[Senate Hearing 109-1154]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 109-1154
ONLINE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
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HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 19, 2006
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii, Co-
CONRAD BURNS, Montana Chairman
TRENT LOTT, Mississippi JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West
KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas Virginia
OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts
GORDON H. SMITH, Oregon BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota
JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada BARBARA BOXER, California
GEORGE ALLEN, Virginia BILL NELSON, Florida
JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
JIM DeMINT, South Carolina FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana E. BENJAMIN NELSON, Nebraska
MARK PRYOR, Arkansas
Lisa J. Sutherland, Republican Staff Director
Christine Drager Kurth, Republican Deputy Staff Director
Kenneth R. Nahigian, Republican Chief Counsel
Margaret L. Cummisky, Democratic Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Samuel E. Whitehorn, Democratic Deputy Staff Director and General
Counsel
Lila Harper Helms, Democratic Policy Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on September 19, 2006............................... 1
Statement of Senator Burns....................................... 2
Statement of Senator Ensign...................................... 40
Statement of Senator McCain...................................... 1
Statement of Senator Pryor....................................... 37
Witnesses
Allen, Ernie, President/CEO, The National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children (NCMEC); accompanied by John Shehan, Program
Manager, CyberTipline, NCMEC................................... 19
Prepared statement........................................... 21
Brown, Michael J., Sheriff, Bedford County, Virginia............. 13
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Cooper, Sharon W., M.D., Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics, Chapel
Hill School of Medicine, University of North Carolina.......... 28
Prepared statement........................................... 31
Fisher, Alice S., Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division,
Department of Justice; accompanied by James E. Finch, Assistant
Director, Cyber Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation...... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 5
Appendix
Response to written questions submitted by Hon. John McCain to:
Ernie Allen.................................................. 50
Michael J. Brown............................................. 49
Sharon W. Cooper, M.D........................................ 53
Alice S. Fisher.............................................. 45
ONLINE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2006
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:36 p.m. in room
SR-252, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. John McCain
presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN McCAIN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA
Senator McCain. Well, good afternoon. Senator Stevens
wanted to be here, but because of the consideration of the
defense appropriations bills, he is not able to be here. He
hopes to be able to stop in at some time if possible.
This afternoon's hearing brings to the Committee's
attention what some have called an epidemic of child
pornography on the Internet. I say ``child pornography,'' but
that label does not describe accurately what we are talking
about today. As emphasized by a recent Justice Department
report, ``child pornography'' does not come even close to
describing these images.
What we are really talking about is recorded images of
child sexual abuse. These images are quite literally digital
evidence of violent sexual crimes perpetrated against the most
vulnerable among us. Experts are also finding that the images
of child sexual exploitation produced and distributed today,
often online, involve younger and younger children. As Ernie
Allen emphasizes in his prepared testimony on behalf of the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, known as
NCMEC, 83 percent of offenders surveyed in a recent study were
caught with images of children younger than 12 years old.
Thirty-nine percent had images of children younger than 6 years
old. Almost 20 percent had images of children younger than 3
years old.
These are not normal criminals and I cannot fathom the
extent of the physical and emotional harm they cause their
victims.
The violence of the images continues to increase as well.
As Dr. Cooper states in her prepared testimony, the images she
has reviewed in her professional capacity often depict
sadistic, gross sexual assault and sodomy. Sheriff Brown's
Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force also has direct
experience with these increasingly violent and disturbing
images of child sexual exploitation.
The graphic description of these images by some of the
witnesses in their prepared testimony is difficult to stomach
and almost impossible to grasp as the actions of human beings,
and I do advise everyone in this room that the matters
discussed today are not appropriate for children. However, as
policymakers it is our duty to face these matters head-on so
that we can understand the extent of this evil and determine
how best to fight it.
It is also our duty to bring these issues to light so that
parents around the country know exactly what dangers their
children face. It is also important to stress that, though the
focal point of this hearing is online child pornography, the
actual exploitation occurs in the off-line world. Children can
be sexually abused by people who have access to them at school
and, unfortunately, even in the children's own homes. I hope
our witnesses will talk about how parents and communities can
protect children from sexual exploitation in addition to
discussing what law enforcement is doing to combat this crime.
I note with some disappointment that we do not have
Internet companies represented today, although they were
invited to participate. I want to emphasize, Internet companies
were invited to participate and chose not to. They are
certainly a crucial component of our effort to eradicate child
pornography and I trust that the Committee, under the
leadership of Chairman Stevens, will pursue further hearings to
assess the private sector's contribution.
I want to thank the Chairman, Senator Stevens, for the
courtesy of the gavel this afternoon. I turn now to Senator
Burns if he has any opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. CONRAD BURNS,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA
Senator Burns. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much and thank
you for chairing this hearing. I do not know of anybody that I
would rather have chairing this one especially.
I want to thank our panel for showing up today. I recognize
it is our responsibility in the Senate to give the prosecutors
and the police the tools that they need, which is why earlier
this year I joined Senator John Kyl in introducing the Internet
Safety Act, which was included as a part of the Adam Walsh
Child Protection and Safety Act signed into law in July. Among
other things, this new law increases penalties for child
pornography, sex trafficking, and sexual abuse offenses,
cracking down on these horrific crimes. In addition, it will
increase the financial resources needed to prosecute the
offenders and prevent this unspeakable and disgusting form of
child abuse.
Earlier this year the Commerce Committee passed the most
comprehensive telecommunications bill in a decade. This
legislation addresses many issues and fixes many problems
consumers have faced, ranging from how do we communicate with
one another to how we will view television in the future. One
area of this bill I would like to comment on is the language I
personally added to protect our most precious resource, and
that is our children.
Far too often, pornographic websites use web addresses
which are very similar to other, non-pornographic websites.
When a child, for example, makes a mistake and types in a
``.com'' instead of a ``.gov'' or ``.org'', sexually explicit
photos will appear on the screen. This language requires all
pornographic website operators to have a home page that is free
of explicit pictures or words. These folks will no longer be
allowed to have a pornographic image or material of any kind on
their home page. This goes a long way in preventing our
children from accidentally stumbling across obscene pictures
without restricting adult access.
This bill also outlaws the embedding of any words, symbols,
or images into the source code of websites with the intent to
deceive another person into viewing material that is obscene.
These simple steps will help prevent children from unwittingly
stumbling across these harmful images and materials online.
As we offer legislation to move our Nation forward into new
territories of dealing with communications, we must protect our
kids from the dangers that may come their way. Little we do
will be more important. So I applaud the Chairman for holding
this hearing today.
There are just some common sense changes in the law that
are merely the first steps in a much larger battle against
child pornography. Today we are here to talk about that very
subject. We have done much to protect them, but much more can
and still needs to be done in order to stop these disgusting
crimes and put the perpetrators where they belong. Take them
out of society, put them in jail. I have said it before and I
will say it again: They are our resource, these children. They
are our future. Each and every one of us need and we must do
everything in our power to protect them.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for having this hearing today and I
look forward to the testimony.
Senator McCain. Appearing before the Committee today are
four individuals who are on the front lines of our Nation's
effort to stop the sexual exploitation of children: Ms. Alice
Fisher, Assistant Attorney General, the Criminal Division of
the U.S. Department of Justice. Ms. Fisher asked that Jim Finch
also appear before the Committee. Mr. Finch is Assistant
Director of the FBI's Cyber Division and he is prepared to
answer any questions that members may have regarding child
pornography investigations. Welcome, Mr. Finch.
Mr. Finch. Thank you, sir.
Senator McCain. Sheriff Mike Brown of the Bedford County,
Virginia, Sheriff's Office and Director of the Blue Ridge
Thunder Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force; Mr. Ernie
Allen, who is the President and CEO of the National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children; and Dr. Sharon Cooper, who is the
CEO of Developmental & Forensic Pediatrics. Dr. Cooper had a
scheduling conflict that kept her from attending in person. She
is joining us via video conference from the campus of the
Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg. We thank her for
her efforts to provide the Committee with her insight. Dr.
Cooper, we will ask you to testify last and we will try and ask
you questions first so that you can get off-line if you need
to.
Is Dr. Cooper with us?
[No response.]
Senator McCain. Well, we hope to get Dr. Cooper with us
between now and when it is her turn to testify--oh, Dr. Cooper,
are you with us?
Dr. Cooper. Yes, I am, sir. Thank you.
Senator McCain. Can you bear with us while we have the
other witnesses give their opening statements and then we will
hear from you, if that is agreeable?
Dr. Cooper. That is fine, sir. Thank you very much.
Senator McCain. Thank you for joining us today.
We will begin with the Assistant Attorney General, Ms.
Alice Fisher. Welcome, Ms. Fisher.
STATEMENT OF ALICE S. FISHER, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY
GENERAL, CRIMINAL DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE; ACCOMPANIED
BY JAMES E. FINCH, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, CYBER DIVISION, FEDERAL
BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Ms. Fisher. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon,
Senator Burns. Thank you so much for inviting me to testify
about this problem, a very serious problem facing our country
today. I am very honored to testify in front of this Committee
and with leading lights in this effort such as Ernie Allen,
Sheriff Brown, and Dr. Cooper, who are committed and dedicated
to this issue every day.
Thank you so much, the Congress, for the Adam Walsh Act and
helping with the amendments that you mentioned this morning,
Senator Burns. Every added tool that we get at the Department
of Justice is so important to combatting this problem. This
hearing in and of itself raises public awareness over this
issue and it is so important.
As you noted, the danger to our children is so immense.
Whereas before pedophiles and child pornographers were pushed
underground, meeting in the back rooms of bookstores, sending
their products through the mail, now they roam freely on the
Internet, thousands of them every day, offending and
graphically depicting children, and it is just terrible. It is
horrific. The images, as you have noted, are getting to be of
children that are of younger and younger age, and they are
images that are more and more graphic. They use technology such
as commercial websites, peer-to-peer chats, f-serves, webcams,
et cetera, throughout the Internet, sending and producing and
obtaining and distributing these pictures.
While I think most Americans understand the heinousness of
this crime, these images which I have seen are shocking. They
turn the stomach and they boggle the mind. There are images of
infants and toddlers that are on streaming videos and these
toddlers are being molested. People traffick in these things.
They trade them, they sell them. It is an epidemic that we are
facing in this country.
Let me focus you on four things that the Department is
trying to focus on in how we approach this effort. We are doing
a series of initiatives such as Project Safe Childhood that the
Attorney General announced earlier this year and that you
codified in the Adam Walsh Act. That is a collaborative effort
with state, local, and Federal law enforcement and prosecutors
getting together on a district by district basis to eradicate
this problem. They are looking at community outreach and
education and increasing prosecutions. They are also training
each other on the forensic capability to better equip us to go
after this problem.
We are striving to ensure that our technology is up-to-date
with those who are trafficking in child pornography on the
Internet. We are launching nationwide initiatives, such as
taking down a commercial website with child pornography and
taking those leads and sending them out to the 93 U.S.
attorney's offices and to State and local prosecutors across
the country, so they can go after the customers. So we are not
only looking at the websites, we are looking at the possessors
that facilitate it as well.
We are doing aggressive prosecutions of individuals and
making sure that we obtain stiff penalties, many of which you
have provided to us in the laws that you have passed. In fact,
one individual in Virginia just got a 150-year sentence for
trafficking in child pornography.
Just to step back and give you a recent example that I
think brings this problem home, there was an individual in the
District of Columbia by the name of Bruce Schiffer who was
sentenced in August of this year to 25 years in prison. Mr.
Schiffer had 11,000 images of child pornography. He selected
files to be uploaded and downloaded to the public. He published
it on the Internet. He tried to entice young boys to take
pictures of themselves and their friends and to be more and
more sexually graphic in the depictions.
When they went to do a search warrant on his home, they
found letters of correspondence between him and inmates about
some of his activities. He talked about wanting to rape
children, his desire to do so with boys in between the ages of
6 and 16. They found a clown suit in his closet. They found a
Mapquest route that showed the route from his place of work to
a boys shelter.
This is indeed an epidemic, as you said. We must go after
individuals like this and bring the penalties that you have
given us to bear against them. There is no question that it is
going to take all of us, our educators, our communities,
Congress, prosecutors, law enforcement across the country, to
be committed and dedicated. We certainly are at the Department
of Justice and the Attorney General reminds us of this every
day. He has made it a leading priority for the Department.
So thank you very much for letting me come testify today.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Fisher follows:]
Prepared Statement of Alice S. Fisher, Assistant Attorney General,
Criminal Division, Department of Justice; Accompanied by James E.
Finch,
Assistant Director, Cyber Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Mr. Chairman, Senator Inouye, and distinguished Members of the
Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify before you today about
the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet and the efforts of
the Department of Justice and others to protect our children from this
horrific abuse. As the Attorney General has made clear, protecting our
children from sexual exploitation on the Internet is one of the highest
priorities of the Department of Justice. The Department is committed to
using every available means to identify, investigate, and prosecute
those who use the Internet to sexually exploit our children. The
Criminal Division, alongside the U.S. Attorneys' Offices, has taken a
leading role in this effort.
Of course, the Department of Justice is not alone in this fight.
Congress has played an absolutely indispensable role, most recently
with the passage of the landmark Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety
Act of 2006. Let me take this opportunity to thank you for passing this
important piece of legislation. In addition, Federal law enforcement
agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the
Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), as well
as state and local law enforcement agencies nationwide, have made
invaluable contributions to protecting our children. Finally, non-
governmental organizations such as the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children, have played a critical role, not only contributing
greatly to public awareness of the threats of sexual exploitation on
the Internet, but also in assisting law enforcement by facilitating
reporting of these crimes and identifying and locating children so that
they can be rescued.
The Problem
While the Internet is one of the greatest inventions of the last
century, unfortunately, it has also largely contributed to the
exacerbation of the child pornography epidemic. As if the creation of
shocking images of child sexual abuse were not awful enough, it is only
the beginning of a cycle of abuse. Once created and then posted on the
Internet, images of child pornography become permanent records of the
abuse they depict and can haunt the victims literally forever. Notably,
advances in technology have made it both easier for offenders to
distribute these images to each other, and more difficult to remove
these images from the Internet. Worse still, pedophiles rely on these
images to develop plans of action for targeting their next victims, and
then use the images to entice them. What is more, because these
offenders often compete to see who can produce the most unthinkable
photos or videos of raping and molesting children, the Internet has led
to the victimization of younger and younger children.
It is critical to recognize that virtually all images of child
pornography depict the actual sexual abuse of real children. In other
words, each image literally documents a crime scene. Most Americans, of
course, innately understand that child pornography is a heinous crime.
Even so, I believe very few realize just how graphic, sadistic, and
horrible these images have become and the dangerous environment the
market for child pornography has created for children.
These images make your stomach turn. Images have been produced, for
example, of young toddlers, including one in which a baby is tied up
with towels, desperately crying in pain, while she is being brutally
raped and sodomized by an adult man. Likewise, videos are being
circulated of very young daughters forced to have intercourse and oral
sex with their fathers.
With the market for child pornography becoming increasingly
prolific and characterized by an escalating level of abuse, children
face greater danger from sexual predators than ever before. Before the
Internet, pedophiles were isolated. Now, with large communities on the
Internet dedicated to pedophilia and the exchange of child pornography,
the illicit sexual desires and conduct of these individuals are
validated and encouraged. This emboldens offenders to produce, receive,
and distribute more shocking, graphic images, which increasingly
involve younger children and even infants. The compulsion to collect
child pornography images coupled with the validation and encouragement
found on the Internet may lead to a compulsion to molest children or
may be indicative of a propensity to molest them. Indeed, constant
exposure to child pornography can break down the natural barriers to
contact offenses.
The scope of the danger facing our children via the Internet is
immense. By all accounts, at any given time, thousands of predators are
on the Internet prowling for children. The explosive increase in child
pornography fueled by the Internet is evidenced by the fact that from
1998 to 2004, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's
CyberTipline experienced a thirty-fold increase in the number of child
pornography reports.
The challenge we face in cyberspace was recently underscored by a
new national survey, released in August 2006, conducted by University
of New Hampshire researchers for the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children. The study revealed that a fully one-third of all
children aged 10 to 17 who used the Internet were exposed to unwanted
sexual material. Much of it was extremely graphic.
The survey also revealed, however, that we are making progress. It
found that there has been some reduction in the number of children who
have received an online sexual solicitation. One in seven children
surveyed this time had received an online sexual solicitation, which is
an improvement over the one in five children who received such
solicitations in the last survey, conducted 5 years ago. We are hopeful
that this means that parents and kids are becoming more aware of the
dangers online, and more responsible in the way they use the Internet.
That said, we have a lot of work to do. One in seven kids receiving
solicitations is one in seven too many. And this most recent survey
showed that there has been no letting up of aggressive online sexual
solicitations, where the most depraved of the pedophiles actually try
to make in-person contact with a child.
In short, the opportunities for predators that have been created by
the Internet demand an overwhelming response from law enforcement.
The Department of Justice Response
At the Department of Justice, we take the responsibility of
attacking the problems resulting from predators' increased abuse of the
Internet very seriously. The Department is constantly seeking to
improve the quality and impact of its cases by taking a systematic
approach. Indeed, over the last decade, the Department has
significantly increased its efforts by dramatically increasing the
number of prosecutions of child exploitation crimes. I would like to
highlight four different approaches the Department has taken to ensure
that our children are protected from the predators who seek to
victimize them. First, the Department has launched a series of
initiatives and partnerships--including the Attorney General's Project
Safe Childhood initiative--designed to ensure that we have an army of
people equipped to combat this epidemic. Second, we are striving to
ensure that our investigative techniques adapt to the ever-changing
methods by which the predators seek to purvey these images and evade
detection by law enforcement. Third, working with our partners at the
Federal, state, and local levels, we have launched high-profile
nationwide investigations that not only have resulted in a large number
of convictions but also have the potential for maximum deterrent
effect. Fourth, we continue to aggressively prosecute individual
offenders, with a special emphasis on those who have a history of
sexually exploiting children.
Project Safe Childhood and Strategic Partnerships
The Attorney General significantly expanded our efforts to address
the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet this year by
launching the Project Safe Childhood initiative. Project Safe Childhood
will help law enforcement and community leaders develop a coordinated
strategy to deter, investigate, and prosecute sexual predators,
abusers, and pornographers who target our children. It will do so by
creating, on a national platform, locally-designed partnerships to
investigate and prosecute Internet-based crimes against children.
The Attorney General has said that he sees this initiative as a
strong, three-legged stool. One leg is the Federal contribution led by
U.S. Attorneys; another is state and local law enforcement, including
the outstanding work of the Internet Crimes Against Children task
forces funded by the Department's Office of Justice Programs; and the
third is non-governmental organizations, like the National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children--without which we would not have the
CyberTipline and victim advocates.
No leg of this stool can stand alone. Indeed, one of Project Safe
Childhood's key benefits will be in raising the level of coordination
among all state, local, and Federal law enforcement as well as non-
governmental organizations, and the sharing of knowledge and
information that coordination will foster.
The Attorney General has asked that each Project Safe Childhood
task force begin with three major steps to put this important program
into action. The first step is to build partnerships and capitalize on
the experience of our existing partners. U.S. Attorneys will engage
everyone with a stake in the future of our children. Together, they
will inventory the unique nature of the challenge and the resources
available in the community. Second, these partners will work together
as U.S. Attorneys develop a strategic plan for Project Safe Childhood
in their area. Third, we will be ensuring accountability by requiring
semi-annual progress reports. The Attorney General wants to know that
Project Safe Childhood is having a measurable impact in terms of
locking away criminals and identifying and rescuing child victims.
In the Department's Criminal Division, we are working in tandem
with our Project Safe Childhood partners around the country in order to
effectively protect children from these crimes in every neighborhood
nationwide. The Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section (CEOS), for example, is contributing its specialized expertise,
participating in training programs and prosecuting cases jointly with
the U.S. Attorneys' Offices. One of the main benefits of Project Safe
Childhood is the coordination of scarce law enforcement resources so
that when leads from nationwide operations are sent out to the field,
state and local law enforcement in the area where the target is located
will be able effectively to investigate and prosecute those leads. CEOS
is helping to develop and coordinate these local programs and national
operations, and then working with the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and with
Federal, state, and local law enforcement across the country to ensure
that these operations have maximum impact.
In addition to Project Safe Childhood, the Department has launched
a number of other initiatives to protect children from exploitation.
The first of these is the Innocence Lost Initiative, which combats
domestic child prostitution. The Innocence Lost Initiative is a
partnership between the Criminal Division's CEOS, the Violent Crimes
and Major Offenders Section of FBI Headquarters and the National Center
for Missing & Exploited Children. As of July 26, 2006, the Innocence
Lost Initiative has resulted in 228 open investigations, 543 arrests,
86 complaints, 121 informations or indictments, and 94 convictions in
both the Federal and state systems. As part of this initiative, the
Department has developed an intensive week-long training program on the
investigation and prosecution of child prostitution cases, held for
members of multi-disciplinary teams from cities across the United
States. The Department is also playing a leading role in the
prosecution of Innocence Lost Initiative cases, either by helping to
stand-up Innocence Lost task forces around the country, directly
prosecuting the cases with the local United States Attorneys' Offices,
or providing coordination, advice, and assistance to prosecutors in
cases where it is not directly involved.
