GOVERNMENT SHOULD RAISE AWARENESS OF ON-LINE CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION - RUNCIMAN
(Toronto) Leeds-Grenville MPP Bob Runciman today tabled a Private Member’s Resolution calling on the Ontario Legislature to declare February 7, 2007 as “Safer Internet Day”. It is hoped that this resolution will receive all-party support and quickly pass the Legislature.
Runciman’s initiative is aimed at raising public awareness about the serious and growing problem of online child sexual exploitation.
The Kids Internet Safety Alliance (KINSA) has begun an on-line petition in the hopes that adoption of the resolution will raise the profile of the issue and encourage public discussion. KINSA was created in 1995 to bring law enforcement, policy makers, the business community and educators together to address the growing problem of on-line sexual exploitation of children. The anonymity of the Internet allows for predators to find each other, trade imagery of children being abused and to lure victims.
Conservative figures from Interpol estimate that there are approximately 560,000 different images of children being sexually abused to be found on the Internet – and it could be as high as 1 million. These images represent between 10,000 and 20,000 individual victims, but fewer than 500 of them have been identified by police and rescued.
“We need to find ways for governments, the private sector and law enforcement to work together to better protect children from online sexual exploitation” said Paul Gillespie, Vice Chair of KINSA and a former lead investigator with the Toronto Police Child Exploitation unit. “The designation of ‘Safer Internet Day’ in Ontario can be the catalyst for a national initiative to address this issue.”
Mr. Runciman’s motion read as follows: “I move that the Legislative Assembly of Ontario recognize the serious and growing problem of online child sexual exploitation through the declaration of February 7, 2007 as ‘Safer Internet Day’ and that the Ontario government dedicate more resources and attention to this serious and growing problem.”
