AfterTek

Canada’s biggest Internet service providers have agreed to block hundreds of offending websites in an effort to get rid of child pornography. Telecom companies such as Bell Canada, Rogers, Shaw, SaskTel, Telus, Videotron and MTS Allstream are partnering with Cybertip.ca to launch “Project Cleanfeed Canada” that will block between 500 and 800 offending websites. Cybertip.ca, a national child sexual exploitation hotline, will provide the names of sites to be blocked. The hotline relies mostly on tips from the public.

The list of websites will be updated daily and will prevent both intentional and accidental viewing of the sites, according to Lianna McDonald, executive director of Cybertip.ca. Details of how the automated technical system will work and help filter the sites can’t be described for security reasons. Although the coalition of Internet service providers and other stakeholders under the Canadian Coalition Against Internet Child Exploitation have been around since 2004, the partnerships took about a year to build, according to Jay Thomson, assistant vice-president of broadband policy with Telus.

“It took us a fair amount of time to investigate and initiate this project,” said Thomson. “We wanted to make sure both our technical and legal side would work with each of our networks.” The Internet service providers also wanted to make sure Cybertip.ca would be comfortable taking on the role of creating a list of Internet addresses that would be filtered, Thomson said.

The lists will then be incorporated in an electronically secure manner that will automatically  be incorporated into Internet service provider filters. “ISP doesn’t have any input into the list. That’s part of what we had to work out,” said Thomson. “I don’t think we have to see these things to understand our contribution,” he said, referring to the websites. There were also other considerations taken into account. That technical equipment actually works and accomplishes what it should do, as well keeping it all within the boundaries of law.

“We wanted to make sure it was consistent with Canadian law, how it deals with child exploitation. And we wanted to feel comfortable that this was something that consumers would understand and appreciate, that it was for their protection,” said Thomson. The RCMP and Cybertip.ca say information will not be logged about users who try to access the offending sites. “There are two kinds of people. People who are seeking out the content and accessing it.

“And then there are those who inadvertently end up coming to a site,” said McDonald, explaining why there will be no logging of information. The filtering system will also take into account those who host these websites and move them around a lot, often reacting to filters. “This is an ongoing issue that is there all the time, said McDonald.

“When you are looking at people doing this type of content, they do move these sites around but it makes it more difficult to host this type of content when this sort of solution is happening.” Cybertip.ca and the ISPs will work with law enforcement agencies, which, in turn, will investigate cases where Canadian sites are involved.

“With child abuse and the Internet, there’s no one foolproof solution,” said McDonald. Since launching in 2002, cybertip.ca has been responsible for removing 1,100 websites, which have led to about 20 arrests.