A Kinsa Success

Frequently Asked Questions

Impact Statements

How We Make A Difference

Kinsa is helping to coordinate a global response to a global problem.

The Internet has provided a real opportunity to identify and rescue child victims whose abuse has been recorded and shared. There are approximately one million images of child abuse on the Internet involving about fifty thousand different victims from around the world. Interpol reports that less than 1,300 of these victims have been identified and rescued.

For the last ten years some law enforcement agencies around the world have developed units where officers have specific expertise in the image analysis of the crime-scene photograph. Often, clues in the background of the images help investigators identify the location that the picture was taken. These specific efforts are coordinated by the Interpol Specialists Group on Crimes Against Children, in Lyon, France. Canadian law enforcement agencies are amongst the best in the world in this area and have been involved in the identification and rescue of dozens of these victims from every corner of the globe. Selflessly working with the “global team”, no matter where in the world the victim might live, is one of the main themes of the Kinsa training. Once enough officers are trained in such methods, then many of the remaining 49,000 victims will be identified and rescued.

Kinsa’s train the trainer program exposes students to experts from a variety of sectors, including the IT industry, government, victim’s services and law enforcement, who all lend their expertise to the training. Kinsa introduces students to their “new social network” - others in this field from around the world. Ongoing support and capacity building for law enforcement are a key part of the Kinsa training model to ensure the students have access to the latest investigative techniques.

To facilitate ongoing cooperation between law enforcement in different countries, Kinsa has developed and maintains an online community forum for Kinsa alumni. This ensures that communication may continue between members of this new social network, which will work toward developing and maintaining relationships as they move forward in forming a global law enforcement presence on the Internet.

A KINSA Success

Selflessly working with the “global team”, no matter where in the world the victim might live, is one of the main themes of the KINSA training. Once enough officers are trained in such methods and are patrolling the Internet, then they too will be involved in such rescues, some right here in Canada. In fact, this has already happened.

In 2008 officers from the Toronto Police Service and the Maine State Police led an 18 month investigation regarding a series of images of abuse posted on the Internet. The investigators believed that the pictures were taken near the border between New Brunswick and Maine. Members of the Interpol Specialist Group for Crimes Against Children had also been involved, scouring their own countries’ image databases for previously undiscovered pictures in this series. None were found and the investigation had stalled. In May of 2008, a team of investigators and computer forensic analysts from the Brazilian Federal Police came to Canada for KINSA training. During training, the officers were made aware of this case and invited to join the Interpol Group. One of the computer analysts did so, and by using his extensive experience and the Brazilian image database, this analyst found many pictures in this series of abuse which had never been seen by the Interpol Group before. One of the pictures he found was the missing piece of the puzzle , and, once completed, an offender in New Brunswick was identified and arrested by the R.C.M.P. The offender has to date been charged with new and historical offences involving ten child victims and is suspected of having many more. Click here to read CBC coverage of the story.