Another important part of our efforts is our initiative to protect
children from child sex tourism, undertaken by the Department in
conjunction with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Child sex
tourism occurs when offenders travel to foreign countries and sexually
exploit children, and is another form of sex trafficking of children.
As with our efforts to increase the prosecution of child prostitution
cases through the Innocence Lost Initiative, we have been working to
increase the number of child sex tourism cases investigated and
prosecuted in order to address the serious offense of Americans
sexually exploiting children in foreign countries. Since the passage of
the PROTECT Act in April 2003, which facilitated the prosecution of
these cases, there have been approximately 55 indictments and 36
convictions, with more than 60 additional investigations currently
underway. We also provide training and advice to foreign governments
regarding their domestic trafficking laws and prosecution efforts in
order to combat trafficking on a global level.
The Department of Justice is also actively enforcing record-keeping
and labeling requirements designed to ensure that minors are not filmed
engaging in sexually explicit activity. These requirements are
contained in Section 2257 and the new 2257A of Title 18 and were
enacted to prevent the sexual exploitation of minors by requiring
producers of sexually explicit conduct to obtain written identification
showing that the performers are adults and also to label materials
identifying a custodian of those records. The FBI, at the direction of
the Attorney General, has begun to conduct random administrative
inspections of producers to ensure that they are obtaining and
maintaining the necessary documents. In addition, we are prosecuting
offenders criminally. The Department's Obscenity Prosecution Task Force
recently obtained a guilty plea from Mantra Films, doing business as
Girls Gone Wild, in which the company admitted that it failed to
maintain appropriate records and agreed to pay considerable fines and
restitution. A related company agreed to the appointment of a corporate
monitor to ensure future compliance by Girls Gone Wild. Producers of
sexually explicit materials know that they will be prosecuted if they
do not comply with this important law that protects our children from
sexual exploitation.
Sophisticated Investigative Techniques
Child pornography is distributed over the Internet in a variety of
ways, including: online groups or communities, file servers, Internet
Relay Chat, e-mail, peer-to-peer networks, and commercial websites. The
Department of Justice investigates and prosecutes offenses involving
each of these technologies.
Sophisticated investigative techniques, often involving undercover
operations, are required to hold these offenders accountable for their
crimes. For example, an investigation of a commercial child pornography
website is launched on multiple fronts. We must first determine where
the servers hosting the website are located, which can change from day
to day to locations virtually anywhere in the world. Then, in order to
find the persons responsible for operating the website, we must follow
the long and complex path of the financial transactions the offenders
use to profit from the sale of child pornography, whether by credit
card or other means. Finally, we must address the thousands of
customers of the website, because research tells us that many will pose
a dangerous threat to children. This requires detailed information
about all aspects of the transaction in order to determine the identity
and location of these offenders. As many of these cases require
coordination with law enforcement from other countries, involve complex
technical issues, and can touch virtually every Federal district in the
United States, it is essential that these complex cases be handled by
law enforcement agents and prosecutors with a broad reach and the
necessary specialized expertise.
To defeat the misuse of these various technologies, the Department
of Justice must match, or even exceed, the innovation being shown by
the online offenders. Along with our critical law enforcement partners,
the Department has greatly enhanced its ability to respond to--and
indeed anticipate--the misuse of technological advances by these
offenders. The Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section,
for example, has created a group of computer forensic specialists,
called the High Tech Investigative Unit (HTIU), who team up with expert
prosecutors to ensure the Department of Justice's capacity and
capability to prosecute the most technologically complex and advanced
offenses committed against children online. The HTIU's computer
forensic specialists provide expert forensic assistance and testimony
in districts across the country in the most complex child pornography
prosecutions conducted by the Department of Justice. They also conduct
numerous training seminars to disseminate their specialized knowledge
around the country.
Among its technological advances, the HTIU has developed a file
server investigative protocol and software programs designed to quickly
identify and locate individuals distributing pornography using
automated file-server technology and Internet Relay Chat. Because file
servers, or ``f-serves,'' provide a highly effective means to obtain
and distribute enormous amounts of child pornography files, 24 hours a
day and 365 days a year, with complete automation and no human
interaction, this trafficking mechanism is a premier tool for the most
egregious child pornography offenders. The protocol recommends
standards for identifying targets, gathering forensic evidence,
drafting search warrants, and making charging decisions. It is designed
for both agents and prosecutors to ensure that all aspects of these
relatively complex investigations are understood by all members of the
law enforcement team. The software program automates the process of
stripping from the computers used as file-servers all of the
information necessary to make prosecutions against all of the
individuals sharing child pornography with the file-server computer.
These advances in investigative technologies are achieving success.
For example, the HTIU's file server initiative contributed to the
successful prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District
of Columbia and the Criminal Division in the case of United States v.
Schiffer. In this case, which was investigated by the FBI, the
defendant pled guilty in October 2005 to one count each of using his
computer to advertise, transport, receive, and possess child
pornography. By operating his personal computer as a file server, the
defendant allowed selected files to be downloaded and uploaded by the
public to and from his computer. He even published on the Internet an
advertisement aimed at young boys that enticed them to photograph
themselves or other boys, so that he could collect and disseminate more
sexually explicit images. Among the items seized from the defendant's
bedroom, pursuant to a search warrant, were two boxes of catalogued
correspondence between the defendant and roughly 160 prison inmates,
the vast majority of whom had either sexually assaulted or murdered
children. In his letters, he discussed his ``desire to rape children,''
preferably boys between 6 and 16. Schiffer also wrote in detail about
taking in runaways and ``making use of them.'' Investigators also found
a clown suit and a printout of a Mapquest route from his place of work
to a boys' shelter.
On August 30, 2006, the defendant was sentenced to 25 years in
prison for the high tech advertising and distribution of more than
11,000 images of child pornography. In addition, upon his release, the
defendant will be required to abide by strict conditions, including no
computer use except in the context of authorized employment, no
possession of pornographic images, and supervision by a probation
officer for life. In sentencing this defendant, the Honorable Paul L.
Friedman captured the devastating impact of the defendant's crimes in
words that I would like to read to you today: ``by advertising and
exchanging these images, the defendant was expanding the market for
child pornography, and that market is made up of kids who are being
exploited, and thus it is damaging to the whole community of
children.'' We could not agree more with Judge Friedman.
United States v. Mitchel, investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by
the Criminal Division in conjunction with the United States Attorney's
Office for the Western District of Virginia, is another recent success
story. This case involved child pornography websites that sold
membership subscriptions to offenders looking to obtain videos of minor
boys engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The defendant was sentenced
on July 14, 2006 to 150 years in prison based on his guilty plea to
offenses involving the production, distribution, sale, and possession
of child pornography.
Large Scale Investigations
In order to crack down on the pervasive problem associated with
online child pornography, it is critical that we focus on major
investigations. For that reason, we are currently coordinating 18
multi-district operations involving child pornography offenders and the
Internet. These national investigations have the potential for maximum
deterrent effect on offenders. Nearly each one of the eighteen
investigations involves hundreds or thousands, and in a few cases tens
of thousands, of offenders. The coordination of these operations is
complex, but their results can be tremendous.
For example, several of our nationwide operations have resulted
from FBI investigations into the distribution of child pornography on
various eGroups, which are ``members-only'' online bulletin boards.
Notably, as of January 2006, the FBI's investigation has yielded over
180 search warrants, 89 arrests, 162 indictments, and over 100
convictions. Another example of a high-impact national operation
targeting Peer-to-Peer technology is the FBI's Operation Peer Pressure,
which, as of January 2006, has resulted in over 300 searches, 69
indictments, 63 arrests, and over 40 convictions.
The Department has had substantial success in destroying several
major child pornography operations. In one such case, announced by the
Attorney General on March 15, 2006, law enforcement--as part of an
undercover investigation--infiltrated a private Internet chat room used
by offenders worldwide to facilitate the trading of thousands of images
of child pornography, including streaming videos of live molestations.
The chat room was known as ``Kiddypics & Kiddyvids,'' and was hosted on
the Internet through the WinMX software program that also allowed users
to engage in peer-to-peer file sharing. The case has resulted in
charges against 27 individuals to date in the United States, Canada,
Australia, and Great Britain (13 of these 27 have been charged in the
United States). One of the 27 charged defendants is a fugitive. Seven
child victims of sexual molestation have been identified as a result of
the investigation, and four alleged molesters are among the 27
defendants charged to date in the continuing investigation. This
investigation is international in scope and results from the
Department's partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
state and local authorities, and international law enforcement
agencies.
In United States v. Mariscal, investigated by the United States
Postal Inspection Service and prosecuted by CEOS and the United States
Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, the defendant
received a 100-year prison sentence on September 30, 2004, after being
convicted on seven charges, including conspiracy to produce,
importation of, distribution of, advertising of, and possession with
intent to sell child pornography. The defendant traveled repeatedly
over a seven-year period to Cuba and Ecuador, where he produced and
manufactured child pornography, including videotapes of him sexually
abusing minors, some under the age of 12. As a result of his arrest,
his customers across the country were targeted by the U.S. Postal
Inspection Service in Operation Lost Innocence. As of August 2006, Lost
Innocence has resulted in 107 searches, 64 arrests and/or indictments,
and 51 convictions.
An excellent example of how one child pornography investigation
into the activities of individuals involved in a commercial website
operation can lead to the apprehension of hundreds of other offenders
is the Regpay case. This case was prosecuted by the United States
Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey working together with
CEOS, and led to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Operation
FALCON. Regpay was a Belarus-based company that provided credit card
processing services to hundreds of commercial child pornography
websites. Regpay contracted with a Florida company, Connections USA, to
access a merchant bank in the United States. In February 2005, several
Regpay defendants pled guilty to various conspiracy, child pornography,
and money laundering offenses. Connections USA and several of its
employees also pled guilty in connection with this case. After
exploiting customer information associated with the Regpay websites,
ICE launched Operation Falcon, an international child pornography
trafficking investigation. As a result, ICE was able to generate
numerous additional leads identifying offenders who had purchased child
pornography from the Regpay websites.
As I noted at the outset, the images these predators create,
collect, and disseminate depict actual sexual abuse of real children.
The Department's nationwide efforts thus extend beyond the challenge of
tracking down the perpetrators: we are also taking steps to identify
and rescue the victims depicted in the images of child pornography. One
method for achieving this goal is already underway. The FBI Endangered
Child Alert Program (ECAP) was launched on February 21, 2004, by the
FBI's Innocent Images Unit, and is conducted in partnership with the
Department's Criminal Division. The purpose of ECAP is to identify
unknown offenders depicted in images of child pornography engaging in
the sexual exploitation of children. Since ECAP's inception, seven of
these ``John Doe'' subjects have been profiled by America's Most
Wanted, and with the assistance of tips from viewers, six have been
identified. More importantly, 35 victims (so far) in Indiana, Montana,
Texas, Colorado, and Canada have been identified as a result of this
initiative. All of the victims had been sexually abused over a period
of years, some since infancy. The Department will continue to ensure
that this program is utilized to its maximum potential.
Prosecutions of Individuals
In addition to contributing to the success of major operations, the
expertise and assistance that the Criminal Division provides in child
exploitation cases--whether from experienced prosecutors or from
specialized computer forensic specialists--is absolutely critical to
the successful prosecution of individual defendants who pose real
threats to children. In short, our involvement in individual cases
makes a real difference in protecting children. The offenders we
incarcerate often have a history of sexually exploiting children.
Keeping them off the street has undoubtedly prevented untold numbers of
children from becoming victims.
The following are just a few examples of some of our cases against
these repeat offenders:
In United States v. Wilder, the Criminal Division worked
with the United States Attorney's Office for the District of
Massachusetts to prosecute a repeat child pornography offender.
After this defendant had been released from prison for a prior
child pornography offense, he violated the terms of his
supervised release by committing additional child pornography
offenses. Not only was he re-incarcerated for violating the
terms of his supervised release, but we prosecuted him for
those new offenses. He was convicted on March 21, 2006,
following a jury trial. As a repeat offender, he faced a
mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, which he
received when he was sentenced on June 28, 2006.
In United States v. Wilson, the Criminal Division and the
United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of
Indiana prosecuted a defendant who was caught with a 14-year-
old runaway girl and who was convicted in state court for
molesting her. Using metadata, link file analysis, chat logs,
e-mail, and other forensic evidence, the HTIU was able to pin
the child pornography specifically to the defendant, which
precluded a possible defense argument that the child
pornography did not belong to him. On December 8, 2005, the
defendant was sentenced to 99 months' Federal incarceration and
supervised release for life.
In United States v. Whorley, the Criminal Division worked
with the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern
District of Virginia to secure the conviction, on December 1,
2005, of a convicted sex offender on 74 counts of receiving
obscene material and child pornography. Among his other
offenses, the defendant downloaded 20 images of Japanese anime
cartoons from the Internet depicting prepubescent minors
engaged in sexually explicit behavior. We believe this case was
the first charged under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1466A, which
criminalizes obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse
of children of any sort, including drawings and cartoons such
as the anime cartoons the defendant downloaded. On March 10,
2006, the defendant was sentenced to 240 months' imprisonment,
to be followed by 10 years' supervised release.
Finally, in United States v. LaFortune, the United States
Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts and the
Criminal Division prosecuted an offender who had previous
convictions for raping his own children and for advertising
child pornography. He was convicted of advertising,
transporting, receiving, and possessing child pornography and,
on March 10, 2006, was sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
As I noted at the outset of my remarks, Congress has demonstrated
both exemplary leadership and invaluable support for the Department's
efforts generally, and for Project Safe Childhood in particular, by
passing the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. The
Adam Walsh Act, signed by the President in July, will help us keep our
children safe by preventing the sexual exploitation of children and by
enhancing penalties for such crimes across the board. Let me highlight
three areas in which this historic legislation bolsters our efforts at
the Department of Justice to protect children:
First, the new law establishes the Sex Offender Sentencing,
Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking Office, and it
assigns the Office numerous important functions relating to the sex
offender registry. The SMART Office will be led by a Presidentially-
appointed Director. The Department of Justice is working now to
establish this Office, and it will be immensely valuable to our ongoing
efforts to protect children from these offenders.
Second, the new law provides additional statutory authority for
Project Safe Childhood initiative that I described a few minutes ago.
We at the Department of Justice very much appreciate Congress's
expression of support for this key initiative.
Third, the new law provides that in child pornography prosecutions,
the child pornography must remain in the control of the government or
the court. In passing this law, and by enacting findings explaining
that child pornography constitutes prima facie contraband, and that
each instance of viewing an image of child pornography is a renewed
violation of the victim's privacy and a repetition of the victim's
abuse, Congress has taken a great leap forward in protecting the
children depicted in these images. While this law is currently being
challenged by defendants in child pornography cases, we are optimistic
that the courts will agree that it does not detract from defendants'
ability to prepare for trial and should thus be upheld.
In conclusion, protecting children from sexual exploitation over
the Internet is one of the Department of Justice's highest priorities.
The Department of Justice is unequivocally committed to investigating
and prosecuting offenders who seek to sexually exploit our children. We
thank you for your invaluable support for our efforts and look forward
to working with you as we continue to hold those who would harm our
children accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
Mr. Chairman, I again thank you and the Committee for the
opportunity to speak to you today, and I would be pleased to answer any
questions the Committee might have.
Senator McCain. Thank you very much, Ms. Fisher. I
appreciate your being here. It is a strong statement.
Mr. Finch, do you have anything to add to that?
Mr. Finch. Good afternoon, Senators.
The FBI treats the exploitation of children as one of its
highest priorities. These crimes are addressed through the
Innocent Images National Initiative, which is currently
composed of 36 undercover operations spread across the country.
Additionally, the Innocent Images Unit, based miles from here
in Calverton, Maryland, works hand in hand with the Department
of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section to address
these matters on a national and an international level.
Our successes include: peer-to-peer initiative, which to
date has generated over 400 cases and 90 arrests; our e-groups
initiative, which has resulted in over 100 arrests; and our e-
cap initiative, which has led to the identification of over 30
victims.
We work very closely with our Federal, state, and local
partners. Through Project Safe Childhood, this interaction has
been formalized and strengthened. I recently visited the FBI
spaces in Pittsburgh, where members of ICAC are collocated with
their FBI counterparts. This situation is duplicated in many
jurisdictions across the country.
Now, the FBI continues to address commercial websites as a
priority. There has been much discussion about ICE's Operation
Falcon, for example. This has been extremely successful.
However, the Operation Falcon is a direct descendent of the
FBI's investigation known as Regpay, which was an investigation
into commercial child pornography websites that ultimately led
to Eastern Europe.
Our investigations indicated that most commercial website
administrators reside and operate from what they perceive as
safe havens outside the borders of the United States. In
response to this, the Cyber Division of the FBI created the
Innocent Images International Task Force as a vehicle for
engaging countries where we believe we could have the most
significant impact on removing the source of much of the
material that the offenders crave. To date over 19 countries
have participated, sending over 35 officers to serve alongside
FBI agents at our offices in Calverton.
Finally, we provided training to all officers who work with
our FBI Innocent Images Task Force. As we sit today, there are
I believe 25 FBI, state, local, and international officers
receiving FBI training at our facility in Maryland.
Thank you, Senators.
Senator McCain. Thank you.
Welcome, Sheriff Brown.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL J. BROWN, SHERIFF,
BEDFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Mr. Brown. Thank you for allowing me to speak today,
Senator McCain and Senator Burns. With your permission,
Senator, I have a pretty famous, well-known investigator that
works for me in Bedford County in the ICAC Task Force. He could
not be here today, but he has created a DVD that I would
certainly respectfully ask to be played.
Senator McCain. We would like to see it now if our staff
can arrange that.
[A video was shown, the sound track of which is as
follows:]
Mr. O'Neal. Senator McCain and honorable Members of this
Congressional Committee, I am truly sorry that I could not be
with you in person today, but I had other commitments that I
could not cancel. However, I have asked my close friend Sheriff
Mike Brown to respectfully request that my comments be offered
to you today for your consideration.
I am a member of Sheriff Brown's Internet Crimes Against
Children Task Force, Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, and a
spokesperson for the Department of Justice Internet Crimes
Against Children Task Forces, all 46. I am a sworn deputy
sheriff in the Commonwealth of Virginia and I also work with
the Miami Beach Police Department's Cyber Crime Unit.
I have worked with Sheriff Brown's unit for over a year now
and have come to respect his investigators, as well as other
ICAC investigators, for the great job they do in protecting our
children of this country from the sexual predators who prowl
the Internet looking for their next victim.
I have seen things while working in this unit that make me
very sad. I have seen things that make me very mad. I have seen
images and videos of young children, mainly females, some as
young as a year old, being sexually assaulted in every way
imaginable. I have seen images of females 10, 11, 12 years of
age in dog collars being raped. I have seen images of children,
boys and girls, performing oral sex on adult males or other
children of their own age. Yes, I am mad, very mad, Senator.
Members of the ICAC Task Force see these images every day.
They used to be just one-dimensional images. Now it is video
streams. If you know where to look, it could be live streaming
video. One of the most sought-after videos at this time is one
of an adult male having sex with what appears to be a 2, 3-
year-old female. He removes her diaper at the start of the
video.
I could go on with descriptions of sexual acts with young
children that I have seen that would make you sick, but I know
you have a busy day and you need to get on with this Committee
meeting. In closing, let me say that the computer age has
opened a whole new world of learning and exploration for our
children. However, we all need to be aware that the information
superhighway also has a very dark side. Sexual predators lurk
on the Internet looking for their next victim, waiting to lure
innocent children into their web of deviance. Law enforcement
throughout this country is doing a great job of combatting
Internet crimes against children, especially the ICAC Task
Forces around the country. These men and women are experts,
they are dedicated professionals and some of the hardest
working personnel I have ever had the opportunity to work with.
The only problem as I see it is that there are not enough of
these dedicated men and women working on this problem.
In closing, please give consideration to the efforts of
these cyber cops, especially the ones in the child protection
arena. Thank you for listening, and again I apologize for not
being able to be there in person. Thank you for the great job
you do. And Senator, can I have your autograph?
[Laughter, and end of video.]
Senator McCain. Sheriff Brown, please extend our
appreciation to Mr. O'Neal for all that he does. He is a role
model obviously to millions and millions of young Americans.
Please proceed, Sheriff Brown.
Mr. Brown. Thank you, Senator. My name is Mike Brown. I am
a retired Federal Agent and currently serving as the Sheriff of
Bedford County, Virginia, home of the National D-Day Memorial.
Since 1998 I have directed a Department of Justice Internet
Crimes Against Children Task Force, what we refer to as the
ICAC, ICAC Task Force, named Operation Blue Ridge Thunder.
You, the Committee, asked what appropriate controls might
be placed on child pornography on the Internet and how the
government can help. First allow me to give you an idea of what
goes on in this cesspool of child pornography on the Internet,
what we hear and what we see, and I will be as polite as
possible in describing some of the stuff that we see. On any
given day an ICAC Task Force member, an investigator assigned
to any of the 46 task forces in this country will view, as an
example, the following.
The investigators are looking at a computer screen, at a
young female, as young as 3, 4, or 5 years of age. There is a
look of stark fear on her face. She is being forced to perform
any number of graphic sexual acts on an adult male or males--
oral sex, vaginal sex. Many of the images have other adult
males doing equally disgusting things to this young girl.
Image after image, video after video, Senators, hundreds,
hundreds of thousands of them, are available on the Internet.
