Child pornography investigations in Atlantic Canada are being held up by internet service providers who require search warrants before providing customer information, say RCMP.

In some parts of Canada, internet service providers will hand over information such as the name, address and phone number of a customer being investigated by police.

Const. Blair Ross, who works on child pornography cases on P.E.I., told CBC News Tuesday RCMP are short-staffed already, and getting a search warrant can take days or even weeks.

"As it stands here now in Atlantic Canada, the internet providers will not provide that unless we obtain judicial authorization, in other words, a warrant," said Ross.

"So before we even begin to investigate we have that hurdle to jump over, which is time consuming."

Protecting customer privacy

But the region's two main internet companies say they are concerned about customer privacy, and particularly legislation they are required to operate under. Both Aliant and Eastlink say if someone is in imminent danger the company will provide its customers' information right away, but most of the time police must have a warrant. Eastlink spokeswoman Paula Sibley said her company is aware some other Canadian ISPs require only a letter of request from police.

"We're not necessarily opposed to seeing things move in that direction," said Sibley.

"However, with the existing legislation that's in place, and also privacy legislation that we have to operate under, we've chosen to continue to ask for a warrant."
 
Ross said RCMP could spend more time finding people involved with child pornography if ISPs provided information more quickly.