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 AlliancePaul Gillespie416-850-1449info@kinsa.netwww.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.