In most of the videos and in the images, the cameraman has the
young female facing the camera. All of her and his genitalia
are graphically displayed close-up, wide angle, et cetera.
Unable to stop the rape, she does the only thing she could do
to protect herself: She shuts her eyes. Most parents understand
this gesture. When our children are very young they think that
by closing their eyes they become invisible. They stand in
front of us, thinking that if they cannot see us we cannot see
them. This game ends with a lot of giggling, tickling,
laughter, and hugs. This little girl's attempt to be invisible
will end in a very different way.
ICAC Task Force investigators and other investigators
working in local, state, and federal cyber units see these
images every day. It used to be just one-dimensional images and
I do not know how I say ``just,'' but now it is video streams,
and if you know where to look it can be live video streams--
adults violating young children, as young as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
years of age.
One of the most sought-after videos, which Shaq mentioned,
Detective O'Neal mentioned in his video, at this time is one of
an adult male attempting to sexually penetrate what appears to
be a 2 to 3-year-old female, and he removes her diaper at the
start of the video.
Investigators routinely pose, all investigators across the
local, state, and Federal Government, pose as children, young
teens and like-minded adults when we go into the chat rooms on
the Internet. Posing as a child, they simply place their
profile in a chat room, usually that of a 12, 13, 14-year-old
female, and then just sit back and wait. In a nanosecond, they
begin to be hit on by the sexual predators surfing the web for
their next victim.
These sexual predators more often than not simply open the
conversation with: What are you wearing? How big are your
breasts? And again, I am being very polite. Do you want to have
sex? Are you a virgin? Would you like someone to urinate,
defecate on you? Would you do that to me? The predator then
offers or just sends porn pictures, sometimes adult, often
child.
When posing as a like-minded adult, our investigators are
often engaged by parents, if you can imagine, or caretakers
wanting them to share in the abuse and/or sexual exploitation
of the children in their care. These parents and caretakers are
often the persons responsible for the manufacturing and
distribution of the horrific pictures and videos available on
the web today.
You ask about controls and what the government can do to
help. The controls are already there, I believe, in the form of
the Federal laws found in Chapter 110, Title 18, United States
Code, which prohibits all aspects of the child pornography
trade, including production, receipt, transportation,
distribution, possession, and also other codes dealing with the
enticement of children to engage in unlawful sexual acts.
We would ask that you support these code sections with the
following, just to mention a few: ensure through hefty fines
that communications services providers report the presence of
child pornography on their systems and do so in a timely
manner:
Improve data retention requirements for all ISPs. We would
certainly want 6 months as a minimum; 1 year would be
preferred.
Encourage foreign governments to crack down on child porn,
which I know we are doing, but a little more twisting of the
arm, to crack down on their country and to work with their law
enforcement agencies, not only our Federal partners, but also
our national ICAC teams.
Pursue efforts to ensure that taxpayers' dollars are never
used to fund Internet access without appropriate transactional
logging to allow the location of individuals that use that
access in the exploitation of children.
I would encourage continued support of the ICAC efforts to
coordinate child exploitation investigations through the ICAC
data network. That is a new system that is being--hopefully it
will be on-line, hopefully within 6 months or so, to help us in
our investigations. Currently we have over 6 million types of
cases on this, on our current system, computer system.
Additionally and probably the most important is, please
consider increasing financial support to the ICAC program. The
ICAC Task Forces are making tremendous progress in the
investigation and prosecution of individuals using the Internet
in their criminal activities involving child pornography. All
46 task forces maintain conviction rates that would be the envy
of any law enforcement agency in this country. I am not sure
that we need more task forces, but we certainly need additional
personnel, training, and equipment within these task forces.
In closing, at this time I would like to extend a formal
invitation to you, Senator, and to you, Senator Burns, to
visit, or someone on your staff; I know you probably do not
have the time; to visit, to drive down to Bedford--it is only
3\1/2\ hours south of D.C.--and to visit one of your task
forces, the ICAC Task Force, Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, at
their undercover location, which is located just outside of
Lynchburg, Virginia. I think you will leave or your staff
person will leave with a sense of urgency to do whatever is
necessary to protect the most precious commodity that we could
ever have and that is our children.
Thank you, Senator.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Brown follows:]
Prepared Statement of Michael J. Brown, Sheriff, Bedford County,
Virginia
Senator McCain and distinguished Members of this Committee, thank
you for inviting me to testify before you today.
My name is Mike Brown; I am the Sheriff of Bedford County, VA, home
of the National D-Day Memorial. I am a retired Federal agent with 42
years of law enforcement experience on a local, national and
international level.
Since 1998, I have directed a Department of Justice, Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Internet Crimes Against
Children Task Force . . . or, to shorten that a bit . . . an ICAC Task
Force named Operation Blue Ridge Thunder. Our task force is responsible
for Virginia and West Virginia, with the exception of five counties in
Northern Virginia which are ably protected by the Virginia State Police
ICAC Task Force.
I will not take up your time, nor my allotted time, by giving you a
lot of statistics . . . your staffers are quite capable of researching
this subject and providing you with reams and reams of stats, charts
and graphs about children and the Internet, porn and the Internet,
sexual solicitation over the Internet, unwanted exposure to sexual
material, etc.
You asked that I address what, if any, appropriate controls might
be placed on child pornography on the Internet, and how the government
can help.
First, let me give you an idea of what goes on in this cesspool of
child porn on the Internet . . . what we hear and a description of what
we see.
On any given day an ICAC Task Force Investigator, assigned to any
of the 46 task forces, will view the following:
The investigators are looking at a young female, as young as 3 to 4
years of age (the images can be either digital images or videos) . . .
there is a look of stark fear on her face. She is being forced to
perform any number of graphic sexual acts with an adult male or males .
. . oral sex, vaginal sex, anal sex; many of the images have another
adult male ejaculating on this young girl, most of the time on her
face. Image after image . . . video after video . . . hundreds of
thousands of them!
Parry Aftab, Cyber-Lawyer described the scene best, and I
paraphrase:
``In most of the videos the cameraman has the young female facing
the camera. All of her, and his, genitalia are graphically displayed in
the video . . . close-up, wide angle, overhead, side . . . a flash or
special lighting is clearly being used and shone in her face to
illuminate the graphic rape. The little girl was not only being
painfully molested, she was forced to bear the additional humiliation
of being filmed at the same time. Unable to stop the rape, she did the
only thing she could do to protect herself: She shut her eyes.
Most parents understand this gesture. When our children are very
young, they think that by closing their eyes they become invisible.
They stand in front of us, thinking that if they can't see us, we can't
see them. `Mommy, can you see me?' is the game of the day, and we all
pretend that we can't. We call out to them, `Where are you? We can't
see you!' pretending to look everywhere for them. The game ends with
lots of giggling, tickling, laughter, and hugs. This little girl's
attempt to be invisible would end very differently.''
Welcome to the world of child pornography on the Internet.
ICAC Task Force investigators, and other investigators working in
local, state and Federal cyber units, see these images every day . . .
it use to be just (forgive me, how do I say ``just'') one-dimensional
images, now it`s video ``streams'', and if you look hard enough it can
be live ``stream'' video. One of the most sought-after videos at this
time is one of an adult male attempting to sexually penetrate what
appears to be a 2 to 3 year old female. He removes her diaper at the
start of the video. Investigator O'Neal mentions this in his recorded
comments to this Committee.
There is a 40-second video clip, according to Department R, Russian
Police (Unit in charge of hi-tech crimes), where two sexual predators
have sex with a young girl (10-12 years old?) after which they stab
her, cut off her ears and smash her face to a bloody pulp. This clip,
as reported by the Russian police, was first noticed by the U.S.
authorities. U.S. police experts assert that the video footage
represents real activity, not imitation.
Our investigators routinely pose as children, young teens, and
like-minded adults, in chat rooms on the Internet. Posing as a child
they simply place their profile in the chat room, usually a 12, 13, 14-
year-old female . . . and then just sit back and wait. In a nanosecond
they begin to be ``hit'' on by the sexual predator surfing the web for
his next victim. Sometimes the predator takes his time and tries to
schmooze his way in. More often that not, they simply open the
conversation with, ``What are you wearing, how big are your breasts
(and I'm being polite), do you want to have sex, if I send you a video
cam would you masturbate for me, would you like to see me masturbate,
how far have you and your boyfriend gone . . . oral sex, anal sex,
vaginal sex, are you a virgin, do you like to perform oral sex, how big
is your boy friend's penis, would you like to have sex with a real man
with a big penis, would you like for someone to urinate/defecate on
you'' . . . and then offers or just sends porn pictures . . . sometimes
adult, often child.
When posing as a like minded adult they are often engaged by
parents or care-takers wanting them to share in the abuse, and/or
sexual exploitation of children in their care. These caretakers and
parents are often the persons responsible for the manufacturing and
distribution of the horrific pictures and videos available on the web
today.
Welcome to the world of child pornography on the Internet.
What Can Our Government Do?
Now to address what, if any, appropriate controls might be placed
on child pornography on the Internet, and how the government can help.
The controls are already there in the form of our Federal law,
codified at Chapter 110 of Title 18, 2251, United States Code, which
prohibits all aspects of the child pornography trade, including its
production, receipt, transportation, distribution, advertisement,
possession, and enticing children to engage in unlawful sexual acts.
We can support these code sections with the following, just to
mention a few:
Federal courts that ensure the application of the
appropriate punishment for convicted persons.
Ensure, through hefty fines, that communication services
providers report the presence of child pornography on their
systems, and do so in a timely manner.
Improve date retention requirements for all ISPs (6 months
min., 1 year preferred).
Encourage foreign governments to crack down on child porn in
their country and to work with our law enforcement agencies,
not only our Federal agencies, but our national ICAC Task
Forces.
Pursue efforts to insure that taxpayer dollars are never
used to fund Internet access without appropriate transactional
logging to allow the location of individuals that use that
access in the exploitation of children. How can we in good
conscience demand that corporate Internet service providers log
transactions if our own government, be it municipal, state,
Federal, or educational institutions fail to do the same.
I would encourage continued support for the ICAC effort to
coordinate child exploitation investigations through the ICAC
Data Network. The computer systems used to facilitate our
reactive and proactive investigations now represent over 6
million transactions involving criminal exploitation of
children. The volume of information is overwhelming and we must
fight to leverage technology as a force multiplier, giving us
greater capabilities with our limited manpower.
In my forty-two years of law enforcement experience I don't think
I've ever worked with a more dedicated and professional group of
criminal investigators . . . investigators like Flint Waters * (WY),
Dave Peifer (PA), Ronnie Stevens (NY), Scott Christensen (NE), Mike
Harmony (VA) . . . and, retired legend, Sergeant Nick Battaglia (CA).
And, being from the Federal system I know what a good administrator is,
and the ICAC Task Forces have two of the best . . . OJJDP's
Administrator Bob Flores, and Ron Laney, Director, Child Protection
Division, OJJDP. I salute them all!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
* This man could be making a million dollars in the private sector,
but he chooses to stay in the public sector helping keep our children
safe from the sexual predators that prowl the Internet.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Invitation
At this time I would like to extend a formal invitation to this
Committee, or someone on your staff, to drive down to Bedford, its only
about 3.5 hours southwest of D.C., and visit one of your ICAC Task
Forces, Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, at their undercover location just
outside of Lynchburg, Virginia. You will leave this location with a
sense of urgency to do whatever is necessary to protect our most
precious commodity . . . our children.
I invite you to look at the attached information for the ICAC Task
Forces and view the brief remarks that follow. This is a clear
representation of the work that the ICAC are doing and what they have
and can do in the future.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1998-2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Totals
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Travel/Enticement 1,810 581 835 3,429 4,349 11,004
CP Manufacture 322 116 3,933 34,062 1,724 40,157
CP Distribute 2,836 768 9,724 154,545 4,040 171,913
CP Posession 5,617 11,726 6,783 6,306 5,042 25,474
----------------------------------------------------------------
Totals* 10,028 3,637 24,138 ****198,883 16,423 253,109
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arrest 1,418 1,474 1,575 1,623 1,744 7,834
Victims ID** N/A N/A 141 275 1,135 1,551
Technical Support*** N/A 3,563 4,871 6,143 6,784 21,361
Forensic Examinations*** NA 2,594 2,770 6,131 8,406 19,901
LEO/Pros. Trained*** N/A 5,487 14,561 12,502 16,413 48,963
Case Referrals 1,980 1,205 4,718 3,869 3,689 15,461
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* 2006 Stats thru July 2006.
** Victim ID Collection Started 2004.
*** Data not available.
**** Task Forces started collecting P2P Transaction Data, stopped after only 2 months. 6 Million Transactions in
24 Months.
The 2006 stats are only through July of 2006. The ICAC program is
on pace to hitting some milestones, to include breaking 2,000 arrests
in one fiscal year, as well as breaking the 8,000 mark since the
program's start.
Please note: Traveler/Enticement cases indicate a significant
increase from FY05 to FY06. So far in FY06 there are almost a 1,000
more cases of traveler/enticement over last year. That's about a 32
percent increase already this year, with several months' worth of data
not in.
Additionally, in my opinion it is very noteworthy that the number
of victims identified as a result of ICAC cases has increased . . . a
total of over 1,500 in just 2 years. To clarify; these are child
victims who have been identified as a result of an ICAC investigation.
Lastly, the number of Forensic Exams the ICACs have already
completed in FY06 is staggering . . . knowing how much data is due for
the remainder of this fiscal year. If I were to guess, this number will
break 10,000. I would also assume that this is due, in large part, to
the increased number of computers being seized on any given case which,
in turn, is increasing the number of exams needing to be completed.
Senator McCain. Thank you, Sheriff. I am going to do
everything I can to make time to come and visit you.
Welcome, Mr. Allen.
STATEMENT OF ERNIE ALLEN, PRESIDENT/CEO,
THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED
CHILDREN (NCMEC); ACCOMPANIED BY JOHN SHEHAN,
PROGRAM MANAGER, CyberTipline, NCMEC
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Senator Burns, Senator
Pryor.
In 1998 you in the Congress asked the National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children to create a CyberTipline, a 9-1-1
for the Internet regarding child sexual exploitation. Last week
we handled our 417,000th report from the public, from Internet
service providers. We are handling reports regarding online
enticement of children for sexual acts, reports which have
increased 150 percent in the past year. We are handling reports
regarding child prostitution, child sex tourism.
Senator Burns, you mentioned misleading domain names. Under
the PROTECT Act, that is now a crime that is required to be
reported to our CyberTipline. We are handling those reports.
And of course we handle reports regarding child
pornography. Our CyberTipline analysts view the images and
content, triage the content, use a variety of search tools and
techniques to try to identify who the distributor is, and then
provide that information to the appropriate law enforcement
agency for the investigative followup. FBI, ICE, the Postal
Inspection Service, all assign agents and analysts who work out
of our center, and we work closely with Mr. Finch and the
Innocent Images National Initiative and the Cyber Crime
Division at the FBI. We also work very closely with Sheriff
Brown and the other Internet Crimes Against Children Task
Forces across the country.
Ten years ago we would have reported to you that child
pornography had virtually disappeared. In 1982 the Supreme
Court of the United States said that child pornography is not
protected speech. As a result it disappeared from the shelves
of adult bookstores. The Postal Inspection Service cracked down
on its distribution through the mails and it had all but
disappeared.
Then came the Internet, and with the Internet it has
exploded. I cite all the time one case generated by one lead to
the CyberTipline that led, through the efforts of the Postal
Inspection Service, other Federal law enforcement, and the
Dallas Police Department, to a husband and wife pair of
entrepreneurs in Texas who were not making enough money doing
what they were doing, so they set up a child pornography
website. When they were arrested by the Dallas Police, they had
70,000 customers paying $29.95 a month and using their credit
cards to access graphic images of small children being raped
and sexually assaulted. That is one website.
We are making progress. Law enforcement----
Senator McCain. How long had they been in operation?
Mr. Allen. I do not remember. I think at least a couple of
years.
Law enforcement is doing heroic work in this area. The
Attorney General has made it a national priority. The private
sector is involved and engaged. Six months ago we launched a
new financial coalition against child pornography with the goal
of eradicating commercial child pornography by 2008. Twenty-
three companies are now involved, including industry leaders
like Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Bank of America,
Citigroup, Internet industry leaders.
The whole premise of this effort is that you cannot
possibly arrest and prosecute everybody. So the mission is to
follow the money, stop the payments, shut down the accounts,
and put an end to this insidious multibillion dollar global
enterprise.
We are also attacking this problem through a new technology
coalition, and, Mr. Chairman, I regret that technology
companies did not accept your invitation. Six Internet industry
leaders, AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, EarthLink, and United
Online, came to us at the center and said: We want to work with
you to develop technology solutions to this problem, to do a
better job of identifying, intercepting, interdicting the
content.
One of the real challenges here is keeping up with the
continually evolving and changing technology. For example,
there are now indications that child pornography is moving into
the wireless world. We are seeing it in Europe. We have already
seen it in this country. We are now working with the Federal
Communications Commission in an attempt to more effectively
address this problem.
Well, what more can we do? Sheriff Brown mentioned a number
of key steps and let me elaborate on a couple of them. In 1998,
Congress mandated that Internet service providers report
suspected child pornography on their sites to law enforcement
via the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and
its CyberTipline. The good news is that today 255 companies are
now actively reporting, including the major players in the
industry--AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, and many others.
The bad news is that many more do not. There is great
concern among these companies about the lack of clarity in the
law regarding the reporting process. There is concern about
statutory protection for distributing images. If they are going
to report the content they need to send us the images. The
concern is when they do that they violate the law.
Recently we and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section at the Justice Department worked with the U.S. Internet
Service Provider Association to develop a set of best practices
reporting guidelines to help address this problem, and U.S.
ISPA is helping us recruit additional ISPs to report. But every
ISP, every Internet service provider, needs to be reporting
this content in a timely way, involving the dissemination of
images, so that we can put these images for investigative
purposes into the hands of Blue Ridge Thunder and the FBI and
the other agencies that are out there.
In addition, in many cases because we do not get mandated
customer information, we are not able to identify the
appropriate jurisdiction for investigative follow-up and we are
not authorized to send these leads to non-U.S. law enforcement.
A major Internet service provider currently has been grappling
with the challenge regarding concerns about content on
customers' accounts in Brazil and would like to develop a
mechanism so that we can put that content and these reports
into the hands of Brazilian law enforcement.
Another matter that Sheriff Brown mentioned that I will not
elaborate on is data retention. Once our CyberTipline analysts
give law enforcement all the information they need about
specific images traded on the Internet, there can be no
prosecution until the date and time of that online activity is
connected to an actual person. There is currently no
requirement for Internet service providers to retain
connectivity logs for their customers on an ongoing basis. The
Attorney General, the Justice Department, has been meeting with
the industry. Some of these companies have policies on
retention, but they vary widely and are not implemented
consistently and, frankly, most are too short to have
meaningful prosecutorial value.
Mr. Chairman, we believe that because of the remarkable
effort of law enforcement at all levels, federal, state, local,
and international, we are doing more about this problem than
ever before. But our message to you is that we have only just
begun.
Mr. Chairman, your staff asked if we could do a very brief
demonstration of how the CyberTipline works. So with your
permission, John Shehan, who manages the CyberTipline for us,
will give you a brief demo.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Allen follows:]
Prepared Statement of Ernie Allen, President/CEO, The National Center
for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC); Accompanied by John Shehan,
Program Manager, CyberTipline, NCMEC
Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, I welcome
this opportunity to appear before you to discuss crimes against
children on the Internet. Chairman Stevens, you are a tireless advocate
for child protection and I commend you and your colleagues for your
leadership and initiative. The National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children (NCMEC) joins you in your concern for the safety of the most
vulnerable members of our society and thanks you for bringing attention
to this serious problem facing America's communities.
Let me first provide you with some background information about the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC is a
not-for-profit corporation, mandated by Congress and working in
partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice as the national
resource center and clearinghouse on missing and exploited children.
NCMEC is a true public-private partnership, funded in part by Congress
and in part by the private sector. Our Federal funding supports
specific operational functions mandated by Congress, including a
national 24-hour toll-free hotline; a distribution system for missing-
child photos; a system of case management and technical assistance to
law enforcement and families; training programs for Federal, state and
local law enforcement; and our programs designed to help stop the
sexual exploitation of children.
These programs include the CyberTipline, the ``9-1-1 for the
Internet,'' which serves as the national clearinghouse for
investigative leads and tips regarding crimes against children on the
Internet. The Internet has become a primary tool to victimize children
today, due to its widespread use and the relative anonymity that it
offers child predators. Our CyberTipline is operated in partnership
with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of
Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the
U.S. Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section
and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces, as well as state
and local law enforcement. Leads are received in seven categories of
crimes:
possession, manufacture and distribution of child
pornography;
online enticement of children for sexual acts;
child prostitution;
child-sex tourism;
child sexual molestation (not in the family);
unsolicited obscene material sent to a child; and
misleading domain names.
These leads are reviewed by NCMEC analysts, who visit the reported
sites, examine and evaluate the content, use search tools to try to
identify perpetrators, and provide all lead information to the
appropriate law enforcement agency. The FBI, ICE and Postal Inspection
Service have ``real time'' access to the leads, and all three agencies
assign agents and analysts to work directly out of NCMEC and review the
reports. The results: in the 8 years since the CyberTipline began
operation, NCMEC has received and processed more than 417,000 leads,
resulting in hundreds of arrests and successful prosecutions.
