With the holiday season in full swing and students about to head out of classes for the Christmas break, the federal government has taken an important and worthwhile step to protect those same kids from Internet predators.
Last week, new legislation, Bill C-22, came into effect making it mandatory for Internet service providers to immediately report instances of child pornography to the police.
While some of the federal government's recent crime reform initiatives have been less than universally applauded, this new legislation is good for all Canadian children and their families, including those in West Central Alberta.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says the new legislation is an important part of the ongoing nationwide effort to protect children from online sexual exploitation and to bring those responsible for the proliferation of child pornography to justice.
“Canadians are rightfully concerned that in 2010 child pornography offences were up by more than 30 percent,” said Nicholson. “The sexual exploitation of children by Internet sexual predators is a very serious crime and our government is committed to taking tough action against it.”
Bill C-22 applies to suppliers of Internet services to the public, including those who provide electronic mail services, Internet content hosting services and social networking sites.
The legislation requires those suppliers to report child pornography they receive or uncover to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and to notify police and safeguard evidence if they believe that a child pornography offence has been committed using an Internet service they provide.
Three years ago, the federal, provincial and territorial justice ministers agreed that the fight against child pornography would be enhanced by federal legislation establishing mandatory reporting of online child pornography by Internet service providers. This new legislation makes such reporting the law of the land.
“We are confident that this legislation will reduce the circulation of these harmful images, rescue victims and identify those committing crimes against children,” said Lianna McDonald, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, an organization that operates the Cybertip.ca online tip line for reporting sexual abuse of children.
While this new federal legislation will hopefully help bring more and more criminals who target children to justice – and deter others from going down that same terrible path – the general public can also play an important role in helping fight child pornography.
All it takes is a phone call to any Alberta RCMP detachment to start a police investigation into child pornography crimes – and residents of all ages are certainly encouraged to do just that.
