The Canadian Centre for Child Protection is emphasizing the importance of communicating with children about staying safe while online.

From April to June, reported instanced of child exploitation greatly increased across Canada.

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection says that they are seeing an 81 per cent leap from last year in online incidents involving children.

p, a branch of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, is a national tipline for online child exploitation. They emphasis open communication between children and parents about the internet.

"Kids are engaged both online and offline with their peers," Sauer says. He adds that conversations about online safety should be "part of regular, healthy family conversations."

Sauer finds that communication is the most important factor in helping children stay safe.

"You never are going to know one hundred per cent what your child is doing online... but you have control of that device."

Sauer says establishing limits on the internet with children when they begin to go online will make it easier to communicate limits later on with them.

Staying up-to-date with the latest apps can be tricky, but Sauer is emphasiz the importance of doing so.

When allowing children to use online technology, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection suggests for parents to also download the apps and explore its privacy settings.

"It does not necessarily mean the parent has to be connected to the youth one hundred per cent on that app, but really it is about gaining an understanding of what that app offers or that service offers so that you can then mitigate the risks for your youth," Sauer says.

Cybertip is asking parents to have a conversation with young ones when they first go online about the household rules regarding the internet and to clearly state roles regarding internet safety.

"You are going to be looking at what they are doing, you are going to be checking in and seeing how they are doing on a particular app, learning more about what is happening, and learning more about who they are engaging with and making sure that, especially at a young age, it is only friends."

Sauer says that child exploitation can happen to any child, but by having conversations about the risks will help children stay safe.

"In the event where anything happens that they feel uncomfortable online or the situation feels like it is getting out of hand, (you) are there as parents to help guide them through it."