The Toronto police sex crimes unit descended on another home last week. Inside, they found devices filled with child sexual abuse material, and now a 37-year-old man is facing 11 charges. We’ll never know how many children were harmed before he was caught.
But according to new Statistics Canada data, his crimes are far from unique. He's just one of thousands of perpetrators of online child sex abuse crimes in Canada. In 2024, almost 1,800 were arrested, according to the most recent data available. And the prevalence of online child sexual abuse has skyrocketed, surging 347 per cent in a single decade.
When it comes to protecting kids, our first thought is often the parents: things like monitoring kids’ internet use and warning them about predators. Of course, the real responsibility lies in the hands of those causing harm. Yet most prevention discourse focuses exclusively on victims and bystanders.
As forensic psychologist Dr. Ainslie Heasman put it, we have an ethical responsibility to intervene before perpetrators cause harm instead of asking parents and children “to prevent their own abuse.”
Heasman co-founded the Talking for Change initiative as a way to bridge that gap. Part helpline, part therapy, TFC is a first-of-its-kind service in Canada, offering prevention-focused support for people worried about their sexual interest in children. It’s housed in the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
I was excited to hear about the program when it was announced five years ago. That might sound strange, but I had reason to grasp the significance. When I was 24 years old, I volunteered at the Toronto Distress Centre. One regular, a man in his 20s, used to call from the train tracks while contemplating suicide. He'd known for some time that he was attracted to children, and because of that, society would always despise him.
But he never harmed a child and was desperate never to do so. He just didn't know where to turn for help. How could he even ask when the disclosure would guarantee he’d be seen as less than human?
Until that call, the existence of people like him — those struggling to fight insidious urges they rejected — was something I’d never considered.
Years later, I co-facilitated a group for men who had committed sexual offences against children. It was too late for them. The harm was already done.
But something that always stuck with me was the way they described their turning points. For one man, the day he was arrested was the best day of his life. He’d been disgusted with himself, bewildered by his actions. At least now, he later told us, he knew he’d be forced to change.
Between these two stories is where we fail to prevent harm.
As of February, the TFC helpline has facilitated more than 1,700 conversations. About 10 per cent of those calls are from “bystanders,” Heasman told me in an interview, meaning someone worried about the attractions of a friend or family member. She was also quick to note that not everyone who offends has clinical pedophilia — roughly half of them don't — which means the program's reach extends further than many assume.
The remaining 90 per cent of callers are worried about their own behaviours, many of whom are disclosing their concerns for the first time. Heasman said a “very substantial” number of them understand the harm their actions could cause and are committed to not offending.
She said five per cent of callers are themselves, children.
“When you're having a conversation with a 14-year-old who is terrified of sexual attractions he knows are not similar to what his friends are talking about … I think folks don't understand that that's part of the work we do,” she told me.
But whether one feels empathy for these callers doesn't matter. What matters is the practical consequence of staying hidden. And the equation is simple: isolation equals risk.
Police units across the country are recognizing this fact. This includes the Toronto Police Service, which now includes referrals to TFC at the bottom of arrest reports, like the one released last week.
If we want to end child sexual abuse, we must start upstream by reaching those at risk of harming kids before they become abusers.
We need services, not stigma, to ensure that help reaches them.
