An influential Tory backbencher who has the ear of Prime Minister Stephen Harper when it comes to child protection issues says she will push for Ottawa to follow what she called the “bold” crackdown on child pornography in the U.K. that would force Internet providers to install automatic safety filters for anyone surfing the web.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday that to fight the “horrendous crime” of child abuse images, he will ask U.K. Internet providers to install a “porn block” that would prevent web users from accessing all kinds of pornography, unless they specifically request not to have the filters set up on their computers.

“It is bold and I applaud it,” said Joy Smith, the outspoken MP for Kildonan—St. Paul who has already successfully pushed for tough new laws on human trafficking and child exploitation. “Internet search providers could be much more vigilant in blocking child abuse images and criminal material.

“Absolutely I will flag this to the prime minister,” she told the Star in a phone interview from her Winnipeg office. “I would see this as the next step and it just goes along with what we have been trying to do for some time.”

While many details of his proposals remain vague, Cameron suggested by the end of 2013, all new computers sold in the U.K. would have filters switched on by default that would block access to a list of illicit websites and images compiled by Britain’s national police agency known as the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

He said if Internet companies “have worked out how to map almost every inch of the Earth from space,” they should be able to figure out how to develop a “blacklist of horrific terms.”

In many countries including Canada, Internet companies already routinely block illegal or illicit sites, but Cameron’s proposals would be the first time users would have to opt out of a filter system that web companies would be obliged to install.

But child safety advocates and experts warn there is no easy solution to the complex crime of online child abuse.

Michael C. Seto, the director of forensic rehabilitation research at the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group and the author of a new book on Internet predators, says the U.K. measures “won’t stop the most tech-savvy and committed offenders, but it can have an impact on those who are less savvy and who are more opportunistic in their offending.”

“There is no silver bullet on this issue,” warned Signey Arnason, director of Cypertip.ca, Canada’s national tip line for child protection. “There are always ways around these solutions. We need to take a multitude of steps because technology continues to evolve.”

Cypertip currently runs a CleanFeed system that provides the major Internet providers in Canada with a list of child pornography websites outside the country that they have voluntarily agreed to block.

Arnason hailed Cameron’s move as “very positive” and hoped it would spark an “important discussion that needs to take place about the dangers of extreme pornography.”

David Butt, a former Ontario prosecutor who specialized in child exploitation, expressed concerns that automatic filters could be “potentially blunt and overbroad and therefore inhibit freedom of expression.”

For example, he said, a parent might use the words “child” and “sex” while searching for guidance on sex education for their family.

“The quality of the filter is going to have to be very high to avoid civil liberties problems or just a lack of effectiveness,” Butt said.

Another problem is that many of the most popular websites such as Facebook and Google are based in the United States and it is far from clear how individual countries could screen their global content, much less convince them to follow any filter laws.

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But Smith says even if child pornography easily crosses borders, “one country can draw a line.”

“If one country starts, it is like a domino effect where other countries come on board,” she said. “David Cameron declared war on child pornography and it’s a really good first step.”

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