A Calgary group has launched a lobbying campaign to enhance children's protections from internet sex crimes.

Canada Family Action Coalition held a news conference on Tuesday to call for federal changes including:

  • Changing the term "child pornography" to "child sex and abuse images" to reflect the nature of the offence.
  • A mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years for producers of those images.
  • Legislation that would require reporting of child sex images whenever discovered by anyone in Canada.

The campaign, called Child Safe Nation, is "totally not political. It's about calling on the government to see children better protected," said the group's Nathan Cooper.

Canada Family Action Coalition executive director Brian Rushfeldt slammed the current 14-day minimum sentence for possessing child pornography and 90-day minimum for producing and distributing the images.

"Is this what our government considers justice? These are deliberate and planned crimes," he said. "Every image represents the horrific abuse of a child, a child who is subjected to a lifetime of abuse and humiliation, since internet images live forever."

The group has sent a 15-page letter to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.

Special Alberta team

Crown prosecutor Jennifer Rees pointed out the current minimum sentences must be served in jail.

"Now for all child pornography, at least we can say everyone does go to jail and they're not going to be sitting at home serving a sentence," she told CBC News.

Rees is part of the Integrated Child Exploitation unit, a special team of prosecutors and police that is unique to Alberta and focused on catching online predators who target children.

Having such a dedicated team results in a high conviction rate, Rees pointed out. But RCMP Cpl. Kimberly Krasman, who also works on the unit, said they're still short on resources to keep up with rapidly changing technology.

"We're always behind the eight ball. We're always kind of the last one to know. Funding is always an issue. We could always use more investigators. We can always use more resources," Krasman said.