Counter Pedophilia Investigate Unit

The Conservatives plan to introduce a new bill that would compel Internet service providers (ISPs) to report child pornography to the police, CTV News has learned.

The proposed legislation would require ISPs to report to a designated agency on tips they receive about websites where child pornography is available. They would also have to notify the police if the ISP believes a child porn offence has been committed using their Internet service.

Similar legislation is already in place in the United States.

Child rights advocates have long lobbied for the measure. Canada is the world’s second largest home to online child pornography and the second-largest online seller of child pornography material, such as images, videos or memberships.

According to the Canadian Centre for Child protection, about half of all child pornography images feature children under the age of eight and nearly a third of those images feature serious sexual assaults.

“We know what’s going on out there on the Internet. we know that everyone who has a sexual interest in children is out there as well. There just need to be rules how we can protect our children,” child advocate Rosalind Prober told CTV News.

However, some advocates say the legislation doesn’t go far enough to stop the rapid spread of child pornography online.

“This legislation — in fairness to the ISPs — only obliges them to report if they are aware. So there is a huge volume of traffic that they can not be aware of that is child abuse image-related,” David Butt of the Kids’ Internet Safety Alliance said.

While the larger ISP providers control about 80 per cent of the Canadian market, the remaining 20 per cent is spread out over about 400 ISPs.

The Kids’ Internet Safety Alliance says the larger ISPs often cooperate with the police and it is the smaller ISPs the legislation is aimed at.

The bill is expected to pass with near unanimous support from the House of Commons.

With a report from CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife and Omar Sachedina

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