Cleanfeed Canada

Cybertip.ca is Canada’s official tipline for reporting online child sexual exploitation including child pornography, luring, children exploited through prostitution, child trafficking and child sex-tourism. Cybertip.ca was launched as the national tipline in January 2005. The tipline triages reports from the public and forwards those that are potentially illegal to law enforcement in the appropriate jurisdiction. Cybertip.ca contributes to public education and prevention through its online safety strategies and national awareness campaigns.

Child pornography is child sexual abuse. For it to be created, a child has to be assaulted or posed deliberately in a sexualized manner. Child pornography is never accidental and its effects are substantial and widespread. The Criminal Code of Canada defines child pornography under Section 163.1.

Every day Canadians are encountering child pornography on the Internet, using Cybertip.ca to report over 30,000 suspected cases. While it is virtually impossible to estimate the volume of child pornography on the Internet, our sister agency in the United States, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Cybertipline, provides recent statistics that speaks to a growing problem.

On average, the U.S. tipline receives 2,000 - 2,500 reports per week.

In its establishment, Cybertip.ca was mandated by Manitoba's Attorney General to accept reports from the public about the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet. In adherence to policies and procedures approved by the National Law Enforcement Steering Committee and Justice Manitoba, Cybertip.ca analysts obtained Special Constable Status in and for the Province of Manitoba for the purpose of carrying out their respective duties. Letters of support were received from various Attorneys General and the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. In May 2004, the Government of Canada announced Cybertip.ca as Canada's national tipline for the public to report online child sexual exploitation. Cybertip.ca was officially launched in January 2005.

Cybertip.ca is a national program owned and operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection Inc. (formerly known as Child Find Manitoba). The Canadian Centre for Child Protection is a registered charitable organization overseen by a broadly representational Board of Directors.

As deemed necessary by the Winnipeg Police Service and the RCMP D Division (Winnipeg), officers overseeing the Integrated Child Exploitation Unit conduct compliance inspections to ensure Cybertip.ca handling of reports complies with the tipline's Policy and Procedure Manual.

Analysts receive training in report preparation, complaint analysis, sexual maturation rates, and cybercrime investigative techniques. Training has been developed together with law enforcement, justice officials and child development experts. Additionally, Cybertip.ca's Policy and Procedure Manual serves as the principal guide for management and staff. It was reviewed and approved by the National Law Enforcement Committee (including RCMP officials and Chiefs of Police).

Cybertip.ca created and maintains a regularly updated list of specific foreign-hosted Internet addresses (URLs) associated with images of child sexual abuse and provides that list in a secure manner to participating ISPs. The ISPs' filters automatically prevent access to addresses on the list. There is essentially no "human" intervention on the part of participating ISPs. ISPs do not have input into creating the list nor knowledge of what is contained on it.

Cybertip.ca receives complaints from Canadians regarding websites potentially hosting child pornographic images. Once in receipt, analysts assess and validate the reporting person's information. Reports deemed potentially illegal are forwarded to the appropriate law enforcement jurisdiction. Child pornography websites meeting the necessary criteria are amassed on the Project Cleanfeed Canada distribution list which is pulled automatically by participating ISPs.

There is no legal obligation for ISPs to participate-it is voluntary. ISPs may have technical or other reasons for not adopting the system. Enquiries about participation should be directed to the ISPs themselves.

The system is built to only prevent access to Internet addresses specifically containing child pornography images. A minimum of two analysts must review content and approve the URL before submission. Other automated checks are also performed to ensure the integrity and accuracy of information on the list.

Additionally, while the child pornography provisions under the Criminal Code concern children under 18, the tipline only adds URLs displaying images of prepubescent children being assaulted or who are posed deliberately in a sexualized manner.

Yes. Only those URLs hosted outside Canada are added to the database. Law enforcement proceed with their normal course of investigation for those sites hosted within Canada. IP address lookup software is used to automatically exclude Canadian URLs.

Content is checked for modification on a weekly basis through an automated process. This process combs through the list of URLs and flags any records whose content has changed. An analyst manually reviews records containing changes to determine whether the URL now contains legal or illegal content.

In the rare event that a site with no illegal content is mistakenly filtered, an appeal process is in place to address the situation. The customer or content owner would contact an ISP with a complaint regarding their site being inaccessible. Upon receipt, the ISP will determine if the issue concerns a blacklisted site.

Once Cybertip.ca receives the complaint from an ISP (or directly from a content owner), the material is reassessed. As a final check point, Cybertip.ca seeks independent judgment of the content from a national law enforcement entity. Its decision is final as to whether the URL remains on the list.

The appeal process is modeled after the UK's Internet Watch Foundation system for addressing complaints arising through the BT Cleanfeed filtering initiative. Since November 2006, Cybertip.ca has received two appeals, neither of which were ever on the Cleanfeed list.

No. They get a standard message indicating they are unable to access the Internet address. The purpose of this initiative is to reduce accidental access, not to highlight problematic content.

As with any Internet filtering system, determined and net-savvy individuals may still be able to access addresses that would otherwise be filtered. This filtering system is not a perfect solution to the battle against online child sexual exploitation and child pornography. The system is intended to reduce accidental access to child sexual abuse images, as well as to discourage those trying to access or distribute child pornography.

ISPs do not consider themselves qualified to determine the legality of content. The Criminal Code allows a judge to make such legal determinations for child pornography content on the Internet, and to issue take-down orders if such content is hosted in Canada. ISPs follow this legislation and rely on the courts for direction. There is no such legislation for child pornography content hosted outside of Canada, so filtering access based on the Cybertip.ca list is an effective way to deal with such foreign content.

Cybertip.ca is recognized by the federal government, provincial governments and domestic law enforcement agencies for its expertise in assessing the likely illegality of alleged child pornography online.

Typically, ISPs' AUPs and Terms of Service permit this action in these types of circumstances.

No. It is illegal in Canada to access child pornography on the Internet. Cybertip.ca is an organization designated to assessing child pornography on the Internet. The same circumstances do not currently exist for any other form of online content, nor does Cybertip.ca claim to have expertise in other areas.

No. The system has been deliberately designed to NOT log traffic to the filtered sites on the Cybertip.ca list. This initiative is intended to prevent inadvertent access. ISPs are not law enforcement and this is not a law enforcement tool.