However, despite this progress the use of the Internet to victimize
children continues to present challenges that require constant
reassessment of our tools and methods. As technology evolves, so does
the creativity of the predator. New innovations such as webcams and
social networking sites are increasing the vulnerability of our
children when they use the Internet. New technology to access the
Internet is used by those who profit from the predominantly online
market in child pornography and seek to evade detection by law
enforcement.
Today, NCMEC is working with leaders in many industries involved
with the Internet in order to explore improvements, new approaches and
better ways to attack the problems. We are also bringing together key
business, law enforcement, child advocacy, governmental and other
interests and leaders to explore ways to more effectively address these
new issues and challenges.
In June six Internet industry leaders, AOL, Yahoo!, Google,
Microsoft, EarthLink and United Online, initiated a Technology
Coalition to work with us to develop and deploy technology solutions
that disrupt the ability of predators to use the Internet to exploit
children or traffic in child pornography. The Technology Coalition has
four principal objectives:
1. Developing and implementing technology solutions;
2. Improving knowledge sharing among industry;
3. Improving law enforcement tools; and
4. Research perpetrators' technologies to enhance industry
efforts.
Bringing together the collective experience, knowledge and
expertise of the members of this Coalition, and applying it to the
problem of child sexual exploitation, is a significant step toward a
safer world for our children.
This past June, NCMEC hosted a Dialogue on Social Networking Sites
here in Washington, D.C. We did this to respond to the increased
attention to these hugely popular sites that permit users to create
online profiles containing detailed and highly personal information,
which can be used by child predators to forge a ``cyber-relationship''
that can lead to a child being victimized. This vigorous and
informative discussion brought together leaders from the technology
industry, policymakers, law enforcement, academia and children's
advocacy groups. We learned a lot about why children are drawn to these
sites, the technological capabilities and limitations of the site
operators who are concerned about the safety of their users, and how
law enforcement sees these sites as both a danger to kids and a useful
source of information in investigating cases. NCMEC is continuing to
work with several social networking sites on ways to make children less
vulnerable.
Another challenge is the widespread use of the webcam, which offers
the exciting ability to see the person you're communicating with over
the Internet. While this has many benefits, such as allowing divorced
parents to have ``online visitation'' with their children in distant
states, it, too, can be used to exploit children. The reports to our
CyberTipline include incidents involving children and webcams. Many
children are victimized inadvertently, by appearing on their webcams
without clothes as a joke, or on a dare from friends, unaware that
these images may end up in a global commercial child pornography
enterprise. Other children are victims of blackmail, threatened with
disclosure to friends and family if his or her ``performance'' before
the webcam doesn't become more sexually explicit. Too much technology
and too much privacy, at a sexually curious age, can lead to disastrous
consequences.
But the most under-recognized aspect of the Internet is how it is
used to distribute child pornography. It is not an exaggeration to
state that this is a crisis of global proportions.
Following the Supreme Court's 1982 decision in Ferber v. New York,
holding that child pornography was not protected speech, child
pornography disappeared from the shelves of adult bookstores. The U.S.
Customs Service launched an aggressive effort to intercept it as it
entered the country and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service cracked down
on its distribution through the mails. However, child pornography did
not disappear, it went underground.
That lasted until the advent of the Internet, when those for whom
child pornography was a way-of-life suddenly had a vehicle for
networking, trading and communicating with like-minded individuals with
virtual anonymity and little concern about apprehension. They could
trade images and even abuse children ``live,'' while others watched via
the Internet.
Then law enforcement began to catch up, and enforcement action came
to the Internet. The FBI created its Innocent Images Task Force. The
Customs Service expanded its activities through its Cyber Crimes
Center. The Postal Inspection Service continued and enhanced its strong
attack on child pornography. Congress created and funded the Internet
Crimes Against Children Task Forces at the state and local levels
across the country. There are currently forty-seven ICAC Task Forces
and the recently-enacted Adam Walsh Act will create ten more. Child
pornography prosecutions and convictions have increased.
I want to commend the Attorney General for his aggressive steps
against child pornography. His Project Safe Childhood brings additional
resources to attacking this problem and demonstrates that protecting
our children is a priority for the Department of Justice.
But we should have no illusions about the impact of these
initiatives on what has become a financially lucrative industry.
The Internet has revolutionized the commercial markets for
virtually every type of goods and services that can be sold.
Unfortunately, this also includes goods and services that subsist on
the victimization of children. In a recent case investigators
identified 70,000 customers paying $29.95 per month by credit card for
Internet access to graphic images of small children being sexually
assaulted. In our experience, most of the consumers are here in the
U.S., and we have found that of the 820 identified victims in NCMEC's
Child Victim Identification Program, a startling number of these
children are also here in the U.S.
A recent report by McKinsey Worldwide estimated that today
commercial child pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry
worldwide, fueled by the Internet. There is also strong evidence of
increasing involvement by organized crime and extremist groups. Its
victims are becoming younger. According to NCMEC data, 19 percent of
identified offenders had images of children younger than 3 years old;
39 percent had images of children younger than 6 years old; and 83
percent had images of children younger than 12 years old. Reports to
the CyberTipline include images of brutal sexual assaults of toddlers
and even infants. These are images that no one here could previously
even imagine. But they have become all-too-common in the new world of
child pornography and child sexual exploitation. Children have become,
simply put, a commodity in this insidious commercial enterprise.
New technology has allowed this industry to stay one or two steps
ahead of law enforcement. Many distributors of child pornography are
using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, which does not use a central
server, thereby depriving law enforcement of an identifiable Internet
Protocol (IP) address, which is key evidence in investigating and
prosecuting these cases. When we receive these reports to the
CyberTipline, it is almost impossible to identify the perpetrators
responsible for trading the illegal files. The anonymity of recent
peer-to-peer technology has allowed individuals who exploit children to
trade images and movies featuring the sexual assault of children with
very little fear of detection.
Wireless access to the Internet permits predators to ``piggyback''
on others' wireless signals, trade images, and remain undetected by law
enforcement because of the difficulty in locating the piggybacking
activity, compounded by the increasing use of wireless access cards
manufactured overseas which use radio channels not authorized by the
Federal Communications Commission. Wireless technology has also enabled
the trading of these images via cell phone--making the operation of
this enterprise not only mobile, but also able to fit inside a pocket
and easily discarded to avoid detection.
Another obstacle to overcome is the reporting of child pornography
found on customers' accounts by electronic service providers (ESP) to
NCMEC. Though apparently mandated by Federal statute, 42 U.S.C.
Sec. 13032, not all ESPs are reporting and those that do report are not
sending uniform types of information, rendering some reports useless.
Some ESPs take the position that the statute is not a clear mandate and
that it exposes them to possible criminal prosecution for distributing
child pornography themselves. In addition, because are no guidelines
for the contents of these reports some ESPs do not send customer
information that allows NCMEC to identify a law enforcement
jurisdiction. So potentially valuable investigative leads are left to
sit in the CyberTipline database with no action taken. Together with
the U.S. Internet Service Providers Association (USISPA) we developed
``best practices'' reporting guidelines to address this problem. The
major ESPs are following these guidelines--for example, AOL, Microsoft,
and Yahoo!. However, these are voluntary rather than mandatory, so
there is no enforcement mechanism for those who choose not to follow
them.
This reporting statute also constrains NCMEC in that it permits us
to forward the CyberTipline leads only to U.S. law enforcement. This is
a real problem, considering the global nature of the Internet. As an
example, there is a portion of one major ESP system based in the U.S.
that is used primarily in Brazil. This ESP wants us to send information
about child pornography they find on their customers' accounts to
Brazilian law enforcement. But we are prohibited from doing so.
There is also another necessary yet missing link in the chain from
detection of child pornography to conviction of the distributor. Once
the CyberTipline analysts give law enforcement all the information they
need about specific images traded on the Internet, there can be no
prosecution until the date and time of that online activity is
connected to an actual person. There is currently no requirement for
ESPs to retain connectivity logs for their customers on an ongoing
basis. Some have policies on retention but these vary, are not
implemented consistently, and are for too short a time to have
meaningful prosecutorial value. One example: law enforcement discovered
a movie depicting the rape of a toddler that was traded online. In
hopes that they could find the child by finding the producer of the
movie, they moved quickly to identify the ESP and subpoenaed the name
and address of the customer who had used that particular IP address at
the specific date and time. The ESP was not able to provide the
connectivity information. To this day, we have no idea who or where
that child is--but we suspect she is still living with her abuser.
We think this is just not acceptable.
One of our new initiatives treats this industry like the business
that it is. Our goal: to eradicate commercial child pornography by
2008. Our mission: to follow the money. This new initiative is the
Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography.
First, we will aggressively seek to identify illegal child
pornography sites with method of payment information attached. Then we
will work with the credit card industry to identify the merchant bank.
Then we will stop the flow of funds to these sites. The Coalition is
made up of major financial and Internet companies, including
MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Bank of America, Citibank,
Microsoft, America Online, Yahoo! and many others. We are working to
bring new members into the Coalition every day, especially
international financial institutions.
The first priority in this initiative is criminal prosecution,
through referrals to Federal, state, local or international law
enforcement in each case. However, our fundamental premise is that it
is impossible to arrest and prosecute everybody. Thus, our goal is
twofold:
1. To increase the risk of running a child pornography
enterprise; and
2. To eliminate the profitability.
NCMEC is working hand-in-hand with both law enforcement and
industry leaders to explore the best techniques for detection and
eradication, and serves as the global clearinghouse for this effort,
sharing information in a truly collaborative way.
Mr. Chairman, I don't come before you today with a quick, easy
solution to the problem of child sexual exploitation, but I can state
unequivocally that the advent of the Internet has provided predators
with the means to both entice children into sexual acts and sustain a
lucrative commercial enterprise that demands the heinous victimization
of children. We suspect that the problem of child pornography will
continue to increase as distributors search for lower risk avenues with
a lower possibility of being detected. Federal, state and local law
enforcement are more aggressive than ever before, but they must
overcome significant barriers. I hope that you can help us remove some
of those barriers and help us identify and prosecute those who are
misusing the Internet for insidious, criminal purposes. Too many child
pornographers feel that they have found a sanctuary, a place where
there is virtually no risk of identification or apprehension.
NCMEC urges lawmakers, law enforcement and the public to take a
serious look at the dangers threatening our children today, and to move
decisively to minimize the risks posed by those who exploit new
technology and target our children.
Now is the time to act.
Thank you.
[Slides.]
Mr. Shehan. Good afternoon. As introduced, I am John Shehan
and I am the CyberTipline Program Manager. The CyberTipline was
launched in March 1998 through the Congressional mandate to
receive reports regarding child sexual exploitation. You will
see that catchy slogan, ``The 9-1-1 of the Internet.'' It is
because before the CyberTipline there was not a central
location where individuals anywhere in the world could report
these child sexual exploitation cases.
This is our main report form. Ernie went through the
different types of reports that we receive. To date we have had
over 417,000 leads, 90 percent of those regarding child
pornography. The next highest number is regarding the online
enticement of children for sexual acts. As Ernie indicated, we
have seen a 156 percent increase in the total number of reports
compared to last year. We also deal with child molestation,
child sexual trafficking, prostitution, et cetera.
What I would like to do is go straight into the success of
the CyberTipline. We had one case that came in earlier this
year. It was through an electronic service provider, in
compliance with 42 United States Code 13032, which requires
those electronic service providers to report incidents of child
pornography that they are aware of on their systems to the
CyberTipline.
In this particular situation, they uploaded content that
was posted by a particular e-mail address. You will see there
it is bigdaddyisaac. Our analysts verified that it was illegal
content. Our next step is to find a jurisdiction. We want to
find out where this individual is. What our staff do is we go
out online. We do a variety of different open source searching.
You would be surprised at the number of individuals that are
trying to sell their car or posting messages to their favorite
band site and they are also using that e-mail account to post
images of child pornography.
In this particular case, we found that same e-mail address
was making a posting to a child modeling site. He was giving
that child incentive and kudos, what some argue is a grooming
process. We also found a posting he had made where he indicated
a possible location of Oregon.
Another profile gave a possible city within Oregon, also
made comments that it is not about what you do in life, it is
that you make a difference in the life of a child. We found a
photo of this individual online.
All of our steps that our analysts do we document so law
enforcement can follow those steps. We save all of the material
we find online and provide that to law enforcement for
investigation. Our analysts have access to public database
searches. This is a free resource we provide for law
enforcement.
In this particular situation, we want to verify this
individual that we found in the cyber world really exists in
the real world. Sure enough, he does. We had a match. Not only
did we have a match, we found a possible place of employment as
a school. So now the red flag is really up there.
We forwarded this information on to the Oregon Internet
Crimes Against Children Task Force. Oregon and 74 other
agencies have a direct-secure-encrypted access into the
CyberTipline. We can send that information, this data, these
tips, in real-time to these agencies.
As you will see on the screen, tens of thousands of images
of child pornography were found when law enforcement kicked the
door in. He admits to molesting children and he was working as
a librarian and a school bus driver. He pled guilty and
received 15 years incarceration.
You will see there, that is a tattoo on his shoulder. In
his own words he indicated those tattoos serve as a warning to
him of his attraction to children. There is a demonist
tattooist on his shoulder there that is about to tattoo that
child, to remind him that every time a child is molested it
marks that child for life. It may be difficult to see, but you
will see a child in a cage in the upper part of the shoulder
there.
Shifting focus, that was the CyberTipline. The Exploited
Child Unit has two major functions. One is to receive the
reports. Our second is to identify the children that are in
these images. First and foremost, we want to find these kids.
The second part of that is to help the prosecutions. With the
advent of technology and the Internet, you easily could claim
that these are not real child, real children; they are morphed
images online, et cetera. A case in point--we will move to that
in just a moment.
We know of 820 children that have been identified through
these images. Over 5 million images have been processed through
our child recognition identification system. That is a service
that we provide to law enforcement to verify that the images,
the content that they seize on those computers and PCs, are in
fact real child victims. That 5 million images is from 2002 to
date. That is quite a vast number of images.
Senator McCain. Of those 820 that were identified, how many
were you unable to identify?
Mr. Shehan. There are still hundreds, if not thousands, of
children out there to identify.
Mr. Allen. Far more.
Mr. Shehan. That is a primary focus, is, one, to find those
children, get those into the category where law enforcement has
verified their existence, and continue focusing on those that
have not been identified.
Senator McCain. And I would imagine that the pedophiles get
more and more clever over time?
Mr. Shehan. Absolutely, and make it more and more difficult
for our team.
A case in point. With these 800-plus children that have
been identified, this is the relationship of the abuser to the
child. Many have the perception that these children are being
abducted off the streets and forced into these types of
situations. Looking at the red, green, and the yellow, those
are individuals parents, other relatives, or neighbors and
family friends. Those are individuals that had legitimate
access to these children.
Senator McCain. So there must be cases where parents put
their children online?
Mr. Shehan. Absolutely.
You will see a small percentage of the children are self-
producing, 5 percent; 10 percent through the online enticement.
But the vast majority of these children, the perpetrators had
legitimate access to them.
Senator McCain. But that helps you track them down?
Mr. Shehan. Somewhat, but they are still incredibly crafty
with the grooming techniques and keeping the children from
disclosing what is going on. We rely heavily on law enforcement
during their investigations to follow up and see if there are
child victims associated with these individuals possessing the
content or trading the content.
A case in point. Not only are we trying to help law
enforcement to verify that these are child victims, but we are
looking into all of these images. We are looking into
background clues. ICE had sent us some evidence and asked us
essentially to review, find out if there are identified
children. Through that review we found images that we had never
seen before, children that were being victimized that we had
never seen. So we focused our attention.
This particular image, you will see that the television
there, there is a cup, there is a Big Gulp. It is not
necessarily a Big Gulp, but it is a clue. Where is that cup
being distributed? Not only that; in the bottom corner there
you will see a grocery bag. Where are those stores? Our
analysts focus on clues like that. We try and track it down,
where are those locations, where in the world could those cups
be. You see we now have an approximate jurisdiction. There are
about five or six different States out of the entire world
where that child could be.
We continue our focus. Where is that brown bag? Where is
that grocery store? It just so happens it is the same vicinity.
So now we have an approximate jurisdiction.
We are going to keep going through these images. We have a
digital imaging specialist in the Exploited Child Unit at the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. All he does
all day long is trying to enhance and blow up images so we can
find locations.
A case in point is that little envelope there on the desk.
We twist it, we blow it up; we found a Northstar Ministorage.
Our analysts continued to do searches on this to find out where
are those Ministorages, and it turns out in just one
jurisdiction.
We are then able to continue to look at clothes. We are
looking at sockets, keyboards, calendars, anything that may be
in the background of these images, to help us find a location.
Clothes overall are only going to help with an area. They are
not going to pinpoint the exact location, but it is a piece to
the puzzle.
This last image that you are looking at here, it is the
child. She was being drugged by the perpetrator. Over the chair
there is a brownie uniform. We were able to blow up that image;
taking all the previous information, putting it all together,
we were able to ascertain a location.
Every one of these images that comes to the CyberTipline or
the Child Victim Identification Program, any image that is
taken with a digital camera contains metadata. Essentially it
is information embedded in the image. We were able to tell law
enforcement that those images were taken with an Olympus
digital camera and we were able to ascertain the dates and
times those images were taken. So when we do locate that child
it will help to figure out who had access to that child during
those points in time.
We forwarded that information to the Immigration and
Customs officers as well as the Internet Crimes Against
Children Task Force. Investigation ensued and they found six
victims to date. They were able to locate that child and,
unfortunately, it was a grandfather, someone that had
legitimate access to the child, and he has been found guilty.
He is still in the sentencing stages, though.
Those are just two of the programs that we are working, and
I appreciate having the time to explain some of those to you.
Senator McCain. Thank you very much. Certainly it is
helpful.
Our last witness is Dr. Sharon Cooper, who will join us
now. Thank you, Dr. Cooper, and thank you for your patience,
and please proceed.
STATEMENT OF SHARON W. COOPER, M.D., ADJUNCT
PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS, CHAPEL HILL SCHOOL OF
MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Dr. Cooper [appearing on the video monitor from a remote
location].
Dr. Cooper. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I am very pleased to be able to appear before your
Committee today and express my views regarding child
victimization and pornography. I am a developmental and
forensic pediatrician and I am the CEO of Developmental and
Forensic Pediatrics, which is a consulting firm that provides
management, care, research and training, and expert witness
testimony in child maltreatment cases and the care of children
with disabilities. I am an adjunct professor of pediatrics at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as an
assistant professor of pediatrics at the Uniformed Services
University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.
I am a retired Army officer, having serving 21 years in
numerous U.S. military hospitals and having retired with the
rank of colonel. And I am the lead author of the most
comprehensive textbook that we have on the market at this
particular time, a two-volume compendium entitled ``Medical,
Legal and Social Science Aspects of Child Sexual Exploitation,
a Comprehensive Review of Pornography, Prostitution, and
Internet Crimes.''
I have lectured on the subject of child sexual exploitation
and particularly child pornography in nearly 100 conferences
both in the United States and in foreign countries. I have been
an instructor at the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children for 7 years now, training attorneys, judges, and
investigators regarding all aspects of child sexual
exploitation. I am also an instructor for the North Carolina
Institute of Government, which provides judicial training in
this area of child maltreatment.
I am here, sir, to speak for victims--not emerging social
norms, not Internet behaviors of children and youths or
criminal justice statistics. I would like to bring to your
attention some of the issues relevant to children victimized by
sexual abuse with pornographic memorialization. Ten years ago,
our texts on child sexual abuse did not even mention
pornography production because it was so rarely reported in our
literature that children were in underground magazines and
videotapes. Today specialists who work in the area of child
sexual abuse have had to learn how to ask the right questions
about the possibility that a child's victimization may have
entailed the production, dissemination, possession, or
extortion through the use of child sexual abuse images.
Our field of knowledge regarding this insult to injury, the
injury being child sexual abuse and the insult being the child
who is kept at a certain age and stage of development forever,
is emerging. It is important to recognize that the majority of
victims of sexual abuse do not disclose this in childhood.
You should know that such maltreatment of children whose
brains are still in a state of development has an actual
negative neural architectural change and impact. Furthermore,
research from the Kaiser Permanente system in California has
confirmed that adverse childhood experiences such as child
sexual abuse with pornography production has lifelong physical,
reproductive, health risk behaviors and mental health impact.
The increasing number of images on the Internet of children
less than 6 years of age speaks volumes regarding the prurient
nature of producers and collectors. Such images that I have
reviewed and children in this age group of whom I have medical
knowledge are often victims of sadistic, gross sexual assault
and sodomy. Witnessing this degree of physical and certainly
emotional damage would be heartbreaking. Possession of such
images should lead to the stiffest penalty available within the
letter of the law. In addition, offender research as well as
Internet research reveals that sexual voyeurism online is a
highly addictive pastime and the likelihood of recidivism is
great, as well as a higher than presumed incidence of actual
contact offenses in convicted collectors.
I recently participated as one of only two Americans in an
international expert working group on the subject of child
victims of Internet pornography. This working group was held in
Sweden and it was sponsored in part by Save the Children. The
outcome of the meeting was the realization that our specialists
need immense training in this form of victimization. The fact
that these children do not typically tell of their abuse, but
in fact will actually deny the presence of images, should not
deter their necessary mental health support.
