exploitation

Years ago, a teenage Casandra Diamond became a victim of child sex trafficking — in a suburban Scarborough neighbourhood. Her experience is far from unique. At this moment, hundreds of thousands of children all around the world are trapped in — or being targeted for — sexual abuse and exploitation.

It took nine years before Diamond could escape and begin rebuilding her life. Today, she’s a nationally recognized anti-trafficking leader. She was among a cross-sectoral, multi-disciplinary group of participants at a TMU symposium in June on Child Sex Trafficking & Online Child Sexual Exploitation.

These two crimes are distinct, but now increasingly intertwined. They’re borderless, stretching across geographies and happening at every socio-economic level.

Battling them is complex — reaching far beyond just catching perpetrators. While many key stakeholders in diverse fields are working to protect children, current efforts are often fragmented and focused on very sector-specific facets.

Recognizing the limitations of siloed responses, symposium participants agreed on the only hope for a solution: coordinating a holistic, transdisciplinary approach to prevent, respond and protect.

The two-day event facilitated this collaborative path forward. Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), it was led by Dr. Jennifer Martin, a TMU child and youth care professor and an international expert on child sex trafficking and online child sexual exploitation.

The symposium is one of three Faculty of Community Services initiatives at TMU that are focused on Child Sex Trafficking & Online Child Sexual Exploitation — two others being an upcoming master of health sciences degree program, and a new executive program starting in January 2025 for organization leaders.

Global health issue — underreported, underappreciated, urgent

Facts and data from the symposium demonstrated that low awareness and persistent myths are significant roadblocks — not only among the general public, but even within sectors that interface with child sex trafficking and/or online child sexual exploitation.

“If it’s an online sex abuse video, people easily identify children as victims. But when, say, a teenage girl is trafficked, you still hear language such as, ‘she’s exploiting herself’”, said keynote speaker Jennifer Richardson, first director of Ontario’s Anti-Human Trafficking Coordination Office, and herself a former sex trafficking survivor. “Both scenarios are abuse, and children can never ‘consent’ to their own sexual exploitation and abuse.”

Comprehensive information, shared consistently across sectors, is vital in breaking down such pervasive barriers to protecting children. It’s a need that Diamond — now Founder and Executive Director of the anti-sex trafficking organization BridgeNorth (external link)  — can testify to after many years working with survivors.

“Many victims fall through the cracks because the system and professionals interacting with them don’t have specialized knowledge and training. The best way to break through ongoing barriers is specialized education.”

Trauma-informed, survivor led approach

The statistics on sexual crimes against children are shocking. But they’ll never fully encapsulate the devastating impacts on young victims. The dampening of human potential within young survivors can be staggering.

Some access help in the immediate aftermath — and even then, longer-term programs to rebuild young lives are lacking.

The symposium demonstrated that sexual crimes against children are social issues and public health problems — not solvable through law enforcement alone. A comprehensive approach means holistic, trauma-informed and inclusive of the most important voices: victims and survivors.

“Given the complexity of the relevant issues, there currently lacks the necessary research, policy standards and guidelines to establish training for affected parties,” says Dr. Martin. “A true understanding of the trauma suffered by survivors necessitates an understanding of various disciplines in evolving ways.”

The way forward: coordinated, transdisciplinary, holistic

The array of symposium participants was impressive, including domestic and international professionals in policing, law, technology, finance, journalism, child protection, family/social services, healthcare, education, academia, Indigenous advocacy and more — some of whom were survivors themselves. The group gathered to reimagine the possibilities for sharing promising practices, innovative ideas and collaborative partnerships.

For example, a U.S. study found that 87 percent of sexual trafficking victims visited a healthcare provider at least once while they were being trafficked. However, clinicians missed the chance to identify them as victims.

Outcomes might have been different — or happened sooner — if medical professionals had known how to recognize the various stages of risk and exploitation, or to apply some basics of age-appropriate forensic interviewing used by specialized policing units.

Related fields are doing their part, but efforts are still siloed. The need is clear for sustained, integrated, coordinated, transdisciplinary, cross-sectoral approaches to fighting child sex trafficking & online child sexual exploitation. Through the symposium and the upcoming master’s program and executive program, TMU is poised to provide unique educational efforts in this new path forward.