--- Gatineau Police and school services attempt to educate parents, following case of online child pornography this month

Jordan Gowling

Gatineau Police released a video through social media to celebrate “Safe Internet Day” on February 9, along with tweets encouraging parents to talk to their children and adolescents about the risk of child sexual exploitation associated with their online activities. 

Detective-Sergeant Pascale Chouinard warns in the video that online sexual exploitation is very much present in Gatineau and parents should be made aware of the security risks to their children when they access online platforms. Chouniard says that parents should be supervising their children’s use of social media more closely, given that the platforms represent an easy access for predators to communicate with your children. Chouniard also says that there were cases in which predators reached out to children through playing online video games. 

Chouniard referred to a website aid for parents called Cyberaid, a platform operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which gives parents information and tips to help them better understand and combat the risks posed to children through online applications and sites. 

The video presentation follows the arrests of several male teenagers on February 2, for the possession and distribution of child pornography. The snap chat app accounts of several female teens were hacked and several photos were illegally obtained and shared. 

The Commission scolaire des Portages-de-l'Outaouais (CSSPO) announced a free online cybersecurity event on February 25 for parents of students, also  in response to the arrests made at the beginning of the month. The presentation will be a collaboration between four school services and three police services.   

The full video of Chouniard can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_96NBRvu6Q&feature=emb_title.  

Registration for the cybersecurity event is available on the CSSPO website. 

[Local Journalism Initiative]