Internet Safety Act

INTERNET SAFETY ACT -- (Senate - June 14, 2006)

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about S. 3499, the Internet SAFETY Act, a bill that I have co-sponsored with Senator Kyl and other Members of this body.

This legislation targets child pornographers, and it continues the important progress this Congress has made to crack down on those who commit crimes against children.

Earlier this year, the Senate passed S. 1086, which would require lifetime registration by sex offenders throughout the United States and would substantially increase punishments for those convicted of sex crimes against children. The House has passed its own sex offender bill, which contains many sensible provisions. And the two Chambers are negotiating to resolve their differences. Hopefully we will soon reach an agreement--and a tough, smart bill will be reported to the President.

I firmly believe there is only one way to deal with those who prey on children: they must be caught sooner, punished longer and more stringently, and they must be watched much more closely than they are today. I began advancing this law enforcement theme while I served as Texas attorney general. There, I created a specialized unit known as the Texas Internet Bureau to coordinate and direct efforts to fight Internet crimes such as fraud, child pornography, and privacy concerns. The Texas Internet Bureau successfully identified several Internet predators that were caught, prosecuted and convicted.

I will continue to work in the Senate to ensure that law enforcement agencies have every tool they need to bring these criminals to justice. The Internet SAFETY Act will play an integral part in bringing child crime predators to justice.

This bill creates a new Federal offense for financially facilitating access to child pornography on the Internet, mandates penalties for Web site operators who insert words or images into their internet source codes with the intent to deceive persons into viewing obscene material on the internet; and requires commercial Web site operators to place warning marks prescribed by the Federal Trade Commission on Web pages that contain sexually explicit material.

It is critical that this legislation become law. The supposed anonymity of the Internet has apparently emboldened child pornographers. The availability of child pornography on the Internet is staggering, as is the presence of those who would prey on innocent children. To illustrate this point, consider that in 1998 the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline received 3,267 reports of child pornography. In 2004, the CyberTipline received 106,119 of these reports, marking more than a thirtyfold increase in child pornography reports in just a 6-year period. This is more than a disturbing trend, and it shows no sign of slowing down.

The Internet is uniquely suited to facilitate the creation and replication of pornographic images of children, as well as the speed and anonymity to distribute them. And, not surprisingly, criminal enterprises spring up for the purpose of distributing child pornography and feeding the insatiable desire of those who target children.

Let me provide an example from my home State of Texas. Several years ago, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, in cooperation with Dallas's Internet Crimes Against Children, ICAC, task force, was able to locate and dismantle a multimillion-dollar child pornography enterprise conducting business over the Internet. This effort, dubbed Operation Avalanche, resulted in over 7,000 searches and more than 4,000 arrests around the world.

This Congress simply cannot stop working until we are certain that we have provided all of the resources necessary to stop those who commit crimes by exploiting children. And so this bill, in addition to providing additional legal authorities, also creates an Office on Sexual Violence and Crimes Against Children within the Department of Justice to coordinate sex offender registration and notification programs, directs the Attorney General to provide grants to state and local governments for child sexual abuse prevention programs, and authorizes 200 additional child exploitation prosecutors in U.S. attorneys offices around the country and 20 additional Internet Crimes Against Children, ICAC, task forces.

I urge my colleagues to study this bill carefully. I am hopeful that we can garner enough support to quickly bring it to a vote and pass it out of the Senate.

http://thomas.loc.gov