Home Newsroom 2005 News releases (archive) 2005-01-24: Cybertip.ca launched Backgrounder: Child exploitation on the Internet

National strategy to combat child exploitation on the Internet

On May 12, 2004, the Government of Canada announced the National Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet. The federal government committed approximately $43 million over five years to ensure a comprehensive, coordinated approach to protecting children on the Internet. The Strategy will increase police capacity to combat this problem, provide for greater public education and reporting, and boost partnerships among governments, industry and other partners to work together.

Funding for the National Strategy was provided in the Budget 2004 -- specifically, approximately $8 million per year has been allocated to government partners to launch a National Strategy. The Budget further directed that the bulk of the funding go to expand RCMP’s national co-ordination centre, while funding was also allocated towards public education components such as Industry Canada’s SchoolNet program, and a national Internet tipline (cybertip.ca). The breakdown for these initiatives is as follows:

The RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre (NCECC) received $34 million over five years which will allow the Centre to work with local police forces across Canada to develop national investigative standards, technological tools and specialized training, coordinate efforts with the provinces and regions, and promote intelligence-gathering and sharing. The NCECC will also be better equipped to build relationships and collaborate with domestic and international partners to raise awareness and combat criminal activity which targets, exploits and abuses children.

$3 million was directed to Industry Canada’s SchoolNet program to develop on-line educational resources. SchoolNet will also establish partnerships with specialized organizations (such as the Media Awareness Network and Child Find organizations, as well as provinces and territories) to establish, test and deliver awareness strategies aimed at promoting available resources.

$3.5 million over five years was committed to fund Cybertip.ca, Canada’s national tipline for reporting the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet.
This initiative fulfills the Government of Canada’s commitment, made in the February 2004 Speech from the Throne to do more to ensure the safety of our children. The Strategy is supported by the reinstatement of child protection legislation, Bill C-2, on October 8, 2004, which will help reduce the risk of child sexual exploitation of children. Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada is leading efforts to implement the Strategy.