Child pornography was recently brought back into the public forum when Michael Briere admitted he viewed child pornography before abducting, assaulting and killing 10-year-old Holly Jones last year.

Briere pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He received an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

The case has raised questions on who shoud be responsible for ridding the Web of pornographic images of children. Canada is thought to be one of the worst offenders in the developed world when it comes to controlling access to child pornography.

Ontario and Manitoba are currently considering legislation that would hold Internet service providers responsible for contributing to the child porn problem.

But a ruling last week from the Supreme Court of Canada may hamper that effort.

 In a 9-0 judgment, the court ruled that Internet service providers don't have to pay royalties to composers and performers for music downloaded or heard via online radio by web customers. The court said companies providing wide access to the web are merely "intermediaries."

ISPs say legislation or not, pornographic material is difficult to track.

Nutech Digital operates out of Winnipeg, with about 300 customers paying a monthly fee for website hosting. The company says none of its clients distribute child porn, but admit it's difficult to track.

Nutech's operations nanager Jason Kelusky says most servers can't get rid of illegal photos because it's impossible to read them

"There isn't any way to determine if a picture is of a car or tree or child pornography," he says.

Some activists say legislation might not be the right answer; peer monitoring may be.

They point to England, where an Internet snitch line has wiped out most of the country's child porn sites. The Internet Watch Foundation posts the names of ISPs that distribute child pornography, and customers blacklist them.

There's a similar site in Canada called Cybertip. It started in Manitoba and is now being used by police in Winnipeg and Toronto. So far, it's help shut down 100 illegal sites.

Still, Cybertip hasn't expanded across the country just yet. But there are plans to launch a national snitch site next year.

Ontario's Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter has announced an additional $1 million to fight child pornography. The money will go to hiring five new detectives for Project P, a special unit of the Ontario Provincial Police that investigates child porn.