November 20, 2007
How long until our kids are safe?

By Lindor Reynolds

MANITOBA is weeks away from the first draft of recommendations that would put anyone wanting to work with children in this province under a harsh, unblinking spotlight.
A new program, tentatively called Building Child-Safe Organizations, would end reliance on criminal background checks as the only significant factor in determining whether a person should be allowed free access to children in programs such as Scouts, at the Y or on youth athletic teams.

The reason?

In part, because only five per cent of individuals charged with possessing child pornography have criminal records. The rest aren't getting caught. A criminal check just isn't enough.

Yesterday, at a panel discussion on online predators, Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh, along with Child Find Manitoba executive director Lianna McDonald, investigative journalist Julian Sher and representatives from the legal and police systems, revealed the extent of the battle being waged in Canada and across the world to keep children safe.
"We're doing a lot, but I think we need to do a lot more," Mackintosh said. "I think all the laws, all across the board, have to go to a higher level."

McDonald concurred.

"Our sentences are not adequate."

In Canada, someone found in possession of child pornography now faces a 14-day sentence, up from the usual conditional discharge. In Arizona, a single image nets a 10-year jail term.

The idea in Arizona is that someone facing hundreds of years in jail might plea bargain down to a reduced sentence with lifetime parole, medical treatment and psychological counseling.

Sher, who spent three years investigating the seedy world of online predators, said the majority of children who become victims of online pornographers know their accusers.

"The average person has no idea that one child in seven surfing the web will have some sort of sexual message or material sent to them," said Sher, author of the recently published One Child At A Time: The Global Fight to Rescue Children from Online Predators.

Sher said half of children abused and photographed or videotaped are victims of their own family members. Another 20 per cent are assaulted by someone else in their "circle of trust," people they have been taught are safe and reliable.

(An important note to parents: Ten per cent of the sexual images of youths are being sent by teenage girls who are either bullied or coerced into offering pictures of themselves naked).
And so the province is getting ready to road test a program that would teach organizations that serve children and youth how to delve more deeply into behaviors or patterns that should be setting off warning bells.

The first component will be a training unit on child sexual abuse, the impact of the crime, and statistics on both victims and offenders. People who work with kids would learn to identify signs that a child is being abused.

The second will be a risk assessment tool. Organizations will be taught to take a look at the times or places children in their care are most vulnerable. Is it overnight camp? Personal counseling periods?

Groups will also be mandated to develop policies and protocols to determine allowable behavior and a reporting mechanism for inappropriate behavior.

Finally, McDonald says, there is the "strangeness" factor.

"You're looking at odd behaviors. The offenders are not going to look like the stereotypes. We need to look at an adult who is looking to spend all sorts of time alone with children."

Mackintosh was blunt.

"Sexual offenders seek opportunities to volunteer and work where they can gain access to children," he said. "The objective is to have this adopted by all child-serving organizations."

Julian Sher says the average person has no understanding of how pervasive child sexual exploitation is, how young the victims or how sadistic the acts.
"Pornography implies eroticism," he said. "It's rape, abuse, torture. There's no consent."

Some people mistake what is commonly called child porn for images of what Sher calls "Lolita-type teens." In fact, 40 per cent of all victims are under the age of five. Nineteen per cent are under three.

"These are the guys next door who are leading a secret life," Sher said. "This is not a victimless crime. In order for an image to be produced, a child had to be abused."

We're months, maybe years away from passing a Child-Safe Organization piece of legislation. All sorts of questions remain -- who pays? Which organizations are affected? How quickly must they comply?

But what we know today is that Manitoba is taking the lead, much as it did in forcing an amendment to the Criminal Code to cover Internet luring of children.

It's a nasty world out there. Julian Sher knows it. Gord Mackintosh knows it. Lianna Macdonald knows it.

Every parent out there should also know it.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca