Passage of the Children's Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act

PASSAGE OF THE CHILDREN'S SAFETY AND VIOLENT CRIME REDUCTION ACT -- (House of Representatives - March 09, 2006)

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House of Representatives passed the Child Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act of 2005, and I am a strong supporter of the legislation. I hail its passage. But title VI of this legislation is drawn from a bill that I introduced in the first session of the 109th Congress.

My legislation is known as the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 2005. And as the title states, the intent of my legislation is to prevent American children from becoming victims of pornography. Every one of us knows that the fuel that fires the wicked hearts of child predators is child pornography and it must be confronted in America.

Every day in this country, children are sadly exploited in pornographic enterprises, sometimes by those closest to them, believe it or not, in their homes; sometimes by commercial producers. In the home, children are forced to pose for pornographic pictures or act in pornographic videos, sometimes by family members and even friends and caretakers and other trusted individuals. Sadly, our resources in the law enforcement community inform us that these pictures and videos are posted on the Internet or surreptitiously spread to sexual predators. In the commercial arena and in Hollywood, as our cultures become more and more youth oriented and sex has become more and more prevalent, we must ensure that children are not being used in the production of prurient material and provide law enforcement with the tools to prosecute those who exploit children.

A main tenet of my legislation is the language that will fix a technicality known as home pornographers, to get at the first problem that I just described. Home pornographers have used this loophole to evade Federal prosecution in child pornography cases. These individuals will use digital cameras, Polaroid cameras, video cameras to make pornographic images of children, download them and distribute them on the Internet. My legislation first and foremost makes it clear that Federal prosecutions of home pornographers may proceed in Federal Court because their activities impact on interstate commerce.

Another element of my bill, which has become in many ways more controversial, is the addition of a new section of the criminal code, section 2257A, which adds a recordkeeping requirement that will force people in even in the entertainment industry to keep records of the names and ages of their subjects, along with proof of their identification, when they are engaged even in simulated sexual activity on screen. Anytime Hollywood uses a simulated sex act in a soap opera, a cable television show, a movie, or other production, a record must be kept to show that a child was not used even in the creation of a simulated sex act.

Heretofore, the law has only required that such records be kept in the cases of hard-core pornography, where actual sex was being performed and recorded for entertainment value. But if a child is used in a simulated sex act, the impact of such abuse on that child is, in many ways, Mr. Speaker, just as real as it would be had the production involved actual sexual contact. Therefore, my bill requires these records be kept for simulated sex. Because by doing so, certain bad actors in the entertainment industry will be deterred from using children.

Also, my bill goes a step further by requiring that records be kept even in the case of what is known as lascivious exhibition. Once again, no child should be used in either nude pictures or sexually explicit materials or even in activities that have a prurient interest. This is, again, the type of images that fuel the flames of the wicked hearts of child predators and should be stopped.

Finally, the legislation expands the ability of investigators and prosecutors to pursue the people who are used to distribute child pornography. These distributors also will be required to follow these new recordkeeping provisions, and this will provide law enforcement with a powerful tool against them as well.

Providing law enforcement with the tools to combat child pornography contained in my legislation is a much-needed and overdue step that must be taken to protect our children from those in society who have no decency and no shame.

I also commend those legitimate producers of entertainment products in the United States of America, with whom we have had dialogue and with whom we have worked in the development of this legislation. It is not my purpose in any way, Mr. Speaker, to suggest that those that are involved in the legitimate entertainment industry in this country have anything to do with the illegitimate industry that is pornography in America. Nevertheless, it is important that even in Main Street Hollywood America, that we ensure that children are not used even in the creation of entertainment materials that simulate sex acts, and our legislation will create the recordkeeping to prevent just that.

I hail the passage of the Child Pornography Prevention Act as a part of the Child Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act. It is time to protect our kids, and yesterday this Congress took a great step toward that goal in entertainment in America.

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