Child luring and exploitation through Snapchat is on the rise. Here's what you should look out for

Law enforcement and government officials say they've seen an increase in social media platforms such as Snapchat being used to lure and sexually exploit children and youth since 2020.

They believe the rise is partly due to increased screen times as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic shifting people to largely communicate online.

In London, Ont., police have received numerous reports of adults using social media to inappropriately engage with minors, including the exchange of intimate photos and videos, and sexual solicitation.

"We're seeing exploitation in relation to children all across the age spectrum," said Det. Jeremy Dann of London police's Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit. "Generally, it's on social media apps and chat rooms. 

"Sextortion, or sexual-based extortion for profit, is becoming extremely common. Several times per week, we have reports coming in about a local child that's been victimized in this way," Dann said.

In December, David G. Nicol, 50, of London faced charges for a second time, after allegedly posing as a 14-year-old boy to sextort teens. He was charged with more than 30 sexual assault offences dating back to 2018. A few weeks later, London police's ICE Unit arrested a 44-year-old man from Scarborough in suburban Toronto for allegedly luring teens under age 16.

Although unrelated, in both cases, Snapchat was allegedly used to communicate with young people.

In 2021, Dann's unit saw a 38 per cent jump in reported incidents of online enticement and sexual exploitation, compared to the previous year. In 2022, that number rose to 40 per cent, he said. 

But Dann said this surge is not unique to London. His team works with ICE units across Canada, and all of them are noticing the same increase in and patterns of exploitation, Dann said.

In an emailed statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for Snapchat wrote, "Snap was intentionally designed to be a visual communications platform for communicating with your real friends — and our product design includes safeguards to make it harder for strangers to find and contact younger people.

"We routinely work with safety experts and law enforcement to help combat [exploitation]; we have also rolled out new in-app safety tools called Family Center, with the goal of giving parents more insight into who their teens are communicating with on Snapchat," the statement reads. 

"Many modern social media apps are designed to delete messages after they've been sent or received; they're designed to keep parents in the dark about what their child is truly up to," Dann said. "This feature poses a risk as it can hide problematic behaviours."

Catherine Tabak of the Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) said platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat are created in a way that appeals to kids.

"With Snapchat, there's a false sense of security that information or pictures are being deleted and that there's no evidence of communication that's occurring between two people on that platform."