Hoeppner announces bill to stop child porn

Posted By Angela Brown, The Daily Graphic

Updated 2 months ago

The federal government is looking at putting the law into the hands of internet service providers to report to the police, if they are aware of any child pornography on the net.

Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Hoeppner hopes a new government bill, introduced by Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Tuesday, will help eliminate child sexual predators from using the Internet to exploit children.

"Obviously, we realize with the Internet, that really has caused the growth and the increase in child pornography in Canada and around the world," said Hoeppner on Tuesday.

"What we are doing is we are introducing legislation that would ask for a mandatory reporting requirement across the country for all Internet service providers. If they themselves come across child pornography on their own network, they would have to report it to the police, as well as they would have to protect the evidence."

She said many Internet service providers are already voluntarily reporting child pornography, but the government is now making it mandatory to report.

Hoeppner said even if a customer only used a link to an Internet page that contained child pornography, the Internet service provider would need to advise the police.

The aim of the proposed bill would apply to suppliers of Internet services, electronic mail, content hosting and social networking sites. Suppliers would be required to notify police and safeguard material as evidence.

abrown@cpheraldleader.com

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