March 2026

Bill C-16: An Act to amend certain Acts in relation to criminal and correctional matters (child protection, gender-based violence, delays and other measures)

Daughter Project Canada welcomes the government’s intent in Bill C-16 to protect children and victims of gender-based violence. The bill represents meaningful progress: it recognizes emerging forms of harm, including technology-facilitated abuse and coercive control, and it reflects a growing legislative understanding that exploitation in the digital age demands a criminal law response.

However, Daughter Project Canada respectfully submits that criminal law reform alone cannot end exploitation or violence. Without strong prevention measures, sustained survivor supports, and robust accountability mechanisms, the criminal justice system will remain reactive rather than protective.

This concern reflects Daughter Project Canada’s core mandate: awareness, prevention, and advocacy. It also echoes testimony heard by this Committee. Attorney General Sean Fraser, in the first meeting of this study, expressed a desire to empower frontline workers such as RCMP and police, and noted that investing in programs targeting at-risk youth should be considered. Daughter Project Canada strongly agrees, and further submits that prevention can and must happen upstream of policing measures.

On the question of risk: Daughter Project Canada cautions against framing vulnerability too narrowly. Any Canadian child or youth who accesses the internet is potentially at risk regardless of socio-economic status, geographic location, family structure, immigration status, ethnicity, or disability status. Online exploitation does not conform to traditional “at-risk” categories. Daughter Project Canada developed its Sextortion Safety Guide in direct response to demand from a broad cross-section of Canadian caregivers; our donors and supporters who represent communities from coast to coast to coast. The demand for that resource is itself evidence that online exploitation does not discriminate.

The four recommendations below reflect Daughter Project Canada’s position that non-criminal reforms must accompany the criminal provisions of Bill C-16 if parliament intends this legislation to meaningfully protect Canadian children and youth. The first two recommendations address a specific drafting concern within the bill itself: the current definition of ‘intimate image’, and broadening the mandatory reporting requirements of internet service providers.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Strengthen the Definition of ‘Intimate Image’ to Reflect a Harm-Reduction Standard

Daughter Project Canada recommends that the definition of ‘intimate image’ in Bill C-16 be amended to replace the current standard, ‘likely to be mistaken for a visual recording of that person’, with the following: ‘that is presented or capable of being presented as a visual recording of that person.’

The current definition conditions legal protection on the technical quality of a fabricated image; only a deepfake convincing enough to be mistaken for a real recording falls within scope. This is a realism threshold, not a harm threshold. Daughter Project Canada submits that the harm of a sexualized deepfake or non-consensual intimate image does not depend on how convincing it is. The harm lies in its creation, its potential distribution, and its impact on the dignity, safety, and wellbeing of the person depicted. A survivor should not bear the burden of proving their abuser’s technical competence.

The proposed language of ‘presented or capable of being presented as a visual recording’ shifts the legal question from quality to intent and potential. This framing is consistent with a harm-reduction approach. It protects survivors at the point of creation and threatened distribution, not only after a sufficiently convincing fake has already caused damage. As generative AI tools become more widely accessible, the line between ‘convincing’ and ‘unconvincing’ deepfakes will continue to shift. A quality-based standard will require constant reinterpretation; a harm-based standard will not.

Recommendation 2: Address Online Exploitation Through Shared Responsibility, Not Only Criminal Penalties

Bill C-16 updates criminal offences related to online exploitation but places responsibility primarily on individuals after harm has occurred. Daughter Project Canada’s prevention work stresses that systems and platforms must share responsibility for child safety online. Notification of CSAEM should occur without delay or exception. We submit that every provider of an internet service should take reasonable steps to prevent, detect, and mitigate the use of its services for the commission of a child sexual abuse and exploitation material offence.

Daughter Project Canada recommends the development of parallel regulatory and civil measures that require online platforms to proactively detect and report child exploitation material, support rapid takedown mechanisms, and fund digital safety education.

Recommendations related to implementation of C-16 if passed:

Pair Criminal Offences with Mandatory National Prevention Measures

Daughter Project Canada recommends that Bill C-16 be amended or accompanied by a federal commitment to national, evidence-based prevention programming and resources addressing online sexual exploitation of children, grooming and coercive control, and technology-facilitated abuse, including sexualized deepfakes.

Bill C-16 recognizes coercive control, threats to distribute sexual images, and child exploitation material as offences, but does not mandate prevention or education initiatives tied to these harms. Daughter Project Canada’s work emphasizes that prevention is the first and most effective line of defence, particularly for children and youth. Once a child lives through the trauma of sextortion or another form of exploitation, the impact on the life of that child is often permanent.

Mandate National Data Collection and Public Reporting on Child Sexual Exploitation

Daughter Project Canada recommends the introduction of statutory obligations to collect standardized national data on child sexual exploitation and technology-facilitated abuse, and to publicly report on trends, prosecution outcomes, and prevention gaps.

Bill C-16 defines and criminalizes new forms of exploitation but does not require systematic data collection or reporting. Other organizations appearing before this Committee have highlighted that a lack of data undermines both prevention efforts and accountability, particularly for children exposed to violence. Evidence-based policymaking requires evidence which, over the last 10 years, Daughter Project Canada has found difficult to come by.