[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
CHILDREN ARE NOT FOR SALE:
EXAMINING THE EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN THE U.S. AND ABROAD
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2023
__________
Serial No. 118-42
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via: http://judiciary.house.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
53-506 WASHINGTON : 2023
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
JIM JORDAN, Ohio, Chair
DARRELL ISSA, California JERROLD NADLER, New York, Ranking
KEN BUCK, Colorado Member
MATT GAETZ, Florida ZOE LOFGREN, California
MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
ANDY BIGGS, Arizona STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
TOM McCLINTOCK, California HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr.,
TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin Georgia
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky ADAM SCHIFF, California
CHIP ROY, Texas ERIC SWALWELL, California
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina TED LIEU, California
VICTORIA SPARTZ, Indiana PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin J. LUIS CORREA, California
CLIFF BENTZ, Oregon MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania
BEN CLINE, Virginia JOE NEGUSE, Colorado
LANCE GOODEN, Texas LUCY McBATH, Georgia
JEFF VAN DREW, New Jersey MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
TROY NEHLS, Texas VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
BARRY MOORE, Alabama DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina
KEVIN KILEY, California CORI BUSH, Missouri
HARRIET HAGEMAN, Wyoming GLENN IVEY, Maryland
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas BECCA BALINT, Vermont
LAUREL LEE, Florida
WESLEY HUNT, Texas
RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME AND FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE
ANDY BIGGS, Arizona, Chair
MATT GAETZ, Florida SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas, Ranking
TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin Member
TROY NEHLS, Texas LUCY McBATH, Georgia
BARRY MOORE, Alabama MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
KEVIN KILEY, California CORI BUSH, Missouri
LAUREL LEE, Florida STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr.,
Georgia
CHRISTOPHER HIXON, Majority Staff Director
AMY RUTKIN, Minority Staff Director & Chief of Staff
C O N T E N T S
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Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Page
OPENING STATEMENTS
The Honorable Andy Biggs, Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime and
Federal Government Surveillance from the State of Arizona...... 1
The Honorable Madeleine Dean, a Member of the Subcommittee on
Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from the State of
Pennsylvania................................................... 3
WITNESSES
John Pizzuro, CEO, Raven
Oral Testimony................................................. 7
Prepared Testimony............................................. 9
Vanessa Bautista, Founding Member, Global Survivor Network
Oral Testimony................................................. 19
Prepared Testimony............................................. 21
John Tanagho, Executive Director, Center to End Sexual
Exploitation of Children, International Justice Mission (IJM)
Oral Testimony................................................. 24
Prepared Testimony............................................. 26
Jose Alfaro, Board Member, Human Trafficking Legal Center
Oral Testimony................................................. 44
Prepared Testimony............................................. 46
Lori Cohen, CEO, Protect All Children from Trafficking (PACT)
Oral Testimony................................................. 52
Prepared Testimony............................................. 54
Frank Russo, Director, Center for Combating Human Trafficking,
Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC)
Oral Testimony................................................. 62
Prepared Testimony............................................. 65
Anne Basham, Founder & Chair, Interparliamentary Taskforce on
Human Trafficking
Oral Testimony................................................. 69
Prepared Testimony............................................. 71
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC. SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
All materials submitted for the record by the Subcommittee on
Crime and Federal Government Surveillance are listed below..... 95
Materials submitted by the Honorable Madeleine Dean, a Member of
the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
from the State of Pennsylvania, for the record
Statement from Cristian Eduardo, Survivor of Sex and Labor
Trafficking, Member of PACT (Protect All Children from
Trafficking), Survivor Advisory Board
Statement from Sean Wheeler, Survivor of Child Sexual
Exploitation & Trafficking, Member of PACT (Protect All
Children from Trafficking), Survivor Advisory Board &
Starfish Ministries Colorado Founder
Statement from Faith Robles, Survivor of Child Sexual
Exploitation & Trafficking, Member of PACT (Protect All
Children from Trafficking), Survivor Advisory Board
A letter from The Ending Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of
Children Coalition, Sept. 13, 2023, to the Honorable Andy
Biggs, Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal
Government Surveillance from the State of Arizona, and the
Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, Ranking Member of the
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from
the State of Texas, submitted by the Honorable Andy Biggs,
Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government
Surveillance from the State of Arizona, for the record
Materials submitted by the Honorable Matt Gaetz, a Member of the
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from
the State of Florida, for the record
An article entitled, ``How Porous Borders Fuel Human
Trafficking in the United States,'' Jan. 11, 2022, Texas
Public Policy Foundation
An article entitled, ``Fighting Human Trafficking and
Battling Biden's Open Border,'' Mar. 14, 2023, The
Heritage Foundation
Statement from the Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, Ranking Member
of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government
Surveillance from the State of Texas, submitted by the
Honorable Henry C. ``Hank'' Johnson, Ranking Member of the
Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet
from the State of Georgia, for the record
Materials submitted by the Honorable Russell Fry, a Member of the
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from
the State of South Carolina, for the record
A letter from Alan Wilson, Attorney General of South
Carolina, Sept. 12, 2023
A statement from the Hon. Ann Wagner from the State of
Missouri, Sept. 13, 2023
CHILDREN ARE NOT FOR SALE:
EXAMINING THE EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN THE U.S. AND ABROAD
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Wednesday, September 13, 2023
House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
Committee on the Judiciary
Washington, DC
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:20 p.m., in
Room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, the Hon. Andy Biggs
[Chair of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Biggs, Gaetz, Tiffany, Moore,
Kiley, Lee, Fry, Dean, Cohen, and Johnson.
