The federal government's plan to slap Internet service providers with stiff fines or jail time if they don't report child porn appears set for an easy ride through the House of Commons.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson unveiled details of a bill yesterday that would legally force ISPs to report tips about websites involving child porn and to safeguard evidence if they believe an offence has been committed.

"A mandatory reporting regime across Canada will improve law enforcement's ability to detect offences and help reduce the availability of online pornography, facilitate the rescue of victims and help identify and apprehend offenders," he said.

Proposed fines would range from $1,000 to $10,000 and six months in jail for an individual or up to $100,000 for corporations.

OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said there has been an "explosion" of sexual exploitation of children on the Web and this bill will give police another tool to track the perpetrators of these "vile" acts.

While Liberals intend to support the bill, their justice critic, Dominic LeBlanc, said they'll want to hear from privacy experts when MPs study the legislation at committee.

"At the end of the day, the protection of children and the need to catch and prosecute those that possess or produce child pornography is such a compelling objective that I think we can't let some academic or theoretical privacy concerns stand in the way of a responsible balanced approach," he said.

NDP MP Joe Comartin called it too little, too late and said ISPs should be required to monitor material on their servers, not just passively report tips to police.

KATHLEEN.HARRIS@SUNMEDIA.CA