Ottawa spends millions on artificial intelligence to battle child pornography

Canada's Liberal government has announced millions of dollars for a national centre that uses artificial intelligence to crawl the internet for images of child pornography and report it.

Goodalesaid the crawler technology is quick, effective andhelps relieve officers traumatized by searching the web forimages of child porn.

Since its launchlast year, more than 1.1 billionpages have been processed and 238,000 notices have been sent to providers.

"That worksout to some 700 removal notices every day," saidGoodale.

LiannaMcDonald, the centre's executive director, said about 97 per cent of providers have complied so far.

"If you don't participatein the solution, you are part of the problem," addedGoodale.

Child porn on the rise

The number of report incidents of child pornography is on the rise. There were 6,245 incidents in 2016, an increase of 41 per cent over the previous year, according to Statistics Canada.

Goodale announces funding to combat child pornography

7 years ago

Duration 1:50

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale outlines one of the strategies that the government will continue to fund in the ongoing fight to stop online child sexual exploitation.

The centre says it hasreceivedmore than 305,000 tips since 2002, and the majority of images reviewed by its analysts involvechildren under age12, saidMacDonald.

Public safety officials are also considering new legislation to require all communications providers such as website owners, not just Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to report child pornography when they spot it.

The proposed measures were outlined in a memo for Public Safety Minister RalphGoodalethat wasobtained under the Access to Information Act. It also called for more resources for law enforcement, including better training for Crown counsel and judges.

The centre will also receive $93,600 to establish a survivors' network to help connect victims.

MacDonaldsaid victims of childhood sexual abuse often suffer great distress knowing their likenesses arebeing shared on cyberspace.