VANCOUVER — Online predators are becoming increasingly resourceful in trolling media platforms where children gravitate, prompting an explosion in police case loads, said an officer who works for the RCMP Integrated Child Exploitation Unit in British Columbia. Data show the problem spiked during COVID-19 when children began spending more time online — but rates did not wane as police anticipated after lockdowns ended. In B.C., they soared, almost quadrupling from 2021 to 2023. Const. Solana Pare is now warning exploitation of children is likely here to stay, as a technological race between police and predators gains momentum. “Technology is becoming more and more available, and online platforms and social media sites are being used by children younger and younger, which provides an opportunity for predators to connect with them,” Pare said in an interview. Police say child exploitation cases in B.C. went from about 4,600 in 2021 to 9,600 in 2022 to 15,920 reports last year. The upwards trend is seen nationally, too. Statistics Canada says the rate of online child sexual exploitation reported to police rose by 58 per cent from 2019 to 2022, and police data show cases have continued to rise. The RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre reported that from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, it received 118,162 reports of suspected online child sexual exploitation offences — a 15 per cent increase compared with the previous year. Online child sexual exploitation, Pare explained, includes offences such as sextortion, child luring and the creation or distribution of sexually explicit images of a minor. “We don’t see these types of reports going away,” Pare said. “We only see them increasing because the use of electronic devices and social media, and kids being online earlier and earlier is becoming more common. There’s going to be more opportunity for predators to target children online.” Monique St. Germain, general counsel for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, said the most common type of child luring is communicating with a youth online in order get them to produce sexual abuse material. She said “the pandemic accelerated those types of cases, and it hasn’t slowed down.” “The tools (Canadian authorities) have to deal with this type of behaviour are inadequate for the scope and the scale of what’s going on,” she said. Online exploitation gained international attention in 2015 in the case of Port Coquitlam, B.C., teenager, Amanda Todd, who died by suicide after being blackmailed and harassed online by a man for years, starting when she was 12. The month before the 15-year-old died, she uploaded a nine-minute video using a series of flash cards detailing the abuse she experienced by the stranger and how it had affected her life. It’s been viewed millions of times. Dutch national Aydin Coban was extradited to Canada for trial and, in October 2022, he was convicted of charges including the extortion and harassment of Todd. Since then, the term “sextortion” has made its way into the vernacular as more cases come to light. Among them was Carson Cleland, a 12-year-old Prince George, B.C., boy who died by suicide in October 2023 after falling victim to the crime. In New Brunswick that same month, 16-year-old William Doiron took his own life after falling victim to a global sextortion scheme. Mounties across Canada have issued news releases warning of increased cases in their communities, noting that the consequences for the victims can include self-harm and suicide. St. Germain said technology, such as artificial intelligence, is also becoming more user-friendly. “The existence of that technology and its ease of use and ready accessibility is a problem, and it is going to be an increasingly large problem as we move forward,” she said. Pare said police are also adapting to technological advancements in order to keep up with the ever-changing online landscape. “Police are constantly obtaining training on digital technologies to increase our knowledge and understanding of all the intricacies involving their use and how to capture any digital evidence,” she said. Pare said the true rates of the crime are impossible to determine, but pointed to increased social awareness and legislation across North America around mandatory reporting of child abuse material from social media companies as a potential reason for the increase. It’s not going undetected any longer, she said. “Additionally, there’s been a lot of use in artificial intelligence to detect child exploitation materials within those platforms.” Pare said “it’s up to each individual platform” to ensure there is no child sexual abuse material on their sites or apps. “With mandatory reporting, it’s putting the onus back on the electronic service providers to ensure they have measures in place to prevent this from happening, and if it is happening that it is being reported,” she said. “That being said, there are times when things don’t get located.” That is why the Canadian Centre for Child Protection has been advocating for the adoption of the Online Harms Bill that the federal government introduced in February, St. Germain said. “It’s shocking that up until now, we’ve relied on companies to self regulate, meaning we’ve just relied on them to do the right thing,” she said. “What we are seeing in terms of the number of offences and in terms of all the harm that is happening in society as a result of online platforms is completely tied to the decision not to regulate. We need to have rules in any sector, and