New Federal Funding Expands Child Protection Efforts

Winnipeg, Canada — The Government of Canada announced $8.4 million in funding to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) over three years, marking a landmark contribution that will enable the charity to vastly expand its operations.

“We receive heartbreaking calls from children every day when they are in a state of panic and desperation because of the sexual victimization they’ve experienced online,” said Lianna McDonald, executive director of C3P.

“We are incredibly grateful to receive this unprecedented support from the Government of Canada that prioritizes the protection of children. This investment will help us scale operations to reach more children in need of safety and protection from online harm.”

C3P operates Cybertip.ca, Canada’s tipline to report the online sexual exploitation of children, which was adopted under the Government of Canada’s National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet over 20 years ago. During this time, C3P has witnessed and actively fought against a rising wave of online sexual violence against children.

In 2025, Cybertip.ca received approximately 30,000 reports from the public and C3P’s Support Services team managed nearly 4,000 requests from survivors, youth, and their parents. In the past five years alone, reports have steadily increased in severity:

• Reports involving luring increased by more than 300% between 2020 and 2025.
• Reports of sextortion increased from 460 in 2020 to 3,000 in 2025.
• Reports of sexually explicit AI-generated images and videos of children increased by 570% between 2024 and 2025.

This announcement, combined with the government’s ongoing work to advance the Safe Social Media Act (Bill C-34), is aligning Canada’s efforts to safeguard children in digital spaces with those of other peer nations in a global response to online harms.

C3P thanks the Government of Canada for their contributions and meaningful support.