Recent investigations of large international child sexual
exploitation rings reveals that like-minded offenders, who are
often intrafamilial, have little to no remorse regarding the
trauma and harm to their own children and those of others. This
is the only form, sir, of child abuse which almost always comes
to law enforcement first, instead of to child protective
services. Consequently, child welfare has had to learn about
this problem second-hand, if they are called in at all. This is
a form of child abuse which has had much more victim impact,
because there is a very close link between exploitation through
pornography and the gradual transition into prostitution. This
background of having pictures and videos taken of one's sexual
abuse is a significant risk for substance abuse, mental health
problems, and run-away behaviors.
What steps can Congress take to impact this problem of
child pornography? I would recommend consideration of the CDC's
approach for four components of prevention of the Child Sexual
Exploitation Act: looking at the individual, looking at the
family, looking at the community, and looking at society.
For the individual child or youth, child sexual abuse
prevention strategies as well as online and communication
technology safety strategies should be mandated in the health
classes of all public elementary, middle, and high schools, not
in the computer classes. The latter is not always available to
students, but health classes are usually a requirement, and
education to prevent compliant victimization with webcams,
social networking sites and online dating is a public health
issue in America today. The Center for Disease Control's new
Youth Dating Violence Prevention Initiative, called ``Choose
Respect,'' should also be included as a mandated component of
these health classes.
A recommendation for family intervention in the prevention
of child sexual exploitation would include mandates that
federally-funded public libraries provide one-on-one tutoring
and assistance for any person requesting instruction on how to
implement parental controls on their home computers, as well as
information regarding filtering, blocking, and tracking
software. This information can be computer-based, but not
necessarily web-based, and it should be on a free computer in
the library.
Another aspect of prevention of child pornography
production would include cessation of the recurrent cycle of
sexual offending. All child welfare agencies should maintain
digital images of all children who are referred for
investigation and abuse. This would allow a Congressionally-
funded secure link between an agency such as the National
Center for Missing & Exploited Children and any child
protective service unit in the country. When the CVIP analysts,
as was spoken of before, are able to regionally focus their
efforts to locate a child depicted pornographically on the
Internet, such a federally-funded link might bring the search
to closure if child sexual abuse has already been substantiated
and the child is safe from harm.
An example of how important child welfare and local law
enforcement efforts are was noted just 3 weeks ago at one of
the largest child abuse trainings in the United States, the
Dallas Crimes Against Children's Conference. At the site,
Attorney General Gonzales commended the new Victim
Identification Laboratory sponsored by the National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children and the Microsoft Corporation,
which was an online lab of child pornography details open only
to law enforcement and prosecutors.
The very first day that the lab was open, an investigator
identified a 5-year-old child whose mother's paramour had
sexually abused her and who was already convicted and serving a
prison sentence. On the one hand, this would be one more case
for closure by CVIP, but on the other hand no one in the
investigative or prosecutorial team knew that child pornography
was also part of this 5-year-old child's victimization.
Funding for child welfare agencies to provide education and
support for non-offending family members would also begin to
help in the area of cessation of recurrent sexual abuse. This
funding would include an actual family counseling curriculum
provision and, most importantly, training of potential members
of the child maltreatment multidisciplinary team at their
earliest entry into the field, the undergraduate level.
Increased earmarked funding for undergraduate programs such as
are found at the Winona State University in Minnesota and other
public-funded colleges around the country would be appropriate
to help those who are trying to learn social work, psychology,
premed, political science, criminal justice, and computer
science fields as they become part of that community prevention
strategy.
Congress should also encourage industry leaders to assist
in public awareness campaigns regarding the plight of victims
of child sexual abuse images. This would include information
regarding good citizenship for bystander youths and warnings
for youth offenders who bully online, commit sexual assaults
and extort or exploit victims through cellular telephone camera
technology and with peer-to-peer networking.
Congress should also enhance judicial training for federal,
state and military judges to negate a still pervasive thought
that this is a just a victimless crime and that these are just
pictures.
Funding for programs which provide housing and education to
marginalized youths who are being exploited is sorely needed
and is quite relevant to this subject of child sexual abuse and
child sexual abuse images because of Dr. Cathy Spatz Widom's
research that revealed that children who have been sexually
abused are 28 times more likely in their lives to be
prostituted, to be arrested for prostitution.
A recent study by ECPAT, End Child Pornography,
Prostitution and Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes,
revealed that children and youth internationally trafficked
into the United States for prostitution purposes were receiving
more support and assistance to escape prostitution than
American children who had been trafficked from one side of our
country to the other side of our country. Research funding, but
particularly housing assistance through block grants to states,
would be very helpful in this part of intervention for victims.
Finally, sir, from a societal perspective of the prevention
of child pornography victimization, Congress should strengthen
the existing obscenity statutes as our country begins to
struggle to diminish the sexualization of children in
entertainment, media, fashion, advertising, books, and
competitions. The normalization of sexual harm continues to be
heavily promoted, leading to very negative messages and images,
particularly of minority adolescent icons.
The juxtaposition of sexuality and violence is not by
coincidence and industry leaders must be held accountable.
Recent successful Department of Justice actions against
agencies which exploit youths without proof-of-age or who are
clearly unable even to make and understand their informed
consent rights are a wake-up call that we are beginning to get
it. Obscenity and profanity are both seen and heard today in
our public media and these constant images and messages are
clearly affecting the sexual behaviors and beliefs of our
children. Let us work together outside the box to assist in
keeping youths from committing Federal offenses by being self-
exploitive just because degrading lyrics say it is the right
thing to do.
I very much would like to thank you, Senator McCain, for
this opportunity to appear before you and to express my
concerns and hope that this will be helpful to your thought
process.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Cooper follows:]
Prepared Statement of Sharon W. Cooper, M.D., Adjunct Professor of
Pediatrics, Chapel Hill School of Medicine, University of North
Carolina
Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, I am
pleased to appear before your Committee today and express my views
regarding child victimization through pornography. My name is Sharon W.
Cooper, M.D., and I am a Developmental and Forensic Pediatrician. I am
the CEO of Developmental & Forensic Pediatrics, PA a consulting firm
which provides medical care, research and training, and expert witness
testimony for children with disabilities and/or who are victims of all
forms of child abuse and neglect. I am an adjunct professor of
Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of
Medicine and an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed
Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. I am
a retired Army officer, having served for 21 years in numerous military
hospitals here in the U.S. and overseas, and achieving the final rank
of colonel. I am the lead author of the most comprehensive textbook on
child sexual exploitation, a 2-volume compendium entitled: The Medical,
Legal and Social Science Aspects of Child Sexual Exploitation A
Comprehensive Review of Pornography, Prostitution, and Internet Crimes
(published in 2005). I have lectured on the subject of child sexual
exploitation and particularly child pornography in nearly 100
conferences in the U.S. and numerous foreign countries. I have been an
instructor at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for
7 years training attorneys, judges, and investigators regarding all
aspects of child sexual exploitation. I am an instructor for the North
Carolina Institute of Government which provides judicial training in of
child maltreatment.
I am here to speak of victims--not emerging social norms, Internet
behaviors of children and youths or criminal justice statistics. I
would like to bring to your attention some of the issues relevant to
children victimized by sexual abuse with pornographic memorialization.
Ten years ago, our texts on child sexual abuse didn't even mention
pornography production because it was so rarely reported that our
children were in underground magazines or videotapes. Today,
specialists in the evaluation of child sexual abuse have to learn how
to ask the right questions about the possibility that a child's
victimization may have entailed production, dissemination, possession
or extortion through the use of child sexual abuse images. Our field of
knowledge regarding this insult to injury--the injury being sexual
abuse and the insult, keeping a child forever at a certain age and
stage of development while being exploited through images, is emerging.
It is important to recognize that the majority of victims of sexual
abuse do not disclose in childhood. You should know that such
maltreatment of children whose brains are still in a state of
development has an actual negative neural architectural impact.
Furthermore, research from the Kaiser Permanente system in California
has confirmed that adverse childhood experiences such as sexual abuse
with pornography production has lifelong negative physical,
reproductive, health risk behaviors (smoking, drinking, drugs, obesity,
etc.) and mental health impact.
The increasing number of images on the Internet of children less
than 6 years of age speaks volumes regarding the prurient nature of
producers and collectors. Such images that I have reviewed and children
in this age group of whom I have medical knowledge, are often victims
of sadistic, gross sexual assault and sodomy. Witnessing the degree of
physical and certainly emotional damage that such children experience
in the videoclips now present on the Internet would break your heart.
Possession of such images should lead to the stiffest penalty available
within the letter of the law. In addition, offender research as well as
Internet research reveals that sexual voyeurism online is a highly
addictive pastime and the likelihood of recidivism is great, as well as
certainly a higher than presumed incidence of actual contact offenses
in convicted collectors.
I recently participated as one of only 2 Americans on an
international expert working group on the subject of child victims of
Internet pornography. This working group was held in Sweden and
sponsored in part by Save the Children. The outcome of the meeting was
the realization that our specialists need immense training in this form
of victimization--the fact that these children not only typically do
not tell of their abuse, but will in fact, deny the presence of images
must not be a deterrent to necessary mental health support. Recent
investigations of large international child sexual exploitation rings,
reveals that like-minded offenders who are often intrafamilial have
little to no remorse regarding the trauma and harm to their own
children and those of others. This is the only form of child abuse
which almost always comes to the attention of law enforcement first,
instead of child protective services. Consequently, child welfare has
had to learn about this problem second-hand, if they are called at all.
This is a form of child abuse which has much more victim impact,
because of the close link between exploitation through pornography and
the gradual transition into prostitution. This background of having
pictures and videos taken of one's sexual abuse is a significant risk
for substance abuse, mental health problems, and run-away behaviors.
What steps can Congress take to impact this problem of child
pornography? Consider an approach to each of the 4 components of the
prevention of child abuse: the individual child or youth, the family,
the community and society. For the individual child or youth, child
sexual abuse prevention strategies as well as online and communication
technology safety strategies should be mandated in the health classes
of public elementary, middle and high school students (not computer
classes). The latter are not always available to all students, but
health is usually a requirement and education to prevent compliant
victimization with webcams, social networking sites and online dating
is a public health issue in America today.
A recommendation for family intervention in the prevention of child
sexual exploitation would include mandates that federally-funded public
libraries provide one-on-one tutoring and assistance for any person
requesting instruction on how to implement parental controls on their
home computers, as well as information regarding filtering, blocking,
and tracking software. This information can be computer-based but not
necessarily web-based and should be on a free computer. Another aspect
of prevention of child pornography production would include cessation
of the recurrent cycle of sexual offending. All child welfare agencies
should maintain digital images of all children who are referred for
investigation and abuse. This would allow a congressionally funded
secure link between an agency such as the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children and any child protective service unit in the
country. When the Child Victims of Internet Pornography (CVIP) analysts
are able to regionally focus their efforts to locate a child depicted
pornographically on the Internet, such a federally-funded link might
bring the search to closure if child sexual abuse has already been
substantiated and the child is safe from harm. An example of how
important child welfare and local law enforcement efforts are was noted
just 3 weeks ago at one of the largest child abuse trainings in the
U.S., the Dallas Crimes against Children's Conference. At the site,
Attorney General Gonzales commended the new Victim Identification
Laboratory which was an online lab of child pornography details open
only to law enforcement and prosecutors to see if anyone recognized
unknown victims. The very first day that the lab was open, an
investigator identified a 5 year old child whose mother's paramour had
sexually abused her and who was already convicted and serving a prison
sentence. On the one hand, this would be one more case for closure by
CVIP, but on the other hand, no one in the investigative and
prosecutorial team knew that child pornography was also part of this 5-
year-old's victimization.
Funding for child welfare agencies to provide education and support
for nonoffending family members would also begin to help in the area of
cessation of recurrent sexual abuse. This funding would include an
actual family counseling curriculum provision, and most importantly,
training of potential members of the child maltreatment
multidisciplinary team at their earliest entry into the field--the
undergraduate level. Increased earmarked funding for Winona State
University in Minnesota and other public-funded colleges around the
country which are trying to incorporate child maltreatment education to
students in social work, psychology, premed, political science,
criminal justice and the computer science fields all of whom are
potential team members in child abuse.
Congress should encourage industry leaders to assist in public
awareness campaigns re: the plight of victims of child sexual abuse
images. This would include information regarding good citizenship for
bystander youths and warnings for youth offenders, who bully online,
commit sexual assaults and extort or exploit victims though cellular
phone camera technology and peer-to-peer networking. Congress should
also enhance judicial training for Federal, state and military judges
to negate a still pervasive thought that this is a ``victimless'' crime
and these are ``just pictures.''
Funding for programs which provide housing and education to
marginalized youths who are being exploited through prostitution is
sorely needed and is quite relevant to child sexual abuse and its
associated images because of Dr. Cathy Spatz Widom's research that
revealed that victims of child sexual abuse were 28 times more likely
in their lives to be arrested for prostitution. A recent study by
ECPAT, USA (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking
of Children for Sexual Purposes') revealed that children and youth
internationally trafficked into the U.S. were receiving more support
and assistance to escape prostitution, then American children who had
been trafficked from one side of our country to another. Research
funding but particularly housing assistance through block grants to
states would be very useful in this part of intervention of victims.
Finally, from a societal perspective of the prevention of child
pornography victimization, Congress should strengthen the existing
obscenity statutes as our country begins the struggle to diminish the
sexualization of children in entertainment, media, fashion,
advertising, books, and competitions. The normalization of sexual harm
continues to be heavily promoted leading to very negative messages and
images, particularly of minority adolescent icons. The juxtaposition of
sexuality and violence is not by coincidence and industry leaders must
be held accountable. Recent successful civil suits against agencies
which exploit youths without proof-of-age or who are clearly unable
even to understand their informed consent rights, are a wake-up call
that we are beginning to get it. Obscenity and profanity are both seen
and heard today, and these constant images and messages are clearly
affecting the sexual behaviors and beliefs of our children. Let's work
together outside the box to assist in keeping youths from committing
Federal offenses by becoming self-exploitive, just because degrading
lyrics say it's the right thing to do.
I would like to thank Chairman McCain for this opportunity to
appear before you today express my concerns.
Senator McCain. Thank you very much, Dr. Cooper.
I will ask the other witnesses, but we will try to see if
there are any questions for you so that you can return to your
duties.
Since the legislation was passed in 1998, which is very
important, has the problem gotten better or worse?
Dr. Cooper. The problem of child pornography, sir?
Senator McCain. Yes.
Dr. Cooper. Child pornography has gotten worse. It has
definitely gotten worse. It is worse in two ways. In one sense
it is worse because we have more people who understand that
they can take pictures of children, and now people are showing,
offenders, are showing young children child pornographic images
in order to help them recognize and accept what the offender
wants to do to them. So the ease of access of child pornography
images on the Internet is used more and more to groom young
children.
The other point, sir, is that as I evaluate more child
victims of sexual abuse, what the children tell me in their
histories are now things that I have seen on the Internet in
child pornographic images, which lets me know that that second
reason for collection of child pornographic images, that is as
a plan for action, is certainly being put into place.
Senator McCain. So one of the worst aspects is this
continued attempt to normalize sexual harm?
Dr. Cooper. That is correct, sir. When we see sexualized
images of very young children in media, this leads children to
accept themselves as a sexual being, which makes it easier for
them, unfortunately, to be victimized, and it is very important
for us to recognize this slippery slope.
Senator McCain. Do any other Senators have questions for
Dr. Cooper, so we can let her go after you question her?
Senator Burns, Senator Ensign?
[No response.]
Senator McCain. Thank you very much, Dr. Cooper, and we
appreciate very much your input. Thank you for all you do. We
are very grateful.
Dr. Cooper. Thank you, sir.
Senator McCain. I guess I would--and you can turn that.
Just real quick for the other witnesses, do you agree with
Dr. Cooper that since 1998 the situation of child pornography
has worsened in the United States? We will begin with you Ms.
Fisher.
Ms. Fisher. Yes, Senator.
Senator McCain. Mr. Finch?
Mr. Finch. Most definitely, Senator.
Senator McCain. Sheriff?
Mr. Brown. Absolutely. We are seeing a tremendous upsurge.
Senator McCain. Mr. Allen?
Mr. Allen. Absolutely, much of it driven by improvements in
technology--high-speed, broadband distribution, instant ability
to access and distribute.
Senator McCain. So obviously along with your
recommendations, and there have been some very good
recommendations, we need to do more, all of us, Congress, the
various organizations at all levels; is that a correct
assessment?
Mr. Allen. It is certainly mine, sir.
Senator McCain. Ms. Fisher, I did have one question. Has
the Department issued regulations setting forth what data
should be transmitted to NCMEC through the CyberTipline and is
that a problem?
Ms. Fisher. There are no specific regulations. What we have
been doing, as Mr. Allen mentioned in his testimony this
morning, is working with NCMEC and with the ISPs on a protocol
and best practices about what should be transmitted. We have
seen a marked increase on the reports that are being brought
in, but it is not 100 percent reporting and we need to do
better and we need to continue to work with NCMEC and the ISPs
to get this right.
Senator McCain. Is that a pretty accurate description, Mr.
Allen?
Mr. Allen. Absolutely. Clearly, in the best of all worlds
if the statute is flawed our view is we should fix the statute.
But the goal--and we applaud the leadership of the Justice
Department and are grateful for it and we are making progress,
but until every electronic service provider in this country is
reporting there is a hole in the system.
Senator McCain. So what do we need to do?
Mr. Allen. Well, I think we need to keep doing what we are
doing. I also think that it is appropriate----
Senator McCain. Would you like some more regulations from
the Department of Justice?
Mr. Allen. I think that would be a good thing.
Senator McCain. Good.
Ms. Fisher. Well, we will work with you on it.
Mr. Allen. OK.
Senator McCain. Good.
Mr. Allen, is it just--you mentioned technology. Is it also
a problem--and maybe, Sheriff Brown, you can help us--with the
internationalization of this situation, that it crosses
continents and international borders? That it would seem to me
would make your effort of identifying these people almost
impossible.
Mr. Allen. Senator, it is very difficult. The good news is,
as Mr. Finch mentioned, there is now a international
coordinated law enforcement process. Interpol and others are
doing much more in this area. But one of the great challenges,
through our international center we just finished a review of
the law in the 184 member countries of Interpol looking at five
key categories of law on child pornography. 95 member countries
of Interpol have no law at all. Child pornography is not even a
crime. In 138 countries that are Interpol members, the
possession of child pornography is not a crime.
So while there have been extraordinary efforts under way in
Western Europe, in Australia and Canada and the United States
and a number of other places, one of the key challenges is to
make the world aware of the extent of this problem and the fact
that this is truly a global phenomenon and at least develop a
consistent uniform platform of law so that we can enforce these
crimes wherever in the world they happen.
Senator McCain. Sheriff Brown?
Mr. Brown. I could not add any more to what Mr. Allen has
said. I know that we are seeing that we are a small task force.
We are sort of at the lower end of the food chain in these task
forces. But even I can see when we are looking at these images
and we are seeing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and we can
tell even without sending them for examination that a lot of
them are coming out of Europe, a lot of them are coming out of
the Eastern Bloc countries. We can see in the background some
of them, as John showed you the way they enlarge the
photographs and identify things, we are even seeing that. So we
are seeing a lot of images coming internationally, coming from
overseas, I mean a tremendous amount.
Senator McCain. Mr. Finch?
Mr. Finch. Senator, the electronic media or the Internet
has posed a challenge when it comes to addressing these matters
internationally. However, with the task force we are now seeing
progress in terms of getting at the criminal in other
countries. These officers come here, they stay for 6 months,
they train, they go back to their country; they have a better
understanding of what we are doing. The countries we have
worked with have been most cooperative and they have removed a
lot of the impediments or road blocks to getting the predators
in other countries.
So we are making progress, but, as Mr. Allen stated, there
are countries that have no laws.
Senator McCain. So, Ms. Fisher, do you think that we need
more international agreements on this issue?
Ms. Fisher. Well, we absolutely need to work on this on an
international basis. Congress ratified the Cyber Crime
Convention that is going to help in this regard with the
signatory countries making sure that they have laws. But we
need to continue to train. We see credit card processors
offshore. We had a case where the money was going to Latvia and
the processor was in Belarus. We need to continue to get
cooperation and we need to continue to get them to increase
their laws.
Senator McCain. Senator Burns.
Senator Burns. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The point is follow
the money.
Mr. Finch, I want to congratulate you and the FBI. I have
had the opportunity to go into an office in Montana and set an
evening with agents there and watch them go into those chat
rooms and to finally identify some of those predators and then
figure out ways to lure them out and get them. They go through
a lot of training.
I will tell you that one agent was using his daughter, his
own daughter, as a model in that. I do not know if you ever had
that opportunity, Senator. It is like, Sheriff Brown if I was
down in Lynchburg I would come down and set with you an
evening, because, I tell you what, it takes a lot of training,
it takes a lot of patience, and it is not nice work. It is not
nice work at all.
But I want to congratulate you and the agents you have in
each one of these States. I know in every State they are there.
It just sounds to me, no matter what kind of a law we pass
it still boils down to how do we get down on the ground and
take care of people who have, I think, very serious mental
problems. These folks are sick. And how we seek them out--and
no matter what kind of law we pass, it does not seem to even
make a dent in the problem that we are facing.
