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In 2008 officers from the Toronto Police Service and the Maine State Police led an 18-month investigation regarding a series of images of abuse posted on the Internet.  The investigators believed that the pictures were taken near the border between New Brunswick and Maine.  Members of the Interpol Specialist Group on Crimes Against Children had also been involved, scouring their own countries' image databases for previously undiscovered pictures in this series.  None were found and the investigation had stalled.  In May of 2008, a team of investigators and computer forensic analysts from the Brazilian Federal Police came to Canada as part of the KINSA training program.  During training, the officers were made aware of the Interpol Group and invited to join.  One of the computer analysts joined and learned about the stalled Canadian/American investigation.  Using his extensive experience and the Brazilian image database, this analyst found many pictures in this series of abuse which had never been seen by the Interpol Group before. One of the pictures was the missing piece, and once the puzzle was completed, an offender in New Brunswick was identified and arrested by the R.C.M.P.  The offender has to date been charged with new and historical offenses involving ten child victims and is suspected of having many more.  Click here to read the story from CBC. 

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On October 29th, legendary Canadian singer/songwriter Jim Cuddy gave an intimate live performance at the Hard Rock Cafe in Toronto in support of KINSA and the Mothers Online Movement.  There was fantastic energy throughout the night, thanks to Jim's stunning performance and the enthusiastic audience.  The entire evening received rave reviews, with electrifying music and the chance to help KINSA raise awareness and money to help find, rescue and heal child victims of online abuse. Details for the KINSA Events 2010 coming soon!

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Toronto, Ontario - KINSA, the Kids' Internet Safety Alliance, is pleased that Ontario's Attorney General, The Honourable Chris Bentley, has today made an important change to regulations under the Victims Bill of Rights to empower victims of internet child exploitation to seek financial compensation directly from an offender for their suffering.

This change serves as a further deterrent to offenders as any lawsuit would be in addition to penalties imposed by the criminal court.

"Internet child exploitation is a growing problem in our society. We are pleased that the Ontario government is taking another step to fight this insidious crime and hold offenders accountable for their actions," said Paul Gillespie, President & CEO of KINSA.

The Centre for Innovation Law & Policy also brought this idea forward in their 2007 report Staying Safely Connected: Updated Strategies for Protecting Children and Youth from Exploitation online - A project of the Microsoft Safe Computing Program. KINSA participated in the forum that preceded that report and utilized the report as part of a presentation of key recommendations by KINSA to the Ontario Attorney General.

"It is our hope that Ontario is just the first province to adopt this initiative and that others will follow. We need to send as strong a signal as possible that the sexual abuse of children and the posting of these images on the internet will simply not be tolerated," said Gillespie. "This regulation isn't the final answer to deterring this crime, but it is an important step in the right direction and we thank the Minister and his government for taking this step."

About KINSA

The Kids' Internet Safety Alliance (KINSA) was established as an aggressive and proactive response to the negative aspects of the Internet that harm young people. While addressing this grave social problem, KINSA also acknowledges and celebrates the positive, creative and inspiring ways children and youth are using the Internet.

For more information, please contact

KINSA Kids' Internet Safety Alliance
Paul Gillespie
416-850-1449
info@kinsa.net
www.kinsa.net

See also:

McGuinty Government Improves Justice For Victims Of Child Pornography And Hate Crimes
-    includes backgrounders on Fighting Child Pornography And Hate Crimes

KINSA first presented this idea to the Attorney General a few months ago and we are very pleased that he took the idea up and he is bringing it into law.

Labels: Press Releases

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There's an event coming up that I mentioned in a previous blog entry called "Heroes of the Fight" - it's an important event one that honours people who put themselves completely out there to help children who are victims of child exploitation.

I'm going to the event and taking some of the moms who helped me start the Mothers Online Movement - we  are really looking forward to it and I know that they are going to be more inspired than ever when they get to hear the amazing efforts of those being honoured. As I thought about the event I started to feel a bit guilty because I haven't had the opportunity to blog, or get much stuff done in the past 6 weeks as it relates to MOM. I got a new job and as most jobs are in the first few months of starting - it's been to say the least, crazy. Lucky for me I love my job ... and it is thanks to my job that I'm involved in this issue at all. Thanks is an odd word for me to use I guess - why would I be thankful to be in any way involved in the issue of online child exploitation? As difficult as it can be sometimes and there is no question that it has changed my life in ways that I occasionally wish it hadn't - I am thankful, so thankful that no matter how little the effort - I can do something to help.

So this brings me to one of things that I just haven't got done - it's a simple idea called "random acts of cupcakes and the idea is that you get together with a group of friends or work colleagues (you get to pick who) and bake a bunch of cupcakes and sell them for a $1.00 each (or whatever you think) to anyone who'll buy them (randomly) with proceeds going to the Mothers Online Movement. I was telling one of my friends how guilty I was feeling for not doing this yet and she said "Paula, just share the idea - you'll be surprised what people can do with a good idea." So there you go - shared my idea and if you e-mail me at mom@kinsa.net, I'll send you back the information to promote your "random acts of cupcakes" event. In a perfect world, this will trigger lots of "random acts of cupcakes" and we will make a difference for children who are victims of online child exploitation (because people will pay a $1 for your cup cake!).

So I started the blog with reference to "Heroes of the Fight" - these are the real heroes who fight every day to save a child - they inspire me to do stuff like write this blog and get stuff done  - I'm thankful to them!

Paula Knight
Mothers Online Movement (MOM) Founder and
KINSA Advisory Board
www.mothersonlinemovement.ca

Labels: Mothers Online Movement

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