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AI-Assisted Classification of Child Sexual Exploitation Material

Enforcement · Risk Assessment & Triage

What it collects that can identify you

Biometric
Identifiable data
  • Lawfully obtained images and videos that may depict the bodies of children. This is the primary input to the classification system.
Sensitive personal information
Identifiable data
  • The images and videos processed by this system involve personal information, specifically potentially identifying content related to child victims of sexual exploitation.
Run by
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization
Your copy
You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

EnforcementRisk Assessment & Triage

LASERi-X is a law-enforcement tool used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to automatically categorize and classify images and videos that may constitute child sexual exploitation material. The AI pre-qualifies content, and a human investigator reviews and confirms every classification. The AI use is not disclosed to individuals whose images are being processed, and personal information is involved.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Biometric
Identifiable data
  • Lawfully obtained images and videos that may depict the bodies of children. This is the primary input to the classification system.
Sensitive personal information
Identifiable data
  • The images and videos processed by this system involve personal information, specifically potentially identifying content related to child victims of sexual exploitation.

Processing

Computer Vision
  • Image and object recognition is used to interpret visual content in images and videos for categorization purposes.
Classification & Prediction
  • The system classifies images and videos into categories of child sexual exploitation material. The AI assigns a category label; human review then confirms the classification.

What it does

Sensing (Perceptive AI)
Human decides
  • The system senses and interprets visual content — turning raw image and video inputs into structured categorization outputs. Human review confirms every AI classification before action is taken.
Deciding (Analytical AI)
Human decides
  • The system classifies and categorizes images and videos into exploitation-material categories based on visual content analysis. All outputs are reviewed by a human investigator before being acted upon.

Outputs

A decision about you
Identifiable data
  • The AI produces a pre-qualification determination categorizing content as child exploitation material, which is then confirmed or overridden by a human reviewer. This classification can influence investigative and prosecutorial decisions.

Run by

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
  • The RCMP is the federal law-enforcement department that deploys and operates LASERi-X. GC employees are the primary users of this system.

Government of Canada AI Register — LASERi-X

Built by

Semantics 21
  • Semantics 21 is the vendor that built and supplies the LASERi-X system to the RCMP.

Government of Canada AI Register — LASERi-X

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization
  • Output and classification results are available to the RCMP (GC employees) as the primary users and accountable organization.
Not available to me
  • AI use is not disclosed to individuals whose images are being processed. There is no mechanism for affected persons to access information about the AI system's involvement.

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseAI use is not disclosed to individuals whose images are processed by this system. The register indicates 'AI use disclosed to users: N'. There is no publicly stated mechanism for affected persons to be informed of the AI system's involvement in the classification of their images.
  • Right to a Human ReviewAll AI pre-qualifications are reviewed and confirmed by a human investigator before being acted upon. This human review step is built into the system's workflow and applies to every classification.

Risks and safeguards

  • Civil liberties harmAutomated classification of personal and sensitive imagery in a law-enforcement context could affect individuals' rights if misclassification occurs or if material is processed without appropriate legal authority.Safeguard: The system requires human review to confirm every AI pre-qualification before any classification is acted upon, providing a human-in-the-loop check on automated determinations.
  • Reputational harmMisclassification of lawfully obtained images could falsely associate individuals with child exploitation material, causing severe reputational harm.Safeguard: Human review is required to confirm all AI classifications before they are treated as final, reducing the risk of acting on erroneous automated outputs.