Do you get that same kind of a feeling?
Mr. Allen. Absolutely.
Senator Burns. It just takes a lot, a neighborhood I guess,
awareness. And we cannot put every one of them in jail. We
cannot build jails fast enough to do that. So if they are
identified they just move into some other neighborhood. We get
rid of the problem in our neighborhood, but they go somewhere
else. So that really concerns me, how we can really do this.
Do any of you want to comment on that? Sometimes I think it
is an exercise in futility.
Mr. Allen. Senator Burns, I know there has been a lot of
gloom and doom, but I think we are really making headway on
this. I think there is no question on the commercial side. We
have been working with the financial companies. One of the
things we are seeing is that these entrepreneurs are now using
the credit card logos with an account not behind it, so that
when you go to the site and you see the credit card logo what
we are seeing is that it is being done for one of two purposes:
either identity theft--you attempt to purchase access to a
child pornography site and there is nothing there. To whom are
you going to report that? So it is being used to steal
identities.
But second, it is also being used for these operators to go
back to the purchaser and offer them other payment options.
So I think there is already indications that the efforts of
law enforcement and the private sector have disrupted the
commercial side of this business.
On the pure criminal and investigative side, the reality is
the numbers of arrests and convictions have skyrocketed. There
is far greater law enforcement presence than there has ever
been before. What we are convinced is that the perceived
anonymity of the Internet, the sense that nobody is looking,
has really fanned the flames of this problem. The most
important thing we can do is send a message that somebody is
looking and that if you violate--you know, the Internet is a
wonderful thing, but if you use it in an inappropriate way you
are going to be prosecuted.
Senator Burns. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator McCain. Senator Pryor.
STATEMENT OF HON. MARK PRYOR,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ARKANSAS
Senator Pryor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Internet is such an amazing thing, it can be so good
and so bad. I know it has been hard for the Congress to get a
handle on how we should do it, but basically I think we clearly
in this area, we have a problem with exploited children. We
also have a problem with recruiting kids to either be
kidnapped, murdered, exploited, abused, whatever it may be, and
that is all terrible.
The other thing is that we have the problem where children
in our homes are being exposed to pornography. I think that is
very rampant and that is going on on the Internet. So I know my
colleagues on this Committee are very committed to trying to
find the right solution to that and so am I.
Ms. Fisher, you mentioned in your statement that we have
had some success in the foreign, with foreign countries and
foreign prosecution. I am encouraged to see that. In fact, I am
copying some of the cases that you cited and I would like to
just tell the Committee I look forward to working with the
Committee. But what tools should we employ, based on the cases,
based on your experience? What tools should we use to try to
equip our law enforcement in this country to be more effective
overseas?
Ms. Fisher. Well, we need to continue to train them and to
get them to pass laws that make the possession of child
pornography a serious crime with stiff penalties. As Ernie
Allen said, some of this is just a matter of countries not
having the laws. In others where they have the laws, it is a
slap on the wrist or a mere fine for being caught with child
pornography. We have to encourage them to do more.
There are subcommittees of the G-8 that are looking at
this. We have sent people over to other countries to train
them, to share information about how to go after this. Training
law enforcement over there to investigate these crimes, as we
do here, is so important, both forensically and otherwise. So I
agree, we have got to combat this internationally as well as
domestically, Senator.
Senator Pryor. Also, is the Department of Justice focused
on repeat offenders? Do you have some sort of repeat offender
system that you are going after folks time and again?
Ms. Fisher. Absolutely. Of course, there are stiffer
penalties, thanks to the Congress, for repeat offenders.
Senator Pryor. Now, that is good to know.
Sheriff, let me ask you. I know you are kind of down in the
trenches on this.
Mr. Brown. Yes, sir, and proud to be there, I might add.
Senator Pryor. You have to work with very limited resources
on a local level. I am sure you work in conjunction with your
State and also the feds. How much cooperation are you getting
from the State level and the Federal level.
Mr. Brown. We get great cooperation. I do not know that
there is any one agency that cooperates any better nor any
worse than any other one. We have a good working relationship
in Virginia. I know some of the ICAC Task Forces, it may not be
as good in some areas. But I think basically overall that there
is good cooperation.
Senator Pryor. Is this an area where if Congress, if the
Federal Government, would provide some more resources down on
the State, local, and Federal level, would it help enhance what
you are able to do?
Mr. Brown. Senator, it would. I know I sound like a broken
record. Yes, everybody comes before you and before Congress and
before Congress and asks for money. I do not think we can be
any different. We see a need on the local, the ICAC level, now
speaking from the ICAC level, the Internet Crimes Against
Children task force level. We do a lot of training of local
officers. That is what we--one of the ideas that we have had I
think from day one is, in fact that is part of our mandate, is
to train local law enforcement and that is what we are doing.
In Southwest Virginia, in the last--well, in Virginia we
are responsible for the State of Virginia and West Virginia
with the exception of five counties in the northern part of the
State of Virginia that is a part of the Virginia State Police
ICAC Task Force. But in the rest of Virginia and West Virginia,
we have educated over 17,000 parents, teachers, etcetera, and
we have trained in excess of 2500 law enforcement agents,
State, local law enforcement.
We would like to train more and we would like to be able to
purchase equipment like we have from time to time. To staff a
cyber unit is very expensive.
Senator Pryor. So at some point the amount of resources
that you can allocate has a bearing on how much of that
training you can do.
Mr. Brown. Absolutely.
Senator Pryor. Let me ask Mr. Allen. I remember a
politician years ago saying that money is the mother's milk of
politics. It seems to me that credit cards may be the mother's
milk of online pornography. Senator Burns pointed this out a
minute ago, that follow the money. However, I think also what
Senator Burns was saying is that a lot of these predators do
not do it for the money. It is much deeper than money. It is
almost maybe a legitimate illness that they have and a
quantifiable illness that they have.
But nonetheless, it does seem to me that if you are
successful in going after the credit card use you would be able
to knock down a significant portion of this. Has that been your
experience?
Mr. Allen. Absolutely. Senator Pryor, one of the most
frightening things about this phenomenon today is we have
always assumed that it was pedophile-driven. I think what we
have seen in the past few years is organized criminals and
extremist groups, not driven by a pedophile motive, but
recognizing that this is easy to produce, it is inexpensive to
produce, there is a huge consumer market for it, and
historically there has been relatively little risk.
So I think if we can attack the money, follow the money,
take the money out of it, we eliminate a very dangerous side of
this problem.
Senator Pryor. The money seems to be feeding the beast, so
to speak. It seems to be providing incentive out there to get
more and more out there online.
Really, I have one last question, and that is, a friend of
mine in Little Rock a year or so ago talked to me about this
idea that he had, and I do not know if it is original to him,
but now I know that other ideas are out there like this, but to
set up a new domain, a triple-X domain, and basically somehow
or another, depending on how it was structured, but somehow or
another try to get pornography generally, including certainly
child pornography, over to the triple-X domain.
I guess it would be, based on the Supreme Court cases, it
would be similar to when you walk into a bookstore or a
convenience store now there is a magazine rack. There are
legitimate limitations, constitutional limitations, that you
can put on the magazines. Maybe they have to be covered, they
have to be put up higher on racks, etcetera.
So basically the idea would be on the Internet you could
force everything over to the triple-X domain. I just would like
to hear from the panel if I could get each one of your comments
on that, if in your view that would help your job and help us
crack down on child pornography.
Do you mind starting?
Ms. Fisher. No, not at all. You know, we would certainly be
happy to look at that. I had not had that issue raised with me
before. Certainly it sounds somewhat similar to the idea of
something that Senator Burns I think was talking about earlier,
which is the web labeling, that if there is, not child
pornography, which is illegal, but other kinds of sexually
explicit material that is not criminal on the Internet, that
before you can have that on the Internet you have to label it
and it has to take you a click before you get there.
I know the Justice Department has been very supportive of
that type of legislation. So we are happy to look further at
that idea and discuss it with you.
Mr. Finch. Senator Pryor, I would defer to my parent
agency, the Department of Justice, as far as the response is
concerned. However, most of the predators are visiting the
sites frequented by children, and so the triple-X site might
address the adult pornography, but when it comes to the child
pornography and the people who crave that type of material,
they are going to visit the spaces that are frequently, or the
sites frequently visited by children. So I am not sure how much
it would cut down on our predators on the Internet.
Senator Pryor. But it may not get all the predators, but
nonetheless it could help with child pornography generally and
pornography generally.
Mr. Finch. It could definitely have a positive impact.
Mr. Brown. Senator, I quite frankly, I do not know. I, like
Mr. Finch, would have to defer to the Department of Justice. I
absolutely do not know. As you say, I am in the trenches. That
is above my pay scale.
Mr. Allen. Senator, I too will yield to the Justice
Department. The only point I want to make is that child
pornography is not protected speech. It is criminal. It should
not be in anybody's domain. The goal is to root it out and
eradicate it.
Senator Pryor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator McCain. Senator Ensign.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN ENSIGN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA
Senator Ensign. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
holding this very important hearing. A lot of people in America
think that this stuff goes on, but they have no idea to the
extent that our children are being subjected to and the numbers
I think of adults that are engaged in this.
Do either maybe the FBI or the Justice Department or any of
you, do you have any statistics on the number of people? Are
there estimates on the number of people that are maybe involved
in the United States in child pornography?
Mr. Finch. Senator, we do not have any numbers. It would be
a guess that I could not quantify with any empirical source,
just because these predators, these people, do not really make
their identity known because it is not the most upstanding
thing to do. Trying to identify these folks in a quantifiable
form so that we can say we have made a significant impact, it
is a tough thing, almost impossible to do.
Senator Ensign. Well, illegal drugs are illegal, but we
have at least some statistics on whether or not people are
using percentages. They can at least take some educated guesses
on the number of people engaged in activities like that. There
are a lot of activities that are illegal that are not things
that people want to brag about, but they at least maybe have
statistics.
There is none in the government that we know of, though?
Ms. Fisher. I think there are certainly estimates that I
have seen where there are tens of thousands of these people
trolling the Internet every day. We have seen a website that we
mentioned earlier today which, one website with child
pornography, had 70,000 customers, and we talked about that
earlier. So that gives you somewhat of a scope. I have also
seen----
Senator Ensign. 70,000 U.S. customers or worldwide
customers?
Ms. Fisher. I do not know that they were all U.S.
customers.
The other thing is I have seen estimates--and Mr. Allen
might be able to speak further on this--on the financial end,
that it is a multibillion dollar industry, that people are
paying 29.95 a month or whatever for access to these commercial
websites, they are buying and selling these images on the
Internet for money. The scope of the problem is immense. It is
definitely an epidemic that is getting worse and we need to
continue our efforts and redouble them.
Senator Ensign. Go ahead, Sheriff Brown.
Mr. Brown. Pardon me. When we were appointed a task force
in 1998 there was a figure and I am not sure whether it came
from NCMEC, if it came from the University of Thailand, I think
which tracks again the sites, the money, etcetera. They were
saying it was 10,000 websites being run by sexual predators,
pedophiles. We were told not to say ``pedophiles'' because we
are not physicians, so we call them sexual predators.
I just saw a figure last night where that figure is up
around 100,000. Now, if you multiply that by 70,000, just take
70,000 customers, you have got a tremendous amount of people in
this arena. Between--again, when we first came on it was
between 2 and $4 billion, I think, industry and now who knows
where it is. It is I would say a 23, $27 billion business.
Senator Ensign. I cannot even believe that some of you can
work in this industry. It is work that needs to be done. But
even just reading some of your testimonies, you get sick to
your stomach. I applaud anybody that can actually do this kind
of work because it is such important work.
I realize that you want to call them sexual predators. I
will call them pedophiles for you. The idea that there are
those involved who just view pornography--some have called it a
victimless crime, obviously as far as other than the person
that had, the child that had the pictures take of them. I think
it is important to debunk that myth right away, that it is not
a victimless crime, that not only the people viewing this--even
if they say that they are never going to, are there not a large
number of people who start by viewing who end up, then the next
appetite grows a little stronger and a little stronger, until
they actually act on what they are viewing, and that is when
they go out and commit the sexual act? Mr. Allen?
Mr. Allen. Senator Ensign, we do not believe that people
who will spend money or will go to a website to see images of
4-year-olds being raped do so as a matter of intellectual
curiosity.
Our view on the 70,000 customers of that Texas website were
that every one of those people not only was violating the law,
but was a person of interest, and we do believe that one of the
elements that we really have to grapple with on the Internet is
a kind of addiction, a continuing quest for something more
extreme, something new, the new images. That is why it
represents such a menace and such a threat to America's
children, because while the technology is global, in every one
of these cases there is a local victim.
Senator Ensign. Getting to the viewing and maybe if you
could, either FBI or Justice, talk about the--because I am not
just familiar off the top of my head with the penalties for, at
least the Federal penalties for viewing child pornography,
either distributing--can you just kind of break down what the
minimums are versus what a sexual predator would--and if you do
not have those today, if you could just get those for me it
would be OK.
Ms. Fisher. Certainly. The penalties range from 5 years all
the way up to life imprisonment for different offenses, whether
it is distribution, first time offense, second time offense,
sex trafficking. There are additional mandatory minimums now
because of the Adam Walsh Act. But I am happy to get you all of
that information.
Senator Ensign. The reason I even bring that up for
discussion is this, that I have talked to some psychiatrists
and some psychologists who believe that these sexual predators,
these pedophiles, can be treated. I am not of that belief. The
risk of the treatment--it is like, well, yes, but some of them
maybe will repeat offend, but a certain percentage of them can
successfully be treated, is the argument, and therefore they
all deserve a chance. Well, I do not share that view. I view
the children that they are going to repeat offend with.
Does anybody have any statistics on the number of people
that are, say, a pedophile--I have heard outrageous numbers,
the number of people that they will actually abuse, the number
of children that they will abuse in their lifetime. Also, do
you have any recidivism rates as far as those are concerned?
Ms. Fisher. Do you want to take it?
Mr. Allen. A couple of responses, Senator. One is that the
data on recidivism frankly has always been suspect because we
know that so few of these cases are ever reported. The other
point is that the recidivism rates vary based upon the nature
of the offense. For example, recidivism rates for molesters who
victimize boys is far higher than for those who victimize
girls. Offenders who victimize boys tend to victimize huge
numbers. Those who victimize girls, smaller numbers, but more
girls tend to be victimized.
The other thing, it really goes back 20 years, but some
National Institute of Mental Health research which was based on
interviews of sentenced, convicted child molesters, so whether
this is representative of the universe is another question,
done back in the 80s found, and I think the numbers are right,
that the typical child molester will molest an average of
something like 117 children during his lifetime. Again, those
who victimize boys, the numbers go up into the 300 range.
Senator Ensign. I had heard those numbers and I just wanted
to hear it from you because I did not know whether, I mean they
are such shocking numbers that I did not think that that was
possible. But I knew I had heard those numbers before. I just
could not remember where.
Mr. Allen. And the vast majority of these offenses are
never reported. If you will remember Arthur Dean Schwartzmiller
in Santa Clara, California, a couple of years ago, he had been
arrested nine times, but when he was arrested by Santa Clara
police they found a diary that had detailed entries on 36,000
descriptions of molestations of children. It may not be 36,000
children; it may be multiple children.
But for a substantial subset of this population, this is
not a lapse of judgment; this is a lifestyle. You ask, Senator,
about penalties. First I want to commend you and Senator McCain
for the extraordinary work that the Congress of the United
States has done. The penalties, the Federal penalties in these
offenses, are excellent and these offenders are getting the
kind of treatment that they need in the Federal system.
We still have some work to do at the State level. For
example, there are still six States where the possession of
child pornography is still a misdemeanor. We believe that is
not acceptable and that greater emphasis needs to be brought to
this problem at all levels.
Senator Ensign. My last question, Mr. Chairman, would just
be simply, we are fighting--obviously we have this global war
against radical Islamists around the world and we have a lot of
our domestic resources going toward that, are we putting enough
resources toward protecting our children when it comes to this
online problem as well as the ones who actually are acting it
out, sexual predators?
Ms. Fisher. I think every dollar that we spend on
combatting this problem is going to be a dollar well spent. I
think the Adam Walsh Act authorizes more prosecutors, more
money to ICACs, more forensic research, more forensic labs and
things like that, and we need to take a hard look at whether
that money is appropriated. I think the Attorney General in his
testimony earlier today on this very issue talked about that.
So I think the money there is well spent.
If I could just mention one other thing going back a
minute, Senator, when you talked about some people that say
that this is a victimless crime. I just say no way. I mean,
every time somebody picks up a picture of child pornography
that is a crime scene. That child is being victimized again and
again every time their picture is shown to a new person.
Senator Ensign. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it.
Senator McCain. Mr. Allen, there is no doubt in your mind
that there is a link between possession of child pornography
and actually sexually assaulting a child?
Mr. Allen. No doubt whatever.
Mr. Brown. Absolutely.
Senator McCain. And this humanization is a serious issue?
Mr. Allen. It really is. What we are seeing is fundamental
deterioration in societal views and attitudes about this. One
of the great challenges frankly is just to awaken America to
what this is about. Good people do not want to think about it.
Good people do not want to see it.
Senator McCain. Do you know what happens to these kids when
they grow up, sheriff?
Mr. Brown. They are scarred the rest of their life,
Senator. I mean, there is so much again documentation. I know
NCMEC has I am sure reams of cases that they have examined to
show that this happens. You can go to the Internet and find it.
You can research what the mental breakdown is after something
like this happens, and it is tremendous.
Senator McCain. Well, Sheriff, I would like you and Mr.
Allen to drop me a note saying exactly what you think
additional measures we can take, whether it be financial, more
money for different efforts, whether it be increased personnel,
whether it be additional legislation. We would like to hear
from you----
Mr. Brown. Yes, sir.
Senator McCain.--so that we can use that as our guidelines.
If this problem continues to grow as seriously as you say, we
need to contemplate additional actions on the part of all of
us. Obviously, as Ms. Fisher points out, education is one of
the key areas. I do not think Americans hear enough about this,
about this situation.
Ms. Fisher, one of the things that pops into my mind
particularly as far as international cooperation is concerned--
and I do not usually like to do it--but maybe conditionality on
trade agreements. I know that is not in your area of
responsibility, but it seems to me if we have a trade agreement
with a country that maybe one of the conditions would be that
there are sufficient laws in that country that would address
this issue.
Do you think that has any merit or you would rather not
comment?
Ms. Fisher. I am happy to pass that on to my colleagues at
the State Department. I better not travel out of my lane. But I
think that what that illustrates, Senator, is that we all need
to really think creatively about attacking this problem from
all different angles, and we need to step outside to think of
what additional things we can use, because we do need to
continue to make a dent in this problem.
Senator McCain. Well, I want to thank the witnesses and I
thank you for your good work, and I am glad I do not have your
job. But I am very, very grateful that you do it, and I say
that on behalf of the citizens of this country. We are very
grateful. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 4:12 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. John McCain to
Alice S. Fisher
Question 1. How concerned is the Department of Justice about
reports that child pornographers and pedophiles are connecting more
frequently online through virtual rooms in Internet Relay Chat, on
message boards, and in other online forums where they exchange
information and share images? How closely are these activities
monitored by DOJ?
Answer. The Department of Justice is deeply concerned about the
effect the Internet has on the volume and severity of child pornography
and child sex abuse crimes. Overall, the advancement of Internet and
file-sharing technologies has contributed to a significant increase in
the proliferation of child pornography. This sets into motion a cycle
that leads to more, and more depraved, images of child pornography
being traded online. First, the message boards and chat rooms have a
normalizing effect. An individual who is sexually attracted to children
might feel ashamed or alarmed about his feelings, and so would be
afraid to act on it for fear of violating a deeply held societal norm.
The Internet, however, connects that individual to others who share his
deviant interest. Knowing there are others out there like him, the
individual loses his shame and begins to see his desire as common or
even normal, and so is less afraid to act on it. Second, the Internet
drives demand. As the Internet permits child pornography consumers to
amass large collections quickly, there is a constant demand for new and
more extreme material, leading to younger victims being forced to
perform more graphic sexual acts.
For this reason, the Department of Justice closely monitors
developments in both Internet and digital storage technologies. While
Internet Relay Chat, message boards, and online forums have existed for
some time, newer technologies such as f-serves and peer-to-peer
software are becoming more commonplace. Furthermore, digital storage
capabilities have changed greatly in the last few years, as easily
hidden thumb drives or flash drives can store tens of thousands of
images, as can iPods or other mp3 players. Mobile phones can now be
used to produce and store images of child pornography. The Department
quickly studies these technologies, develops investigative and
prosecution tactics, and provides guidance to the field on how best to
respond to the new technology.
Question 2. Is the apparent growth in child pornography available
online driven by commercial enterprises looking to profit from this
exploitation, or is it being driven more by individuals who create and
distribute images for their own gratification?
Answer. Both commercial websites and ``homegrown'' child
pornography producers play a role in the growth of child pornography
available online. Commercial websites naturally reach a wider audience
than an individual who makes his own child pornography, as websites by
design are in the public sphere. Websites also reach those consumers
who are less ``tech sawy'' and might not be as adept at other methods
of file sharing such as fserves and peer-to-peer software. However,
commercial websites are the least anonymous method of obtaining child
pornography online, as the consumer must provide a valid credit card
number in order to receive the material. Further, the site may not stay
up for long to avoid detection or investigation by law enforcement.
