By Henry Brook

A new Health Sciences Master’s degree at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) will focus on combating Child Sex Trafficking (CST) and Online Child Sexual Exploitation (OCSE).

The degree, which falls under the Faculty of Community Services, aims to meet the “urgent need for education that equips professionals to combat CST and OCSE as a children’s rights issue and a global public health crisis,” the press release reads.

The program will be led by associate dean Jennifer Martin, whose research has been at the forefront of this issue for 15 years.

The Eyeopener reached out to Martin for comment, who was unavailable for an interview.

In a statement to The Eye, the university said students can expect to take theories, methodologies, therapeutic practices and lived experiences, then integrate them into the real-world and design best practice responses to support victims.

Child and youth care professor Tara Collins is part of the new program’s faculty. She said Martin’s expertise and the “dedicated efforts” of the program’s faculty will be crucial to the success of the program.

“It’s essential given the complexity and scope and scale of the issue of sexual exploitation with children,” Collins said.

She also said addressing CST and OCSE requires people who are passionate about advocating against the issue.

“There has to be specialized training to support people who are passionate about children and young people and passionate about better understanding and responding to the issues in order to better support the young people and their families and communities involved,” Collins said.

The degree has been developed through collaboration with numerous agencies including highly experienced anti-CST/OCSE leaders from the Government of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a number of survivor-led and youth mental health organizations, the announcement said.

Ashley Franssen-Tingley is director of Stakeholder Relations at the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking. She said any efforts to fight child trafficking will require collaboration.

“This is a whole-of-society response, so this can’t just be NGOs and governments at the table. We need to have survivors. We need to have academics. We need to have private sector companies, including the tech companies, at the table addressing this,” Franssen-Tingley said.

She also said an increased focus on child-specific trafficking has been needed.

“[Child trafficking survivors are] quite an underserved population when we’re thinking about the anti-trafficking response infrastructure in Canada,” she said.
Erica Gorenko, a second-year criminology student, said many don’t realize how often child sex trafficking happens.

“There’s a bunch of crime that happens that is more talked about compared to child sex trafficking, even though it’s one of the most serious and important crimes that can happen to children,” Gorenko said.

According to a 2022 Statistics Canada report, women and girls made up 96 per cent of detected human trafficking victims in Canada, with a quarter of all victims under the age of 18.

Statistics Canada also reports there was a 43 percent increase in the rate of online sexual offences against children from 2023 to 2024, an increase of 1,230 incidents, driven by a 65 per cent in the rate of luring.

Online offenders took advantage of children who were largely at home and online during COVID-19, a period when online child exploitation cases sharply increased, a 2024 Royal Canadian Mounted Police report said.

Franssen-Tingley said university-age students bringing their knowledge, perspectives and experiences will be helpful in the fight against child trafficking in Canada.

In a phone call with The Eye, TMU president Mohamed Lachemi said the program comes at an important time when AI, social media, loneliness and disorientation are common in the lives of children and youth.

“The program attempts to close the gap in services and training to equip professionals to combat these serious issues and we are very proud to be the first university in Canada to offer such a program,” Lachemi said.

With Indigenous girls making up half of all girls trafficked in Canada, according to the 2014 National Task Force on Sex Trafficking of Women and Girls in Canada, the degree will make special efforts to recognize how these communities are impacted, according to the announcement

Zara Cox, a third-year social work student, said whilst the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives is critical, she hopes it is done in a way that avoids harm.

“I would hope that it’s done safely in a way that’s not going to harm or re-traumatize people that have been involved in those experiences. Because I think the Indigenous communities should be at the core of the program,” she said.

The program is taught through a trauma-informed lens and places significant emphasis on wellbeing and self care strategies, TMU said in a statement to The Eye.

The statement also said the program includes lessons on trauma experienced by professionals in the field, as well as strategies for improving retention by focusing on wellness and self care.

Franssen-Tingley said graduates of the program should be well prepared to begin helping address the pressing issue not long after graduation.

“I can see that graduates of this program would be in demand and able to take that knowledge and translate it across a variety of different roles in the space,” she said. 

Applications to the program for the Fall 2027 semester open in December. 

If you or someone you know is experiencing any form of trafficking or exploitation, you can call the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010 — available 24/7/365 and in over 200 languages.

If you suspect or are aware of child sexual abuse or exploitation, or need support, you can contact Canada’s national tipline for reporting the sexual exploitation of children at 1-866-658-9022 or report online at cybertip.ca.