The mass shift online brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a boom of so-called 91裸聊视频渟extortion scams,91裸聊视频� new data from Statistics Canada suggests.

As authorities aim to educate youth and parents about online sex crimes, experts are calling for more regulation, education and law enforcement.

Sexual extortion, or sextortion, occurs when someone threatens to distribute private, often sexually explicit, material online if the victim doesn91裸聊视频檛 comply with their demands, usually for money.

The crime gained national attention almost a decade ago when 15-year-old Amanda Todd from Port Coquitlam, B.C., died by suicide after posting a video where she used flash cards to describe being tormented by an anonymous cyberbully. It has been watched more than 14 million times.

The trial of her alleged harasser, Dutch national Aydin Coban, began in the B.C. Supreme Court in June.

He pleaded not guilty to extortion, harassment, communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence and possession and distribution of child pornography. He was not charged in relation to Todd91裸聊视频檚 death.

Closing arguments in the case wrapped earlier this week and the jury is now deliberating.

Signy Arnason, associate executive director at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said the issue has grown exponentially since Todd took her life in October 2012.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 out of control,91裸聊视频� she said in an interview.

Police across the country have been issuing warnings to the public about sextortion scams targeting youth.

91裸聊视频淯nfortunately, police around the world have tragically seen some of these incidents end in victims taking their own lives,91裸聊视频� Nova Scotia RCMP Internet Child Exploitation Unit Cpl. Mark Sobieraj said in a news release last week. 91裸聊视频淲e91裸聊视频檙e urging parents and guardians to talk with children about the potential dangers, emphasizing that they can come to you for help.91裸聊视频�

Statistics Canada data released Tuesday shows police-reported extortion cases in Canada rose by nearly 300 per cent in the last decade, but the crime significantly rose during the pandemic.

Incidents of non-consensual distribution of intimate images involving adult or child victims increased by 194 cases in 2021, representing a nine per cent jump from the year before, and a 52 per cent increase compared with the previous five-year average.

91裸聊视频淭hese concerning increases are being facilitated by social media platforms and other electronic services providers,91裸聊视频� said the Canadian Centre for Child Protection91裸聊视频檚 executive director, Lianna McDonald, in a news release. 91裸聊视频淚t should be a wake-up call.91裸聊视频�

Cybertip.ca, a national tip line for reporting online child sexual abuse, said it has received 91裸聊视频渁n unprecedented volume of reports from youth and sometimes their concerned parents about falling prey to aggressive sextortion tactics,91裸聊视频� amounting to about 300 online extortion cases a month.

Wayne MacKay, a professor emeritus of law at Dalhousie University, said the increase could be partly explained by awareness and better policing of cybercrime, but noted research also suggests that online child sexual abuse often goes unreported.

A review of the 322 sextortion cases Cybertip.ca received in July found that when gender was known, 92 per cent of them involved boys or young men.

91裸聊视频淭he review also showed an emerging tactic where the victim is sent nude images of children from the person behind the fake account. The offender will then threaten to report the victim to police, claiming they are in possession of child sexual abuse material. Demands for money immediately follow,91裸聊视频� the child protection centre said in a news release this week.

David Fraser, an internet and privacy lawyer with the Canadian law firm McInnes Cooper in Halifax, said a main reason some youth may not come forward is they believe they could be charged with child pornography of their own image. He said this is a wide misconception, sometimes even among law enforcement.

91裸聊视频淲e need to be very careful about the messaging we send to young people, just to make sure that there are safe places that they can go to and get support before things escalate,91裸聊视频� Fraser said.

He cited a 2001 Supreme Court of Canada decision that established a 91裸聊视频減ersonal use91裸聊视频� exception to the child pornography provisions. It said young people have a right to create intimate images of themselves as long as they don91裸聊视频檛 depict illegal sexual activity, are held only for private use, and were created with the consent of the people in the image.

Fraser would like to see more police resources and education around the issue.

91裸聊视频淚 have generally seen across the board a lack of skill and competence on the part of police to take existing laws and translate them into the online context,91裸聊视频� he said.

91裸聊视频淓xtortion is extortion whether you91裸聊视频檙e extorting somebody by threatening to disclose nude pictures that you have extorted them to provide, or whether you91裸聊视频檙e extorting somebody through other forms of more conventional blackmail.91裸聊视频�

Molly Reynolds, a lawyer with Torys LLP in Toronto, said her civil caseload on sexual extortion has increased significantly.

91裸聊视频淭he demand is huge. It is at least a 10-year-old crisis, and we are just beginning to understand it more broadly across Canada,91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淭here are still a lot of people who really don91裸聊视频檛 get police attention when they do report this criminal conduct.91裸聊视频�

She said civil court tends to be a better option for adult victims who know their perpetrator.

91裸聊视频淵ou91裸聊视频檙e more likely to see a law enforcement response if it can fall into the child pornography offences, and not just the non-consensual distribution offences or voyeurism ones,91裸聊视频� she said.

91裸聊视频�(Children) are, in some ways, better served through the criminal procedure, whereas adults, I think, are more often having to turn to the civil procedures.91裸聊视频�

Darren Laur, chief training officer at White Hatter, an internet safety and digital literacy education company, said the law has not kept up with technological advancements.

He said so-called deep fakes, in which an existing image or video is used to create fake but believable video footage, will create new challenges because extortionists will no longer need to coerce a person to perform explicit acts.

91裸聊视频淭he reality is people are going to use the goodness of technology and sometimes weaponize it. That91裸聊视频檚 the problem with deep fakes. I perceive that deep fakes are going to be weaponized, especially when it comes to tech-facilitated sexual abuse,91裸聊视频� said Laur, who is a retired Victoria police sergeant.

Reynolds agreed but said she doesn91裸聊视频檛 think the law will ever be able to 91裸聊视频渒eep up with technology and the harms it can create.91裸聊视频�

91裸聊视频淭here is a really big role, I think, for the courts to interpret what we already have, and allow it to evolve just as the technological risks evolve. We need to be able to make it easier for people to get these cases to court, whether criminal or civil, and to test the boundaries,91裸聊视频� she said.

McDonald, with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, has begun calling for more regulation of social media companies, including Snapchat and Instagram, where the organization has found most of the harm to children occurs.

91裸聊视频淭his is an ongoing problem that is getting worse, and so it really does beg the question about what are these companies doing to keep children safe? It is incredulous that social media platforms allow total adult strangers to directly reach out and target our children without any consequence,91裸聊视频� she said in a news release Thursday.

Laur said he has been calling for years for the creation of an online regulatory agency, like Australia91裸聊视频檚 eSafety Commissioner.

91裸聊视频淭hey basically have the blueprint on how to do this,91裸聊视频� he said. 91裸聊视频淲e need something similar here in our country.91裸聊视频�

The Department of Canadian Heritage said in a statement the federal government 91裸聊视频渋s currently developing an approach to address harmful content online, which includes the potential creation of a regulatory body.91裸聊视频�

As part of this process, it said Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez is 91裸聊视频渃urrently conducting roundtables across Canada to hear from victims of online harm, including children and youth.91裸聊视频�

91裸聊视频� Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press