Individuals who create and distribute images may not envision that
their material will be traded in an international market, although that
is often the result. Whether the individual producer e-mailed the
material to a single individual or made it available on an f-serve,
once a series becomes known in the community it becomes a prized
commodity, and collectors will try to obtain all of the images in the
series. Often collectors barter images in their own collection to get
new material, so in an effort to get the new images, a collector will
continue the circulation of older material.
Question 3. Is there anything that online companies such as ISPs
could do that they are not doing today that could help our effort to
prosecute and convict individuals in possession of child pornography?
Answer. It is difficult to speak about ISPs as a class because
among all ISPs there is a great range in their resources and commitment
to combating child pornography. Generally speaking, however, it would
benefit our investigations and prosecutions if ISPs were to retain data
for longer periods of time than they currently do, to register with the
Cyber Tipline, and to prepare and disseminate a guide to law
enforcement that describes what information they retain, in what
format, and for how long, as well as accurate contact information for
service of process. The Department of Justice has consulted with ISPs
to determine what, if any, steps can or should be taken to increase the
Department's ability to prosecute those exploiting children, and will
do so again at an appropriate time. Additionally, the major ISPs have
jointly developed a body of ``best reporting practices'' for compliance
with Title 42, United States Code, Section 13032, which requires all
ISPs to report the presence of child pornography on their systems to
the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC has
advised that these best practices are followed by all of the major ISPs
and that the effectiveness of ISP reporting has improved significantly.
All ISPs, big or small, should follow these best practices.
Question 4. You state in your testimony that the Attorney General
sees the Project Safe Childhood initiative--which I commend--as a
three-legged stool made up of the DoJ, state and local law enforcement,
and non-governmental organizations like the National Center for Missing
& Exploited Children. What role do private sector, for-profit companies
have in the Project Safe Childhood effort? Shouldn't they be a fourth
leg that you can rely on?
Answer. There is a role for the private sector in the Project Safe
Childhood effort. The recently formed Financial Coalition Against Child
Pornography provides a clear example of contributions the private
sector can make to the fight against child pornography. The Financial
Coalition is comprised of more than twenty of the world's most
prominent banks, credit card companies, third-party payment companies,
and Internet services companies. Members of the Coalition include
America Online, American Express Company, Authorize.Net, Bank of
America, Capital One, Chase, Citigroup, Discover Financial Services
LLC, e-gold, First Data Corporation, First National Bank of Omaha,
Google, Mastercard, Microsoft, North American Bancard, Nova Information
Systems, PayPal, First PREMIER Bank/PREMIER Bankcard, Standard
Chartered Bank, Visa, Wells Fargo, and Yahoo! Inc.
These organizations have joined with the National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and its sister organization, the
International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), in the
fight against Internet child pornography. The Coalition's goal is to
eradicate commercial child pornography by 2008. The Department of
Justice and other governmental agencies have engaged and supported this
effort.
The first step to achieving the Coalition's goal is to establish a
global Clearinghouse on child pornography to provide a unified system
for identifying illegal activities and sharing information between
Coalition companies. NCMECIICMEC will serve as the global Clearinghouse
on the commercial aspects of child pornography. Coalition members have
agreed to be vigilant and will look proactively for and report child
pornography to the Clearinghouse. The Coalition will ensure that
information derived from proactive efforts is reviewed by the
Clearinghouse, that information is shared with Coalition companies, and
that a tracking and feedback system is developed to ensure that broad-
based action is taken to eradicate illegal practices.
Once the Financial Coalition identifies child pornography websites
with credit card. logos or other methods of payment information, an
effort is made to identify the merchant parties, with the assistance of
Federal law enforcement. Ultimately, all relevant information is shared
with the appropriate law enforcement agency--Federal, state, local, or
international. By design, if that agency does not begin an
investigation within a set time, members of the Financial Coalition
have agreed to take action under their terms of service against the
merchant.
In addition, ISPs are an integral part of Project Safe Childhood's
efforts to combat online child pornography offenses. As stated above,
it would benefit our investigations and prosecutions if ISPs were to
retain data for longer periods of time than they currently do, to
register with the Cyber Tipline, and to prepare and disseminate a guide
to law enforcement. The major ISPs have jointly developed a body of
``best reporting practices'' for compliance with Title 42, United
States Code, Section 13032, which requires all ISPs to report the
presence of child pornography on their systems to NCMEC.
Finally, the technology business community is an important partner
in the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of child exploitation
crimes utilizing camera and video phone technology.
Project Safe Childhood also encourages the participation of local
businesses and business organizations through investment in their
community programs and initiatives aimed at protecting and assisting
children. Additionally, Project Safe Childhood partnerships are seeking
to engage local media outlets in the education of their communities
regarding the dangers posed by the Internet to children and the steps
that families can take in response to this increasing threat. Media
outlets are also uniquely suited to helping Project Safe Childhood
partnerships in mobilizing their communities to locate victims. The
AMBER Alert program is an excellent example of the media's ability to
assist law enforcement efforts to protect and rescue children.
Question 5. In broad terms, could you describe to us the trends you
are seeing in the 18 multi-district investigations that you are
currently conducting? Are these investigations of commercial sites, or
are they investigations of groups of individuals exchanging images
online in private chat rooms or through peer-to-peer networks?
Answer. The eighteen multi-district investigations cover a wide
range of technologies. There are multi-district investigations
currently pending based on f-serves, online groups or chat rooms,
commercial child pornography websites, and peer-to-peer software. For
the investigations pertaining to commercial child pornography websites,
most are currently focused on the customers of the website. A few of
the investigations are based on small, exclusive networks of
individuals who produce child pornography and then trade it only with
each other, often via e-mail or in private chat channels. Some of the
investigations are undercover operations. Some of the investigations
are domestic in scope, and some are international.
We are seeing an increase in receipt and distribution offenses
related to offenders trading or otherwise distributing these images to
each other. We are also seeing a heightened awareness and understanding
by law enforcement of the investigative steps necessary to prove
receipt and distribution offenses.
The content of the child pornography we are finding is increasingly
graphic and more sadistic. Sexually explicit images of toddlers and
babies are found more frequently. We are also encountering offenders
whose collections of child pornography are more voluminous, and
shocking in their meticulous organization by age, gender, and the
conduct depicted.
Question 6. Do you believe that your efforts are reducing the
production and distribution of child pornography online and otherwise?
Answer. Despite our best efforts, including in the recent increase
in prosecutions for child exploitation crimes, the number of reports to
NCMEC's Cyber Tipline continues to grow every year and the gravity of
the problem seems to be escalating. However, we do not believe our work
is in vain and Congress has provided critical new tools by enacting
enhanced penalties and mandatory minimums. We are hopeful, therefore,
that putting more offenders behind bars for longer periods has at least
curtailed the rate at which the child pornography problem has grown,
even if it has not been offsetting. Moreover, through the number and
magnitude of our prosecutions, we strive to deter offensive conduct,
especially more serious contact offenses, which by their nature are
very difficult to deter. And, while we cannot truly know whether we
have been successful in deterring conduct, we have seen movement and
changes in criminal behavior that likely result from our aggressive,
dedicated, and innovative investigations and prosecutions. We believe,
then, that our work has had an important impact, and we are committed
to making that impact even more meaningful.
Question 7. You state in your testimony that the Department of
Justice is not only tracking down creators, distributors, and consumers
of child pornography, but that you are also taking steps to identify
and rescue the victims depicted in these images. This is a commendable
goal. In addition to the Endangered Child Alert Program, which appears
to have been successful, what other efforts are you making to achieve
this important goal of finding the victims?
Answer. The FBI's Endangered Child Alert Program (ECAP) is the most
significant effort by law enforcement to identify, find, and rescue
victims of child pornography offenses. In addition, law enforcement
works closely with NCMEC's Exploited Child Unit, which is dedicated to
locating and identifying victims of child pornography. As a matter of
routine, law enforcement will examine a child pornography defendant's
collection to identify both known and unknown victims. Material
depicting unknown victims is referred to the Exploited Child Unit,
which focuses its efforts on trying to locate the victim. We strongly
encourage Federal, state, and local law enforcement to work actively
with the Exploited Child Unit, and to provide the Unit with all found
images of victims, including those images that do not contain sexually
explicit conduct. These non-child pornography images often prove to be
extremely useful in the identification of victims.
In addition, the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, the
Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), and the FBI's Office
for Victim Assistance have been working together to develop procedures
for according rights to victims of child pornography possession
offenses. Pursuant to the Justice for All Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3771,
these rights can include notification of court cases where images of
their victimization are the basis of charges in Federal district court
and the court's consideration of their victim impact statements when
available.
In the context of child prostitution cases, we also work closely
with state and local law enforcement to accurately identify and rescue
children victimized through prostitution.
The Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services have
programs that are important in assisting victims of child sexual
exploitation, including those who are victims of international and
domestic child sex trafficking.
Question 8. Does the Department of Justice benefit from reports
that come in to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
through the CyberTipLine? Are there any improvements to that program
and the reporting obligations under Federal law that the Department
would recommend?
Answer. Reports to the Cyber Tipline are invaluable, and often lead
to successful investigations and prosecutions. As but one example, one
child pornography investigation began after Yahoo! reported that
someone uploaded images of child pornography to a Yahoo! group. The
individual was located, and his computer was seized pursuant to a
search warrant. Over 66,000 images of child pornography and child
erotica were found on his computer. He was sentenced to 97 months in
prison after pleading guilty to receipt and possession of child
pornography.
The Department would recommend Congress enact certain revisions to
42 U.S.C. Sec. 13032, which codifies the ISP reporting requirements.
DOJ submitted proposed revisions to that section to Congress earlier
this year. The revision would amend existing provisions of the law that
require certain providers of electronic communications services to
report violations of the child pornography laws. Current law provides
that a provider who knowingly and willfully fails to report such
violations shall be subject to a criminal fine of up to $50,000 for the
initial failure to report and $100,000 for each subsequent failure to
report. Prosecutors and law enforcement sources report that this
criminal provision has been virtually impossible to enforce because of
the particular mens rea requirement and the low amount of the potential
penalty. This legislation would triple the criminal fines available for
knowing and willful failures to report, making the available fines
$150,000 for the initial violation and $300,000 for each subsequent
violation. In addition, the legislation would add civil fines for
negligent failure to report a child pornography offense. The civil
penalty is set at $50,000 for the initial violation and $100,000 for
each subsequent violation. The Federal Communications Commission would
be provided with the authority to levy the civil fines under this
section and to make the necessary regulations, in consultation with the
Attorney General, in order to carry the fines into effect and to
provide an appropriate administrative review process. A civil penalty
provision will be easier to enforce, thus making the statute more
effective.
Question 9. In your view, are companies that transmit child
pornography to NCMEC through the CyberTipLine open to prosecution for a
violation of Title 18's prohibition on the transmittal of child
pornography?
Answer. Because ISPs are required by statute to report child
pornography detected on their systems, they would not be prosecuted for
actions taken to comply with that reporting requirement.
Question 10. Does the Department of Justice have adequate resources
to keep up with technological advances through its High Tech
Investigative Unit? I ask because your testimony makes clear that law
enforcement is often playing catch-up with these criminals, who clearly
have learned to maximize new technologies such as sophisticated
security measures, encryption software and data destruction software to
stay a step ahead of law enforcement.
Answer. The President's Budget request for FY 2007 provides the
High Tech Investigative Unit with resources sufficient to keep pace
with advances in technology and criminal innovation with the same. The
challenge to law enforcement, at all levels, working against
technology-facilitated sexual abuse and exploitation of children is the
digital forensics backlog generally. We note and appreciate Congress's
authorization for 30 additional computer forensic examiners within the
FBI's Regional Computer Forensic Laboratories system and 15 additional
computer forensic examiners within Immigration and Customs
Enforcement's CyberCrimesCenter in Section 705 of the Adam Walsh Act,
signed by the President in July of this year. This represents an
important investment in computer forensics manpower.
Question 11. What percentage of your child pornography cases
involves the Internet?
Answer. While this is difficult to quantify, a large percentage of
the Department's child pornography cases today involve the Internet.
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. John McCain to
Michael J. Brown
Question 1. A recent New York Times article gives some insight into
what appears to be a growing online community of child pornographers
and pedophiles. The article states that this online ``community''--for
lack of a better word--``has transformed in recent years into a more
complex and diversified community that uses the virtual world to
advance its interests in the real one. Today, pedophiles go online to
seek tips for getting near children--at camps, through foster care, at
community gatherings and at countless other events. They swap stories
about day-to-day encounters with minors. And they make use of
technology to help take their arguments to others, like sharing online
a printable booklet to be distributed to children that extols the
benefits of sex with adults.'' Is this something that your task force
has seen?
Answer. Our officers have encountered these ``communities'' while
online, and do on a regular basis. Most people do not realize that a
large number of the ``social networking sites'' are becoming the
UNDERGROUND communities of the 60s . . . and, you have to be invited to
participate.
Question 2. Are these people becoming more emboldened by these
opportunities to meet and exchange information?
Answer. Most people feel there is a certain amount of anonymity
associated with the Internet, and with free wireless sites ``shooting
up'' everywhere without the providers accountable for logging activity
on the users part, quite often predators can ply their nefarious
activities and remain out of the reach of the law.
Question 3. A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution article depicts
the experiences of undercover investigators with the FBI's Safe Child
Task Force in Atlanta:
``At precisely 2:24 p.m. on a recent afternoon, the task force
leader sits down at a computer . . . and calls up a popular
peer-to-peer file sharing program, the kind many people use to
download music.''
``At 2:26, using codes and acronyms that would mean something
only to pornographers, pedophiles and the police officers who
chase them, the agent makes the screen swim wit the titles of
hardcore files that appear to feature children being
molested.''
``Later, he opens a horrifying folder of images. It represents
what the task force has collected over years of trolling
Websites and chat rooms and raiding pedophiles' homes in a
seemingly futile effort to stem the tide of child
exploitation.''
``Here are little children engaged in every sort of sex
imaginable, pleading and with fear in their eyes.''
Is this an accurate portrayal of your day-to-day efforts to
combat child pornography?
Answer. Yes sir it is, and sometimes multiplied ten fold . . . in
our case, our investigators are looking at a young female, as young as
3 to 4 years of age (the images can be either digital images or videos)
. . . there is a look of stark fear on her face. She is being forced to
perform any number of graphic sexual acts with an adult male or males .
. . oral sex, vaginal sex, anal sex; many of the images have another
adult male ejaculating on this young girl, most of the time on her
face. Image after image . . . video after video . . . hundreds of
thousands of them!
Question 4. What's the psychological toll on your investigators?
Answer. After looking at images, day after day, of the type
described in my previous answer, we have had investigators that have
had to leave the unit and seek counseling because of the emotional
distress.
Question 5. What kinds of resources are available to provide them
with counseling when they need it?
Answer. Investigators with the Southern Virginia ICAC Task Force
(Operation Blue Ridge Thunder) attend mandatory counseling two times a
year, in January and August.
Question 6. What distinguishes your Internet Crimes Against
Children Task Force from the 40-odd other ICACs around the country?
Answer. I don't believe that we are any more distinguished than any
other ICAC Task Force . . . all of them play an important role in
helping to protect our children. In my forty-two years of law
enforcement experience I don't think I've ever worked with a more
dedicated and professional group of criminal investigators . . .
investigators like Flint Waters * (WY), Dave Peifer (PA), Ronnie
Stevens (NY), Scott Christensen (NE), Mike Harmony (VA) . . . and,
retired legend, Sergeant Nick Battaglia (CA). And, being from the
Federal system I know what a good administrator is, and the ICAC Task
Forces have two of the best . . . OJJDP's Administrator Bob Flores, and
Ron Laney, Director, Child Protection Division, OJJDP. I refer to the
ICAC Task Forces as ``law enforcement's best kept secret.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
* This man could be making a million dollars in the private sector,
but he chooses to stay in the public sector helping keep our children
safe from the sexual predators that prowl the Internet.
Question 7. What makes a good ICAC and how do we ensure that all
ICACs are effective?
Answer. As in my previous answer, the men and women assigned to the
task forces make them some of the best cyber-crime investigators in the
world . . . their priority is children and keeping them safe from the
sexual predators that lurk on the Internet. The ICAC Task Forces' work
under guidelines established by the Department of Justice; guidelines
that are adopted by all of the ICAC Task Forces in the form of policies
and procedures. It is incumbent for each task force to adhere to those
policies and procedures, and all ICAC Task Forces are subject to a peer
review process that is one of the most stringent in all law
enforcement.
Question 8. What should ultimately be done with pedophiles?
Answer. They need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the LAW
and tracked through electronic monitoring and regular personal visits
by both social service and law enforcement personnel.
Question 9. Can they ever really reenter society and not pose harm
to children?
Answer. I think the research conducted so far indicates that
neither can be assumed or expected with the current treatment regimens
and offender tracking methods.
Question 10. Do you support options such as civil confinement?
Answer. No.
Question 11. You suggest in your testimony that the Federal
Government should encourage foreign governments to crack down on child
porn in their country. How much child pornography originates abroad, as
compared to child pornography that is produced in the U.S.?
Answer. I am not sure of the total amount, however, and depending
what source you quote, figures in the range of 30 percent to 60 percent
are quoted.
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. John McCain to
Ernie Allen
Question 1. Is the CyberTipline effective? Has it contributed
significantly to the prosecution and conviction of individuals who
possess and distribute child pornography?
Answer. Unequivocally, the answer is yes. When the CyberTipline was
created in 1998, the overarching concern was--whom do you call? Much of
American law enforcement was not online. There were few specialized
investigative units targeting online child sexual exploitation. The
Internet was and Internet crimes was that it was multi-jurisdictional
and often multi-national.
Our vision was to create a virtual ``9-1-1 for the Internet,''
focusing on child sexual exploitation crimes. The response has been
overwhelming. Through October 8, 2006, we have handled 422,703 reports,
including 380,256 reports of child pornography. More than 69,000
reports have been sent directly to law enforcement by analysts in our
Exploited Child Unit (ECU). Every CyberTipline report is available for
review by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Child
Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice.
The CyberTipline has the ability to conduct historical searches on
all reports and report fields, offering an immensely valuable tool for
law enforcement agencies in recognizing and avoiding investigative
conflicts. In addition, law enforcement agencies often submit
information about suspects to be listed alongside CyberTipline reports
in order to alert authorities in other jurisdictions, saving time and
investigative resources.
While we often do not receive detailed feedback from law
enforcement agencies about case resolutions and thus do not have
comprehensive data, we know that thousands of individuals have been
arrested and prosecuted as a result of CyberTipline reports. We often
learn of these arrests and convictions through media outlets and then
update our system.
To give you a brief sense of the impact that the CyberTipline, the
following are a few excerpts from recent media reports regarding
arrests and prosecutions resulting from CyberTipline leads:
An October 2006 headline from KWWL in Des Moines, ``National
exploited children center tip leads to Iowa arrest.'' The story
reads, ``A tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children directed Iowa authorities to a central Iowa man, who
was charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a
minor.''
An October 4, 2006 story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
``A St. Louis man who prosecutors said had accumulated the most
child pornography ever seen in a criminal case in the Eastern
District of Missouri pleaded guilty Tuesday rather than face
trial.'' The report adds, ``employees of Yahoo! . . . triggered
the case with a complaint with the National Center for Missing
& Exploited Children after spotting suspicious material on a
Yahoo! website.''
A September 29, 2006 article from the Journal-Sentinel in
Wisconsin is headlined, ``Funeral Director Given 15 Years for
Soliciting Boy.'' The article notes that ``the message and
other evidence were discovered by the boy's mother, who turned
them over to the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children in Alexandria, VA, which in turn contacted the
Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation.''
A September 13, 2006 article from the Tallahassee Democrat
is headlined, ``Sex Offender Facing Child Porn Charges.'' The
article reads, `` . . . Rice's arrest concluded an
investigation that involved subpoenas of three e-mail accounts.
The Sheriff's Office received a tip from the National Center
for Missing & Exploited Children in June that a Crawfordsville
account sent pornographic pictures over the internet.''
A recent article from the Tribune-Democrat in Pennsylvania
is headlined, ``Five Accused of Sex Abuse.'' The article reads,
``The alleged sexual abuse came to the attention of Richland
Township police in January through information supplied by the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, authorities
said.''
A March 2006 News Release issued by the Medford,
Massachusetts Police Department states that ``after a month-
long investigation, Middlesex County Sheriff's Office and the
Medford Police affected the arrest of George A. Shipps for
online enticement of a 15-year-old female.'' They add,
``Approximately 1 month ago the MPD Computer Crime Unit
received a tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children's CyberTipline . . . The investigating officers were
able to corroborate that information through their
investigation.''
There are many other examples. The CyberTipline provides a simple
way for citizens to help, and is having impact far beyond what we ever
dreamed possible. Yet, perhaps our greatest challenge remains that too
few people know about it, and in a time of need, many more may not know
how to find it or utilize it.
Reporting of child pornography and online enticement of children
should be easier and more universal. We are eager to explore mechanisms
that will make reporting easier and more instantaneous, such as a link
or icon that enables reporting at the very moment the illegal conduct
is detected by the public. Such an icon could serve as a virtual panic
button for children in chat rooms and on social networking sites, and
an easy way for millions to report without having to know or remember
www.cybertipline.com. In addition, methods of detecting these websites
as soon as they are uploaded onto the web must be developed.
