Lianna McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, speaks as Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale and Ottawa Police Deputy Chief Steve Bell look on in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
The Liberal government has announced millions of dollars in new money for a national centre that works to protect children from online sexual exploitation.
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection will receive $4.1-million over five years, and $857,000 a year ongoing.
The centre, a registered charity, says victims of childhood sexual abuse often suffer great distress over the fact video or pictures of the crimes are circulating in cyberspace – adding to the pain they already experience.
The new funding will allow the protection centre to develop and maintaining Arachnid, an automated crawler that detects online child sexual abuse images and videos, and can help ensure prompt removal.
It will also help the centre identify victims and improving support for survivors, as well as continue operation of Cybertip.ca, a national tip-line for reporting online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
The centre will also receive $93,600 to establish a survivors' network, allowing victims to connect and to create support resources.