Report: Dozens Of Child Porn Websites Based In Canada

November 20, 2009 4:48 p.m. EST

Winnipeg, Manitoba (AHN) - There are dozens of Websites based in Canada that have child pornography images on its portal, according to a report released Wednesday by the Canadian Center for Child Protection.

CCCP Executive Director Lianna McDonald disclosed the center examined almost 16,000 incidents of sites that feature child porn and over 4,000 images of children being sexually abused. She said over 82 percent of the images examined by Cybertip Canada showed lewd images of very young children under 12 years old. More than 35 percent of the images checked involved serious sexual assaults.

McDonald said in a statement, "What makes this particularly concerning is the very young age of the children in the images. These children are most likely being accessed and sexually abused by someone they know. Not only is it devastating for a child to be abused, but to have the abuse recorded and distributed on the Internet adds another layer of trauma."

She added, "This is a call to action to all Canadians to learn to recognize the signs of abuse, and to report their suspicions of abuse. We need to disrupt and hopefully stop child sexual abuse and prevent it from being memorialized and traded on the Internet."

The images were collected by Cybertip from 2002 to March 2009, based on telephone and internet tips received by the group. The U.S. hosted 65 percent of the child porn websites, while Canada hosted eight percent of the lewd portals. The other countries hosting such Websites include Russia, the Netherlands and Germany.

Meanwhile, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy sentenced on Thursday ex-Toronto Fire Captain Scott Connor three years and nine months for having child pornographic videos in his Scarborough house. The lewd videos run for a total of 55 hours.

Molloy also ordered Connor's name to be included in Canada's sex registry for 10 years. Connor got the videos through Internet file-sharing services and shared the videos online with others. The police found in his house during a raid in 2006 the videos which had 290 children on his computer, 13 marijuana plants and an unlicensed shotgun in Connor's cabinet.