Question 2. You state in your testimony that not all of the online
companies that are obligated under Federal statute to report child
pornography found in their networks are reporting these materials. Is
it a question of the Federal statute that requires the reporting not
having enough teeth? Is it a question of liability concerns on the part
of the electronic service provider? How can we fix this problem?
Answer. It is both. Though apparently mandated by Federal statute,
42 U.S.C. Sec. 13032, not all ESP's are reporting and those that do
report are not sending uniform types of information, rendering some
reports useless. Some ESPs take the position that the statute is not a
clear mandate and that it exposes them to possible criminal prosecution
for distributing child pornography themselves.
We have been advised that the statute is flawed and thus,
unenforceable. In addition, because there are no guidelines for the
contents of these reports, some ESPs do not send customer information
that allows NCMEC to identify a law enforcement jurisdiction. So
potentially valuable investigative leads are left to sit in the
CyberTipline database with no action taken.
We are pleased that 256 ESPs, including all of the major companies,
are reporting. Yet, hundreds and perhaps thousands more, are not. The
statute either needs to be amended so that regulations can be
promulgated and the penalty provisions enforced against those who are
non-compliant, or we need to develop more effective ways to reassure
companies and persuade them to comply.
Question 3. You also state in your testimony that you are not
receiving uniform types of information from the companies that are
obligated to report child pornography to NCMEC. Do we know what kind of
information should be reported in all cases? Should the reporting of
this exact kind of information be required by law?
Answer. When it was clear that the underlying statute had
fundamental defects that made uniform enforcement virtually impossible,
we began a dialogue with the U.S. Internet Service Providers
Association (USISPA). USISPA is committed to working with us to ensure
that both the spirit and letter of the law are implemented fully, and
we have made great progress. Together, we developed ``best practices''
reporting guidelines to address this problem. The major ESPs are
following these guidelines. However, these are voluntary rather than
mandatory, so there is no enforcement mechanism for those who choose
not to follow them.
We believe it essential that all ESP reports contain certain key
elements:
Subscriber information associated with the image of
suspected child pornography: subscriber's screen name, user
identification name, e-mail address, website address/Uniform
Resource Locator (URL);
History of the image transmission: when the image was
uploaded, transmitted, reported to or discovered by the
reporting company, including a date and time stamp and time
zone;
Geographic identifying information: location of the
subscriber, the hosting website or URL, including area code,
zip code or Internet Protocol address.
The image of apparent child pornography.
The current reporting statute also constrains NCMEC in that it
permits us to forward the CyberTipline leads only to U.S. law
enforcement. This is a real problem, considering the global nature of
the Internet. As an example, there is a portion of one major ESP system
based in the U.S. that is used primarily in Brazil. This ESP wants us
to send information about child pornography they find on their
customers' accounts to Brazilian law enforcement. But we are prohibited
from doing so.
Question 4. If the CyberTipline produced more and better
information about child exploitation online, would that information be
of benefit to law enforcement officials and prosecutors?
Answer. Yes. There would be more reports that are ``actionable'' by
law enforcement, therefore leading to more prosecutions and
convictions. Comparing the total number of reports received versus the
number of reports the ECU analysts are able to send to law enforcement
directly demonstrates that more information being submitted into the
CyberTipline is essential for referral to law enforcement.
Those who prey upon children and distribute child pornography are
identified and brought to justice based upon images and information. If
we are able to receive and assess better and more complete information,
more offenders will be identified and prosecuted successfully, and more
children will be rescued.
Question 5. You state in your testimony that Federal law does not
currently require an electronic service provider to retain connectivity
logs for their customers on an ongoing basis. These logs essentially
tell the date and time of particular online activity. What are the
objections to providing such logs to NCMEC?
Answer. Some companies as a policy do not store the logs of IP's
long enough to provide the data. Current regulations do not state that
an IP address is required during reporting and as a result, it is not
provided.
We do not recommend that these logs be provided to NCMEC. We do
recommend that they be retained and available to appropriate law
enforcement agencies for investigative purposes. It is a vital, yet
currently missing link in the chain from detection of child pornography
to conviction of the distributor. Once our CyberTipline analysts give
law enforcement all the information they need about specific images
traded on the Internet, there can be no prosecution until the date and
time of that online activity is connected to an actual person. There is
currently no requirement for ESPs to retain connectivity logs for their
customers on an ongoing basis. Some have policies on retention but
these vary, are not implemented consistently, and are for too short a
time to have meaningful prosecutorial value.
Question 6. Some have suggested that the National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children should have the power to require that a
company reporting an instance of child exploitation through the
CyberTipline retain--or preserve--evidence of the exploitation. Is this
authority that NCMEC should have? Why or why not?
Answer. Yes. NCMEC should have the authority to direct an ESP to
retain and preserve such evidence. However, the material should not be
turned over to NCMEC. That action requires an administrative subpoena,
and must be the sole prerogative of law enforcement. Nonetheless, we
should have the authority to direct an ESP to preserve the evidence.
NCMEC should have this authority on any CyberTipline report that is
sent to law enforcement by our analysts. A prerequisite for such a
referral to law enforcement is that there must be a determination that
there is illegal activity and as a result, data should be preserved.
The large caseloads of some law enforcement agencies may delay the
administrative paperwork needed to secure the data from an ESP. The
CyberTipline could be the first ``trigger'' on such cases to ensure
that the necessary data is preserved and available for investigation.
USISPA on behalf of the major ESPs has indicated support for NCMEC
having such ``preservation'' authority.
______
Response to Written Questions Submitted by Hon. John McCain to
Sharon W. Cooper, M.D.
Question 1. The victims of child pornography that Sheriff Brown
describes in his testimony shut their eyes or show fear on their faces.
Clearly, they are experiencing a deep trauma that most of us cannot
begin to imagine. Could you share with the Committee--based on your
years of experience treating victims of child sexual exploitations--
what the physical. psychological and other effects of child pornography
are on its victims?
Answer. The victim impact of child pornography is inclusive of what
we know to be the victim impact of child sexual abuse. Both from my
knowledge of the literature and my experience, there are a multitude of
emotional and behavioral problems that are relatively common
occurrences in child sexual abuse, to include depression, low self
esteem, higher incidence of suicidal behaviors, eating disorders,
anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, compulsive
disorders, self-injurious behaviors, run away behaviors and most
importantly, child victims who have an increased incidence of self
blame and a decreased ability to establish a sense of trust. Diminished
academic achievement is another common outcome of child sexual abuse.
\1\
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\1\ Berliner L, Elliott D. Sexual Abuse of Children IN: The APSAC
Handbook on Child Maltreatment 2nd Edition by Myers, JEB, Berliner L,
Briere J, Hendrix CT, Jenny C, Reid TA. Thousand Oaks CA SAGE
Publications. 2002. 55-78.
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When child pornography is an additive factor in the victimization
of children, even more problems may be seen. Fear of recognition in the
photos or on the Internet seems to be the most important deterrent to
victim disclosure because of humiliation. If multiple offenders are
involved, there is an increased the risk for genital and anal trauma
and sexually transmitted diseases. Even if one offender is the producer
of these images, physical injury may occur because of the frequency of
the sexual assaults. In sadistic images, children are often bound,
gagged, and blind-folded which has the risk of suffocation and
aspiration as children cry and sometimes vomit when their distress
increases. Children are also physically placed at risk of death because
of drugs used on occasion to assure cooperation. Such was the case of
Thea Pumbroek, a 6-year-old child who died from an overdose of cocaine
in an Amsterdam hotel where she was being pornographically
photographed. It is important to note that some child abductions are
associated with sexual abuse and pornography production. In these
cases, extortion becomes part of the modus operandi and leads to
further coerced compliant victimization.
Of concern is the fact that child therapists today are in the first
stages of training and understanding regarding victimization of
Internet pornography. One important aspect of treatment is to address
all of the components of abuse that a child has suffered, to reassure
them that they were not responsible and that the offender was
misdirected in their motives to cause the child harm. One case that I
reviewed was of three 8-year-old victims who had been in therapy for 2
years, and not once had the subject of pornography even been raised by
the therapists. Although these therapists knew that child pornography
production was part of their victimization, the children never
discussed this most important aspect of their exploitation. It was
clear that the therapists did not know how to embark upon this issue
either. A recent meeting of experts in Sweden revealed that such
victims are loath to disclose their abuse. The reasons include:
a. That the children feel that they are seen to have let the
abuse happen without stopping it;
b. That they may have been smiling as they were directed to do,
and others would think that they were enjoying the abuse;
c. That the index children may have been encouraged to recruit
other children for sexual abuse and therefore were
``responsible bystanders''(e.g. from their schools during
sleepovers as was the case in a landmark investigation
involving more than 40 early elementary school aged victims)
d. That the children and youths were encouraged to be proactive
in their own exploitation (i.e. masturbation) or that of other
children (i.e. mutual sexual offending);
e. That the children and youths were shown their own abuse
images with threats of exposure to their non-offending
parent(s) or other significant people in their lives to prove
that they cooperated and did not stop the abuse. \2\
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\2\ Palmer T: Behind the screen: children who are the subjects of
abusive images. In: Viewing Child Pornography on the Internet
Understanding the Offence, Managing the Offender, helping the victims
Dorset England. Russell House Publishing 2005: 61-65
Of additional note is the compelling research regarding later
criminal outcomes of child victims of sexual abuse, citing the fact
that victims of sexual abuse are 28 times more likely in their lives to
be arrested for prostitution, as compared to children who have not been
sexually abused. \3\ There is insufficient research at this time to
confirm the suspicion that child sexual abuse associated with
pornographic exploitation may have an even higher outcome of
exhibitionism in association with prostitution (exotic dancing,
employment in sexually oriented businesses, etc.) However, the nexus of
exploitation through prostitution and runaway or throwaway life
experiences is well known. It is also known that a common means of
coercing a runaway youth into prostitution is to sexually assault him
or her and pornographically photograph them with subsequent extortion
into commercial exploitation in prostitution.
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\3\ Widom CS Victims of childhood sexual abuse--later criminal
consequences (NCJ151525). Washington DC; U.S. Department of Justice,
National Institute of Justice.1995.
Question 2. Why do individuals collect these images of child sexual
exploitation?
Answer. Evaluation of incarcerated offenders who have collected
Internet child pornography reveals seven common reasons for this
illegal behavior. There is intense study being conducted of Internet
offenders because of concerns regarding web addiction. There is an
aspect of the Internet called the concept of the ``triple-A engine'' of
accessibility, affordability and assumed anonymity which allows
individuals to explore sexual desires without the risk of embarrassment
and with an eventual elevated sense of security. A brief summary of the
seven motivations are:
a. As a means of sexual gratification through visual
stimulation for masturbation.
b. As a plan for action (to sexually abuse other children who
are available to the offender).
c. Images as a collectible and medium for exchange and trading.
d. Collecting as a way of facilitating social relationships
with like-minded individuals.
e. Collecting as a way of avoiding ``real life'' relationships
and social problems; This is sometimes described as a form of
displacement activity.
f. Collectors have reported that they collect images to avoid
contact offenses with children, therefore this is for them ``a
form of therapy''; This clearly underlines their
misunderstanding that collecting images increases the demand
for more images and escalates the cycle of child sexual abuse
for exploitation purposes.
g. As a means of learning to navigate the Internet with child
pornography as the final goal (e.g. learning encryption,
entering newsgroups, mastering peer-to-peer networks, etc.).
\4\
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\4\ Quayle e, Erooga M, Wright L, Taylor M, Harbinson D. Abuse
Images and the Internet. In: Only Pictures? Therapeutic Work with
Internet Sex Offenders Dorset England. Russell House Publishing 2006 1-
6.
Question 3. What motivates them? For example, are images of child
sexual exploitation used to sexually exploit other children? Are they
just used for their own gratification?
Answer. The realization of offender motivations has changed how I
evaluate child sexual abuse cases which come to our regional clinic.
Now, when a young child describes being victimized in manners that I
have seen in child pornography images, I later discuss with law
enforcement officers the possibility that the offender has been
collecting child pornography. In several cases, this has been found to
be true. I also now routinely ask about computer access to juveniles
who are committing sexual offenses against younger children. Many of my
victim patients report that the teen was looking at adult pornography
on the Internet, immediately before sexually assaulting them. The role
of sexual excitation and disinhibition by exposure to both adult and
child pornography cannot be underestimated. For teens, it appears that
accessing adult pornography on the Internet plays a role in causing
them to become opportunistic offenders.
Question 4. Is there any kind of profile of people who try to
obtain child pornography online?
Answer. I am unaware of specific profiles of child pornography
collectors except to say that research suggests that the Internet can
have an effect on individuals who have problematic sexual behaviors in
general. It is now thought that the Internet may:
a. Alter mood.
b. Lessen social risks and remove inhibitions.
c. Enable multiple self representation.
d. Show evidence of group dynamics.
e. Validate, justify and offer an exchange medium.
f. Challenge old concepts of regulation.
g. Disrupt and challenge conventional hierarchies.
h. Empower traditionally marginalized people and groups. \5\
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\5\ Quayle e, Erooga M, Wright L, Taylor M, Harbinson D. Abuse
Images and the Internet. In: Only Pictures? Therapeutic Work with
Internet Sex Offenders Dorset England. Russell House Publishing 2006 8-
11.
Question 5. What is the connection between child pornography and
other forms of child exploitation?
Answer. There is a connection between child pornography and other
forms of child sexual exploitation. The best way to conceptualize this
is through examples. There are 5 types of child sexual exploitation--
child pornography, prostitution of children and youths, child sex
tourism, cyber-enticement and human trafficking. Child pornography
often plays a role in each of these forms of exploitation.
a. Prostitution occurs in different venues, but when teens are
recruited as runaways from hubs of transportation or the
streets, ``breaking them in'' often entails multiples sexual
assaults, physical battering, and pornography as extortion,
education, and entry. With the advent of the G3 technology
found in cell phone cameras, Japan experienced in 2003 a 95
percent rise in child prostitution. \6\
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\6\ http://www.ecpat.net/eng/index.asp Accessed 8 October 2006.
b. In the several child sex tourist cases that I have been
involved in, child pornography is the common thread of evidence
that an offender had traveled to a foreign country to have sex
with children. When these offenders are U.S. citizens, they
typically return with their ``keepsake'' of photos, videos,
DVDs or evidence that they have mailed these forms of
contraband ahead, so that they will not be discovered upon re-
entry into the United States. Australia was the first country
to note the connection between sex tourists and our sex
offender registry. Many Americans would rather leave our
country and have sex with foreign children than be caught and
convicted of a sexual crime against a child here. Most of the
sex tourist cases that I'm familiar with involved children from
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as young as 4-5 years of age, through early adolescence.
c. Enticement cases may frequently involve child pornography.
Offenders encourage victims to send erotic and eventually
pornographic images of themselves either through digital photos
(produced by cameras that the offender supplied to the victim)
or web cams as live streaming images. Many times, the offender
will send self-made nude photos in order to desensitize the
exchange process and normalize the requests of return nude
images, followed by sexually explicit self-made images, asking
for the same from the victim. This aspect of cyber-enticement
which entails child pornography has been reported by rescued
youths. Investigators frequently report having found child
pornography memorializing the sexual assault encounters
produced as part of the mechanism of extortion of the victim
into silence and as a future source of fantasy and medium of
trade.
d. Human trafficking both from an international and domestic
perspective may also entail pornography production. The reasons
are the same--extortion into compliance through humiliation and
shame as well as marketing. Teens trafficked from the east
coast to the Pacific Northwest to work as underage minors in
remote bars and brothels or to be prostituted on the streets
describe the role of pornography as a means of control and a
deterrent to returning home to families, teachers, and friends
who would no longer want them after seeing them participating
in sexually explicit acts.
Question 6. Is there a link between being in possession of child
pornography and actually sexually assaulting a child?
Answer. The question of possession of child pornography and contact
offenses has been discussed by several law enforcement agencies.
Contact offenses may have occurred before child pornography was ever
accessed on the Internet, or afterwards. There are 3 frequently cited
studies:
a. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service estimates that 1 out of 3
of their investigations of child pornography possession
revealed that there was also evidence of contact offenses
against children;
b. The Toronto Child Sexual Exploitation Police confirmed a 46
percent incidence of contact offenders in their investigations
of child pornography;
c. The Federal Bureau of Prisons who conducted sex offender
treatment in the largest group of incarcerated child
pornographers in the U.S. at Butner Federal Prison in Butner,
North Carolina, found that disclosure of contact offenses were
made in 76 percent of those inmates in therapy, who were
arrested and convicted of possession of child pornography.
Question 7. Does exposure to child pornography lead individuals to
sexually assault children?
Answer. It is believed that exposure to child pornography does lead
some individuals to sexually assault children, because the images
normalize, rationalize and justify such behavior. Of particular note is
the indication that the more number of images that are available on the
Internet, the greater the belief by those who collect such images, that
sex with children is normal, acceptable and most importantly, a
mainstream behavior.
Question 8. You've stated in your testimony that the normalization
of sexual harm continues to be heavily promoted. How is sexual harm
being normalized? What examples can you give? How is this impacting the
sexual exploitation of children?
Answer. The term--``normalization of sexual harm'' has now become
accepted among prevention organizations in the U.S. to describe
unhealthy sexual messages which are increasing in media, advertising,
fashion, entertainment, music, and literature. The unhealthy sexual
messages promote that relationships should be based upon power not
respect, that women and girls are commodities, that it is acceptable to
sexualize children and that the vernacular of prostitution and pimping
should be glamorized and glorified, particularly in adolescent culture,
in music and in music videos. The validity of these observations was
discussed at a Prostitution Roundtable held in March 2006 at the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children during which time
Federal and state investigators who specialized in child and youth
prostitution, youth prostitution rescue and recovery program directors,
and social scientists agreed that the ``Pimps and Hos'' culture has
done much more harm than good to American youths. Examples include (but
are not limited to):
a. Thongs marketed by Abercrombie & Fitch for 6-10 year olds
with the logos positioned over a child's vagina of ``eye
candy'' (a term reserved for the centerfold of pornography
magazines).
b. Padded underwire bras for 6-year-old girls clearly designed
to give the impression of breast development in young children
by LaSensa Girl(Canadian clothiers).
c. New infant garments marketed with the logo ``Pimpfant.''
d. MTVs television program about old cars which when rebuilt
are beautiful and desirable, called ``Pimp My Ride.''
e. CWT's similar television show about old trucks called
``Trick My Truck.''
f. Bell Canada which recently ended a cell telephone ringtone
option called ``Pimptones'' which included a loud slap followed
by a woman's scream, as one of several pimp-prostitution
related options.
g. VH1s reality television show rated as the most popular
reality show called Flavor of Love, which is a sitcom model of
a pimp who invites women every week to fight each other to
become his prostitute.
h. MTV2s most recent highly publicized cartoon (shown at 12:30
on a Saturday afternoon) of a cartoon character named for Snoop
Dogg (a well known rapper and self professed pimp) walking
through a park with 2 women with dog collars and leashes; The
most offensive part of the cartoon was a point when one of the
women defecates on the sidewalk with commentary by the Snoop
Dogg character.
i. T-shirts marketed with logos on the back stating ``I support
single mothers'' but on the front a well recognized silhouette
of a female pole dancer and the caption ``One dollar at a
Time.''
j. Victoria Secret's new Brothel Campaign which was launched in
October of 2005.
k. The BET music awards of 2005 which were televised and
reported to have the highest cable viewer rating, highlighting
the song Cater 2 You by Beyonce and Destiny's Child where the
entertainers performed lap dancing on stage (usually a very
sexually explicit strip club behavior).
l. The music video industry which promotes selection after
selection of music with sexually explicit and degrading lyrics
noted in a recent national survey in the journal Pediatrics,
August 2006, to be associated with teens who have earlier onset
of sexual intercourse and earlier noncoital sexual activities
e.g. oral sex.
m. Popular videogames such as Grand Theft Auto Vice City which
has as its special skills rewards for killing a policeman and
having sex with a prostitute and then beating her up and taking
her money back.
n. Teen books reviewed by the New York Times this year as
``scary'' because of the sexually exploitive themes presented
in series books such as The ``A'' List (Dean), The Gossip Girls
(von Ziegesar) and Clique (Harrison).
o. The 78th Academy Award achievement in music given in 2005 to
the song, ``It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp.''
p. Brand on Sale's online Pimps and Hos Halloween costumes for
children which have been sold-out for 2 years running; This is
the 3rd year of marketing.
q. Music adolescent icons websites and photo spreads such as
Britany Spears on the cover of Rolling Stones Magazine in
topless profile view.
Presentations on this subject with many more examples have been
made now at numerous national meetings of health care providers, child
abuse and sexual assault prevention specialists, adolescent pregnancy
prevention programs, child welfare professionals, prosecutors and
investigators of child sexual exploitation, the Congressional Black
Caucus, military Family Advocacy Program managers, forensic nurse
examiners, psychologists who specialize in the sexual abuse of children
and community activists and child advocates in the United States,
Canada and Europe. There has been an overwhelmingly positive response
to the realization that the landscape of children and youths today is
riddled with a sexual toxicity that defies no other known era in the
history of America. It is this realization that mandates civic action
from the family and individual to society at large.