One suspect thought they’d arranged a meeting with a child to engage in sex acts, but they were really communicating online with undercover police officers.
One suspect thought they’d arranged a meeting with a child to engage in sex acts, but they were really communicating online with undercover police officers.
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Another suspect was found to be in possession of child sexual abuse material when investigators searched through 21 terabytes of data, the equivalent of 50,000 hours of video, from seized electronic devices.
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These were just two cases of the 64 people, several of them Southwestern Ontario residents, swept up in Project Aquatic, a provincewide crackdown on making, possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material, Ontario Provincial Police announced on Wednesday.
Twenty-seven police forces – including Norfolk OPP and Brantford Police – assisted in 129 investigations between Feb. 19 and Feb. 29 that led to 348 charges, 34 victims identified, 30 children safeguarded and 607 electronic devices seized, police said.
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Among the accused is 67-year-old James King of Simcoe, who faces two charges of possession of child pornography and one charge of making child pornography available.
King was arrested in January following an investigation by the OPP Child Sexual Exploitation Unit that included executing a search warrant at his home where several electronic devices were seized.
He appeared in Simcoe court most recently on Tuesday.
“One of the most fundamental responsibilities of not only police, but as a society, is to protect our children from those who would do them harm,” OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique said at a press conference.
Project AQUATIC https://t.co/fBMOlLIB9z — Ontario Provincial Police (@OPP_News) May 8, 2024
The head of the OPP internet child exploitation strategy said changes in technology – from electronic devices with more storage to encrypted communications and AI-generated images – have created challenges for investigations.
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The earliest smartphones introduced in 2003 could store eight gigabytes of storage, but today’s devices hold up to one terabyte, roughly 250,000 photos or 500 hours of video, Det.-Staff Sgt. Tim Brown said.
“For every device seized, an officer or analyst examines each photo and video, which can take several weeks. The time spent on each child sexual abuse investigation only grows with the continued increase of storage,” Brown said.
“With each passing year, the tools used by predators who wish to harm our children grow more sophisticated and harder to trace. From advanced encryption to the dark web, these factors add to the complexity of police investigations. With the advent of AI-generated images, our task to differentiate between real and synthetic victims adds yet another element to our efforts to apprehend those who make, possess, access and distribute child sexual abuse material.”
Carrique warned police alone can’t stop child exploitation.
“No investigation will ever be as successful as the prevention of victimization in the first place,” he said. “Risk to our youth can be mitigated through awareness, education, supervision and maintaining an ongoing open and trusting dialogue – doing so could change the course of a child’s life.”
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