October has begun with the police charging a 33-year-old Ottawa man after investigating allegations of child luring online – and this is just the tip of the iceberg, as the rate of online child luring cases in Ontario have doubled in the past five years, according to crime data from Statistics Canada.

Matthew Johnson, director of education at Media Smarts (an organization promoting digital and media literacy in youth), said that while the actual number of cases are small, “it does stand out when we look at overall trends of violent crime in Canada.”

“When crime in general is declining, when we see a rise, it is worth our attention,” Johnson said.

The increasing number of reports may be attributed to various factors, and Johnson pointed to the rising awareness, particularly on the part of law enforcement.

In 2012 for example, the RCMP and other agencies took part in “Operation Snapshot” – an investigation targeting high-risk offenders of online child exploitation. A follow-up “Operation Snapshot II” was conducted in 2013, and the two operations yielded 37 suspects and the rescue of three children.

Johnson said perpetrators manipulate youth into seeing online sexual exploitation as a consensual relationship.

“Perpetrators are open about their romantic intentions, while youth are warned about somebody who’s pretending to be something they’re not. When someone is open about that, it can be seen as a marker of safety.”

He added that the same kinds of youth are at higher risk of luring and sexual exploitation both online and offline. Demographically, teenagers are more likely to be targeted – teenage girls, and boys who are either gay or questioning their sexuality, are even more likely targets, Johnson said. Additionally, Johnson said that young survivors of previous offline sexual abuse, youth experiencing mental difficulties, in serious conflict with their parents and/or seek out sexualized spaces online are often targeted.

Contrary to the belief that online predators “trick or deceive” kids, Johnson said there is evidence to show that predators rarely lie about their age or motives. Their tactic is not one stemming from deception, but from seduction – they shower their target with attention, sympathy, affection and kindness.

As well, the majority of adolescents who accept meeting in person are aware that they will likely be engaging in sexual activity – and for most of these youth, the encounter evolves into a recurring sexual relationship.

Valerie Steeves, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa, said that her research indicates “the kinds of concerns that adults have are often out of touch with the kinds of problems kids report online.”

For example, in one of her surveys “Young Canadians in a Wired World” in 2004, many students pointed to incidents where they were solicited for sex online, and most saw this as a good experience.

“That makes sense when you think of the developmental needs of teens, to explore their sexuality and experiment with various roles,” said Steeves.

“Our qualitative participants also consistently tell us that they have lots of strategies for minimizing risk of harm, like unfriending a contact. They also tell us that adult interventions around cyberbullying make it harder for them to talk … because too many schools rely on police intervention and as soon as the police are called in, the teen loses control of the situation.”

As an indictable offence, punishment for online child luring in Canada ranges from imprisonment between one and 10 years, while as a summary offence, it ranges from 90 days to 18 months.

Johnson advises parents to have open, ongoing conversations with their children about online issues, as they are just as important as offline ones.

“We don’t need to scare them – we need to prepare them,” Johnson said.

“They have to understand that when it comes to sexual content, it’s media and it’s not real … they have to understand what a healthy relationship is. They have to understand the idea of consent, that they have the right to consent or not to consent … there are limits on what they can be asked to consent to.”