The increase in Internet use today has, unfortunately, given predators new ways of reaching, harming, and exploiting our children. I introduced legislation recently to fight a growing child-pornography epidemic.
The need for renewed law-enforcement attention to child pornography is demonstrated in a recent Justice Department report, Project Safe Childhood, which looked at Internet sexual offenses committed against children. It determined that, “judging simply by crime statistics, it is clear that the Internet is helping to fuel an epidemic of child pornography.” Unfortunately, by providing greater technical ease and increased anonymity in swapping images, the Internet has “taken down barriers that at one time served as a deterrent to child pornographers.”
In 2003, an estimated 20,000 images of child pornography were posted on the Internet every week. Between 1998 and 2004, child-pornography reports made to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children increased from 3,267 to 106,119 – a 30-fold increase over a six-year period. The Justice Department also noted that there has been an escalation in the severity of abuse depicted in child pornography in recent years, “with the images found today more frequently involving younger children – including toddlers and even infants.”
The Project Safe Childhood report pointed out that child pornography’s harm extends beyond the children who are sexually abused to produce such images. It also “plays a central role in child molestations, serving to justify offenders’ conduct, assist them in gaining compliance with their victims, and to provide a means to blackmail the children they have molested in order to prevent exposure.”
The legislation I introduced last week, the Stop Adults’ Facilitating the Exploitation of Youth Act, or Internet SAFETY Act, takes major strides to stop Internet child pornography and related exploitation.
It creates a new federal offense for financially facilitating access to child pornography on the Internet. It deters Internet facilitation of child pornography by imposing significant penalties on Internet communications providers that fail to report child pornography; criminal penalties for website operators who insert words or images into source code with the intent to deceive persons into viewing obscene material on the Internet; and requires commercial website operators to place warning marks defined by the Federal Trade Commission on webpages that contain sexually explicit material.
The Internet SAFETY Act also punishes the operation of child pornography enterprises. It creates a federal offense for the operation of an enterprise that profits from the sexual exploitation of children. It imposes severe penalties for any child pornography or exploitation offenses committed by a registered sex offender and raises the penalties for offenses involving child pornography, child prostitution and sex trafficking, child sexual abuse, and sexual assault.
The bill expands the federal private right of action against child pornographers. It allows a victim, including the parents of a minor victim, to seek civil remedies, and also allows a victim to seek remedies as an adult. This provision is inspired by young girl named Masha who was adopted from Russia by a man who repeatedly molested her, photographed her, and posted pornographic images of her on the Internet.
The Internet SAFETY Act establishes within the Justice Department an Office on Sexual Violence and Crimes against Children to coordinate sex-offender registration and notification programs and grant programs, and to assist state, local, and tribal governments and other entities with sex-offender registration or notification.
Finally, the bill authorizes the Attorney General to make grants available for child sexual abuse prevention programs. It also authorizes appropriations for 200 additional child exploitation prosecutors in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country and 20 additional “Internet Crimes Against Children” task forces.
Advances in technology have brought us many wonders. Unfortunately, they have also brought to our children a whole new world of threats that were not there when we were children. This disturbing fact requires the vigilance of parents, and thoughtful action by government.
Sen. Kyl serves on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees and chairs the Republican Policy Committee. Visit his website at www.kyl.senate.gov.
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