The offence of child luring, under Section 172.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada, is a serious crime that can lead to incarceration and mandatory registration on the National Sex Offender Registry (SOIRA).
Added to the Criminal Code in 2002, child luring involves using the internet or other digital means to communicate with a person under the age of 18 for a sexual purpose.
The addition was part of a legislative push to modernize the law for the internet age. Before this, law enforcement struggled to address “grooming” behaviours that took place entirely online before any physical meeting or contact occurred.
Your internet search history becomes critical evidence if you are accused of child luring. Let’s consider what happens during the investigation, how the prosecution will use search history evidence, and how your defence lawyer can defeat the charges.
How are accusations of child luring investigated?
If you’re accused of attempting to contact a minor with the intent of engaging in sexual activity or other prohibited actions, the Crown Prosecutor does not need to prove that a meeting took place, only that you engaged in the behaviour described.
An investigation will be launched by the Calgary Police Service (CPS) or a special unit of the RCMP called the Integrated Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit.
Officers may monitor suspicious behaviour from a public tip-off. If enough evidence is available, they will obtain a search warrant. You may not know that you’re under investigation until ICE officers knock on the door, execute a search warrant, and arrest you.
How will your search history be obtained?
The investigation team will be looking for evidence to prove your intent to lure a child. They will seize electronic equipment, such as:
- Computers and laptops
- Smartphones and tablets
- Gaming consoles
- Smart devices
- External hard drives
These devices will be forensically examined for evidence of communication or solicitation, including your internet search history and downloaded files. ICE officers typically obtain warrants to request data from ISPs and search engines (Google, Bing, etc.)
Even if your search history is deleted or you use “incognito mode”, digital forensic experts can often recover metadata, cached files, and time-stamped queries.
Sometimes, random or misinterpreted search queries can become the prosecution’s central evidence.
How will the prosecution build a case from your search history?
To convict you of a child luring charge, the Crown must prove you communicated with a minor for the purpose of committing a specific offence (e.g., sexual interference).
Investigators will look for search terms related to meeting children to help establish a state of mind that suggests the intention of “grooming” a child.
Prosecutors will use your search history to attempt to show a pattern of behaviour, searching for specific platforms, forums, or ways to bypass age filters.
If multiple people live in your household, your search history may help the Crown “place the person at the keyboard” by matching search habits with the timing of the alleged communications.
Possible misunderstandings with search history
A search history from a computer browser may indicate a pattern of behaviour but does it prove intent to lure a child?
Not every search implies a desire to act. Professional research, morbid curiosity, or accidental clicks can lead to suspicious history that lacks criminal intent. Similarly, a single search term does not tell the whole story or indicate a “pattern of behaviour.”
In writing this FAQ, for instance, we needed to use search terms that included “child luring”. News reporters may also need to search for questionable terms to research news stories.
Defence counsel often works to provide an alternative narrative that explains why these terms were searched.
Possible defences to child luring charges
Sometimes, misunderstandings, mistakes, or gaps in the search history evidence can be used by your defence team to claim that the person performing the searches was not you.
A criminal defence lawyer seasoned in child luring cases will pore through the evidence to check for doubt over the identity of the person performing the search(es).
Besides “identity”, your defence lawyer will examine your internet search history and other evidence for other possible defences to the charge of child luring, such as:
- Lack of intent: The communication was not for a ‘prohibited purpose.’
- Reasonable steps: You took active steps to verify age or had an ‘honest but mistaken’ belief the person was an adult.
- Charter challenges: Section 8 of the Charter, or other challenges can address illegal searches, the right to privacy, the right to counsel, etc.
- Entrapment: Investigators (often posing as children online in sting operations) pressured you into a crime you would not otherwise have committed.
- Technical defences: Based on the forensic reliability of the software used by the investigators.
Should you delete your search history if you’re under investigation for child luring?
In Alberta courts, the sudden deletion of data immediately after learning of an investigation can be interpreted as “spoliation of evidence” or a sign of a “guilty mind” (mens rea).
Besides, deleting your search history often leaves an obvious gap for investigators, which may lead to more aggressive scrutiny.
If you are under investigation for child luring, don’t try to explain your search history to the police. Digital evidence is technical and easily misinterpreted.
The best way to protect your rights and take steps to protect your future is by consulting as soon as possible with a criminal defence lawyer with experience in defending these charges.
Speak with a criminal defence lawyer at Wilson Criminal Defence during a free, no-obligation consultation if you are concerned about child luring accusations. Call 403-978-6052 or email us here.