this sector is no different.” The Online Harms Bill covers seven types of harms, from non-consensual sharing of intimate images to content that can be used to bully a child. Earlier this month, Justice Minister Arif Virani announced the Liberal government will split the bill into two parts: dealing with keeping children safe online, and combating predators and issues related to revenge pornography. “We are putting our emphasis and prioritization and our time and efforts on the first portion of the bill,” Virani told reporters on Dec. 5. Such measures would include a new Digital Safety Commission of Canada, which would compel social media companies to outline how they plan to reduce the risks their platforms pose to users, particularly minors. It would have the power to levy fines and evaluate companies’ digital safety plans. St. Germain said such a split “makes sense,” noting that most objections to the bill are related to changes to the Criminal Code and not measures around curbing harms to children. “There obviously are differences of opinion in terms of what is the best way forward, and what kind of regulatory approach makes sense, and who should the regulator be, but there does seem to be consensus on the idea that we need to do more in terms of protecting children online,” she said, adding that the organization is still in support of the second half of the bill. She said the United Kingdom previously passed its own Online Safety Act that will come into effect in 2025, which includes requiring social media firms to protect children from content such as self-harm material, pornography and violent content. Failure to do so will result in fines. “Canada is really behind,” she said. “The amount of information that has come out of the U.K., the amount of time and care and attention that their legislatures have paid to this issue is really quite remarkable, and we really hope that Canada steps up and does something for Canadian children soon.” In the absence of national legislation, province’s have filled the void. In January, B.C. enacted the Intimate Images Protection Act, providing a path for victims to have online photos, videos or deep fakes expeditiously removed. Individuals are fined up to $500 per day and websites up to $5,000 a day if they don’t comply with orders to stop distributing images that are posted without consent. B.C.’s Ministry of the Attorney General said that as of Dec. 11, the Civil Resolution Tribunal had received a total of 199 disputes under the Intimate Images Protection Act. It said the Intimate Images Protection Service had served more than 240 clients impacted by the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, adding that four awards of $5,000 each and one for $3,000 had been supplied as of mid-December. Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta and Saskatchewan have also enacted legislation targeting unauthorized distribution of intimate images. St. Germain said the use of provincial powers is also necessary, but it’s not enough. “A piece of provincial legislation is going to be very difficult to be effective against multiple actors in multiple countries,” she said, noting that the online crime is borderless. “We need something bigger — more comprehensive. We need to use all tools in the tool box.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2024. Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian PressCOLUMBUS, Ohio — Zach Werenski's goal at 1:25 of overtime punctuated a five-point game as the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied from an early three-goal deficit and beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-6 on Thursday night. Werenski had tied the game at 4 in the second period and added three assists as the Blue Jackets won their second straight game. Sean Monahan had a goal and three assists and Dmitri Voronkov added a goal and an assist. Kent Johnson scored on a power play and short-handed in his first game back after missing 14 contests due to an injury sustained on Oct. 17. Yegor Chinakhov added a goal and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 24 shots. Anthony Cirelli, Mitchell Chaffee, Brandon Hagel and Connor Geekie each had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay. Brayden Point and Cam Atkinson also scored, and Nikita Kucherov finished with three assists. Jonas Johansson made 36 saves. Takeaways Lightning: Tampa Bay appeared to be cruising after scoring three goals in the first, but failed to hold the lead. Blue Jackets: Columbus returned home after seven of its last eight games on the road and scored four times in the second period. Key Moment Tampa Bay jumped out to a three-goal lead in the first period before the second turned into a shootout with Columbus scoring four times and Tampa twice. Key Stat Brayden Point, in his second game back from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for four games, scored a power-play goal at 1:51 of the first period—just 23 seconds into a Columbus penalty. Point has three goals in two games and is tied with Nikita Kucherov for the team lead with 11. Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski (8) scores the winning overtime goal past Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson, left, defenseman Victor Hedman (77) and forward Nikita Kucherov (86) during an NHL hockey game in Columbus, Ohio, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. Credit: AP/Paul Vernon Up Next Both teams are back in action Saturday night. The Lightning host Dallas, while the Blue Jackets host Carolina.
