Reporting online problems

Reporting dangerous online situations

If a child or teen is in immediate physical danger, call 911 or your local police. If a young person is in danger of being lured into a real-life meeting with a predator, fill out cybertip.ca's online reporting form at http://www.cybertip.ca or use their toll-free phone line: 1-866-658-9022 to report it as soon as possible. You should also contact your local police. If a child or teen is being stalked, harassed or threatened online, contact your local police. You should also report any such incidents to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). If the incident involves a fellow student, contact your school principal as well.

Reporting illegal online material and activities

Child pornography

To report online child pornography, fill out cybertip.ca's online reporting form at http://www.cybertip.ca or use their toll-free phone line: 1-866-658-9022. You should also contact your local police.

Hate propaganda

Report online hate to your local police. It's not always easy to tell whether hateful online content is illegal rather than just offensive and annoying. Nevertheless, the police are not able to prosecute offenders if they don't know about them. Public response is therefore crucial. You should also contact the ISP responsible for hosting the content.*

Obscenity

Although pornography is not illegal, publishing obscene material - including that which contains undue exploitation of sex and crime, horror, cruelty or violence - is a crime. Report obscene online material to your local police, and contact the ISP responsible for hosting the content.* (* Keep in mind, ISPs do not have the legal right to decide if material is illegal. Most ISPs are therefore reluctant to remove suspect content from their servers unless it violates their acceptable use policy or they receive official direction from a law enforcement agency.)

Fraud

You can report Internet fraud directly to the RCMP by using its Reporting Economic Crime Online (RECOL) site at http://www.recol.ca, or use their toll-free phone line: 1-888-495-8501. Remember to keep any evidence related to your complaint.

Reporting offensive online material

If you have complaints about Internet content that is offensive, but not illegal - such as spam (junk e-mail), privacy invasions, adult pornography, some hateful content, etc. - report them either to your ISP, or to the ISP responsible for the content.