Centre for Innovation Law and Policy and Microsoft Canada Join Forces to Strengthen Canada's Child Sexual Exploitation Laws
Microsoft and Centre for Innovation Law and Policy introduce Safe Computing Program designed to develop research as basis for International spring symposium
The University of Toronto's Centre for Innovation Law and Policy (CILP) and Microsoft Canada launched the "Safe Computing Program" on February 21, 2005 to help in the fight against online child sexual exploitation. Microsoft Canada has donated $100,000 to the Centre for research into the legal and policy issues related to online safety for children, and work with the office of the Attorney General (Ontario) in developing new policies.
Five U of T law students are researching sentencing guidelines from an international perspective to help prosecutors argue for longer sentences when someone has been convicted of possessing or distributing images of child sexual abuse.
In addition to the research, the Centre will use the funds to host a major international academic conference on May 2, 2005, at U of T's law school. The Centre will help develop a set of recommendations from the conference for legislative changes to Canada's exploitation laws.
This joint initiative is another step toward fighting online child abuse images and child luring. In January 2005, a tip line called Cypertips.ca was launched to allow Canadians to report child sexual exploitation on the Internet.
According to lawyer and expert David Butt, the Internet has redefined child exploitation. "By some estimates, more than 20,000 images of child sexual abuse are posted on the Internet each week. That is a social explosion of the worst kind. We must not assume that law enforcement has the tools needed to respond effectively. We need to study important questions about what new approaches we need, and how existing laws can be better applied to viewers, collectors, distributors and producers in Canada and abroad. I welcome the independent scholarly insight that the Centre can provide on these important questions. And I commend Microsoft for making this independent study possible."
CILP Executive Director, Richard Owens, says there is a limited pool of expertise in these issues and the Centre felt it needed to make this commitment to help children stay safe on-line. "This partnership between Microsoft and the Centre provides the opportunity for the first time to examine how new technologies are presenting challenges to the enforcement of existing public safety legislation. From an academic perspective, it's important to try to help law enforcement with this urgent social issue. From a broader perspective, it gets at the most fundamental issues of the Internet in our society."
Microsoft Canada's engagement with the CILP is the company's most recent effort to tackle the online safety issue.
"As a company whose business is technology and its empowering capabilities of the Internet, Microsoft Canada is committed to ensuring the Internet remains a safe medium for children", says Michael Eisen, Vice President, Law and Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Canada. "We are confident that by working with the CILP and their expertise, we can help support a deeper understanding of Canada's legislation and law enforcement challenges on child exploitation and luring on the Internet."
Centre Fellow Andrea Slane (LL.B. 2003, Ph.D. 1995), who advises the Ontario Attorney General's Task Force on Internet Crimes Against Kids, is supervising the student researchers.
"Microsoft's support is allowing me to research cooperation between ISPs, victims' rights groups, citizens watch groups, and government, and the role they play in enforcement strategies related to Internet crime, in particular, child abuse images and luring," she says. The research is part of her larger project on the role of law in cyberspace, and the evolving relationship between public and private spheres.