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen health economist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates, to lead the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s leading medical research agency. Trump, in a statement Tuesday evening, said Bhattacharya, a 56-year-old physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, will work in cooperation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, “to direct the Nation’s Medical Research, and to make important discoveries that will improve Health, and save lives.” “Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest Health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease,” he wrote. The decision to choose Bhattacharya for the post is yet another reminder of the ongoing impact of the covid pandemic on the politics on public health. Bhattacharya was one of three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, an October 2020 open letter maintaining that lockdowns were causing irreparable harm. The document — which came before the availability of covid-19 vaccines and during the first Trump administration — promoted “herd immunity,” the idea that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to covid-19 through infection. Protection should focus instead on people at higher risk, the document said. “I think the lockdowns were the single biggest public health mistake,” Bhattacharya said in March 2021 during a panel discussion convened by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Great Barrington Declaration was embraced by some in the first Trump administration, even as it was widely denounced by disease experts. Then- NIH director Dr. Francis Collins called it dangerous and “not mainstream science.” His nomination would need to be approved by the Senate. Trump on Tuesday also announced that Jim O’Neill, a former HHS official and Silicon Valley investor, will serve as deputy secretary of the sprawling agency. Trump said O’Neill “will oversee all operations and improve Management, Transparency, and Accountability to, Make America Healthy Again,” the president-elect announced. O’Neill is a longtime associate of billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel, one of Trump’s leading backers from the tech industry. Thiel and O’Neill co-founded Mithril Capital Management, a venture fund that invests in medical technology and other startup companies. O’Neill previously served in HHS under George W. Bush and was considered to head the Food and Drug Administration during Trump’s first term. He has expressed disdain for federal regulation, including FDA’s approach to regulating emerging drugs and other technologies. O’Neill also worked on some of Thiel’s signature projects, often reflecting his libertarian philosophy. He served on the board of a Thiel-funded nonprofit that aimed to develop man-made islands that would float outside U.S. territory, allowing them to experiment with new forms of government. He also helped form and run the Thiel Fellowship, which awards $100,000 to young entrepreneurs who want to leave school to pursue a business or scientific venture. O’Neill is the only one of Trump’s health picks so far who brings previous experience working inside the HHS bureaucracy. Trump’s previous choices to lead public health agencies — including Kennedy, Dr. Mehmet Oz for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator and Dr. Marty Makary for FDA commissioner — have all been Washington outsiders who are vowing to shake up the agencies. Bhattacharya, who faced restrictions on social media platforms because of his views, was also a plaintiff in Murthy v. Missouri, a Supreme Court case contending that federal officials improperly suppressed conservative views on social media as part of their efforts to combat misinformation. The Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration in that case. After Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he invited Bhattacharya to the company’s headquarters to learn more about how his views had been restricted on the platform, which Musk renamed X. More recently, Bhattacharya has posted on X about scientists leaving the site and joining the alternative site Bluesky, mocking Bluesky as “their own little echo chamber.” Bhattacharya has argued that vaccine mandates that barred unvaccinated people from activities and workplaces undermined Americans’ trust in the public health system. He is a former research fellow at the Hoover Institution and an economist at the RAND Corporation. The National Institutes of Health falls under HHS, which Trump has nominated Kennedy to oversee. The NIH’s $48 billion budget funds medical research on vaccines, cancer and other diseases through competitive grants to researchers at institutions across the nation. The agency also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at NIH labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Among advances that were supported by NIH money are a medication for opioid addiction, a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, many new cancer drugs and the speedy development of mRNA covid-19 vaccines.
Mississippi State is back in the AP Top 25. The No. 19 Bulldogs (11-1) jumped into the rankings last week as they were preparing to face Bethune-Cookman on Monday night in Starkville, Miss. Mississippi State was unranked in the preseason poll and stayed in the rankings for just one week in both of its previous appearances. But it's coming off a performance that suggests it might have some staying power with the start of Southeastern Conference play looming. The visiting Bulldogs won decisively against then-No. 21 Memphis 79-66 on Dec. 21. Bulldogs coach Chris Jans said "it's too early to say" whether his team's most recent performance was indicative of what might be the norm going forward, but he was encouraged by it. "Our guys haven't played the same every time out," Jans said. "I mean no disrespect to anyone else we've played, but it's a different competition (against ranked teams). I've liked how we've played to this point, but who knows how it'll unfold." The Bulldogs routed another top-20 opponent when they defeated then-No. 18 Pitt 90-57 on Dec. 4 in Starkville. "We're certainly happy that we've played our best against the best competition because, in (the SEC), this is what we're going to face every night," Jans said. "It's been well-documented where the SEC is at compared to every other conference this year. Now, can we do it over the course of 10 weeks, where it's like this every single time?" The games against ranked teams are going to start coming with more regularity because there are 10 SEC teams in the current Top 25. "Heading into this season, we had a few goals," forward Cameron Matthews said. "One of them is to try and to compete for a (conference) championship. We felt like we could compete in the SEC. I think we were able to prove it (against Memphis)." The Bulldogs used a 13-0 run to grab an 18-5 lead at Memphis, and they never led by fewer than 10 points the rest of the way. Riley Kugel scored 19 points off the bench, and team leader Josh Hubbard (17.6 ppg) added 13. Bethune-Cookman (3-9) also is looking forward to seeing how it'll stack up in its conference -- the Southwestern Athletic Conference. "We've got a lot of depth and we have age and experience," head coach Reggie Theus said earlier this season. The Wildcats have seven active players averaging double-figure minutes and they feature two graduates, two seniors and three juniors. They are led by a high-scoring trio of guards Brayon Freeman (16.0) and Trey Thomas (12.3) and forward Reggie Ward Jr. (11.7). Ward and Freeman scored 14 points apiece and Thomas added 12 in the team's most recent game, a 76-63 loss at Davidson on Dec. 21. Bethune-Cookman has prepared for conference play with a series of games against power-conference opponents in Texas Tech, Nebraska, Minnesota, Virginia and West Virginia. Theus said "the difficult thing" about the pre-conference schedule has been molding 11 new players into a cohesive team. "That's the bottom line," he said. "We have everything else in place. I'm real excited about where we could end up." --Field Level Media
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