By: Paul Grigaitis

Perverts across the country were given a swift kick in the modem this week when the federal government introduced legislation  requiring suppliers of Internet services to report  Internet child pornography.

Suppliers are to report, to a designated agency, tips that they might receive regarding websites where child pornography may be available to the public and to notify police and safeguard evidence if they believe that a child pornography offence has been committed using an Internet service they provide under the proposed legislation.
Failure to comply comes with recommended graduated fines of $1,000 for a first offence, $5,000 for a second offence and a possible fine of $6,000 and/or six months imprisonment for sole proprietors, while corporations would be fined $10,000, $50,000 and $100,000 under the same scheme.
The Criminal Code already prohibits all forms of making, distributing, making available, accessing and possessing child pornography, including through the use  of the Internet, but this latest piece of legislation puts some onus of responsibility on the provider.
The Internet is a very powerful medium and like Spider-Man would say, with great power comes great responsibility.
Unlike traditional media such as the newspaper and broadcast industry which are bound by standards and regulations, the Internet operates much like the wild, wild west. It’s about time we replace the drunk sheriff and the useless deputy who have been turning a blind-eye to the lawlessness.
The Internet has given not only perverts, but racists and psychos a venue for their thoughts and messages.
I’m all for free speech, but there’s a serious danger in allowing just anyone to put any message they want out to the masses. Those who know me know I’m not a fan of censorship, but there’s a difference between stating an opinion and bastardizing the truth.
Someone needs to  make sure the information doesn’t unfairly hurt someone — such as an innocent child.
Only time will tell how the latest proposed legislation will succeed in protecting children against sexual exploitation, but at least there is some reponsibility on the media provider to manage its content. For now, parents must do their part to keep their children safe from the lawless world that is the Internet.
Cybertip.ca., Canada’s national tipline for reporting online sexual exploitation of children, recommends four immediate steps parents-guardians can take to protect their children: becoming familiar with the Internet forum that your child uses, not allowing children to have privacy on the computer, monitoring the use of webcams, digital cameras and cellular phones and emphasizing the nature of the Internet, the permanence of sent pictures and the legal impacts of distributing naked images and the harm it can cause in their lives.