By The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - The federal government is introducing legislation that would require Internet service providers to report child pornography to police.

If enacted, the legislation would compel Internet firms to report sites carrying child porn images. They would also be required to look into complaints about child porn and turn over any evidence they find.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the bill would impose fines, and even jail time, for individuals or corporations which don't comply.

"A mandatory reporting regime across Canada will improve law enforcement's ability to detect potential child pornography offences, help reduce the availability of on-line pornography, facilitate the rescue of victims and help identify and apprehend offenders," Nicholson said Tuesday.

"The creation and distribution of child pornography are appalling crimes in which children are brutalized over and over again."

Lianna McDonald of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, welcomed the announcement.

"I's a very good day for Canada's children," she said. "Children need adults to take responsibility and help protect them."

Her organization recently surveyed 15,000 child porn websites and went through 4,000 images pulled from them. She said most of the images involved children under the age of 12.

She said the new legislation will make it easier to crack down on purveyors of child porn.

Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino also welcomed the proposed changes.

"Today's announcement is a very critical piece of added tools that we need in our kit to deal with the exponential growth, the explosion if you will, of the sexual exploitation of children using the Internet," he said.

Fantino said child porn is about abuse, not images.

"It is the vilest crime that can be committed against a child."