Mr. Biggs. The Subcommittee will come to order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a
recess at any time.
We'll begin this Subcommittee hearing with the gentleman
from California, Mr. Kiley, leading us in the Pledge of
Allegiance.
Mr. Kiley. Please join me in submitting to the flag.
All. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States
of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one
Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
We welcome everyone to today's hearing on the exploitation
of children of the United States and abroad.
I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
I'm grateful that all of you are here today, both the
witnesses, the Members of the Committee, and then also the
audience. We appreciate you being here.
I wish we didn't have to hold a hearing on this topic
because that would mean children in our country and abroad are
safe from exploitation. Unfortunately, that is not the case. It
is a fact that our children are not safe online, and it is
utterly unacceptable. Predators use the internet to trick and
exploit innocent children. Children are trafficked through
social media apps. This is the worst type of evil.
To our strong survivor leaders in the room and watching
from afar, we see you, we hear you, your voice matters, and we
appreciate you, and we want to be supportive.
Reports of CSAM continue to grow exponentially, from 3,000
reports in 1998 to more than one million in 2014, 18.4 million
in 2019, and more than 30 million last year. We cannot stand by
and let this number grow continually.
While it seems like CSAM is something that happens in
foreign countries or even in different neighborhoods from our
own, it is much closer than anyone would think. This is a
homegrown issue. We know the defenders prey on the most
vulnerable populations, such as children in foster care.
Groomers use techniques to normalize inappropriate conduct and
encourage secrecy, especially using social media platforms.
There's no question these criminals must be prosecuted.
While there are many solutions to combating this issue, we must
ensure prosecutors are doing their jobs to put these criminals
behind bars. We cannot accept lenient sentences or sweetheart
plea deals for those who wish to bring harm to innocent
children.
Today, between school and home, children have unfettered
access to technology, and Big Tech is taking that opportunity
to choose profits over people, over our children. Targeted
algorithms connect consumers to information and content,
including CSAM content, traffickers, predators, and drug
dealers. It is well documented that traffickers and pedophiles
use social media to target children and to share and engage
with CSAM content.
The Wall Street Journal, along with top researchers across
the country, ran a detailed account of Instagrams, quote,
``vast pedo-phile network.'' The research found that Instagram
enabled people to search explicit hashtags and connect users to
accounts to advertise CSAM. One researcher gravely noted,
quote, ``Instagram is an onramp to places on the internet where
there's more explicit child sexual abuse.''
You would think social media companies would bend over
backward to work with law enforcement and to remove this
content from their platform and prevent it from happening at
all. That is not the case. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok
allow the proliferation of abuse images and human trafficking
on its platforms. Images are allowed to roam on the internet.
Humans are bought and sold. Apple even threatened to remove
both Facebook and Instagram's access to the App Store because
the problem was so bad, yet Big Tech continues to allow these
problems to occur. Targeted algorithms seem to be more
profitable than investing and protecting children.
Big Tech seems to have no problem censoring speech or other
things they consider disinformation, yet they allow these
predators to access children on the internet and allow images
to remain on the internet for years. That is unacceptable. Big
Tech must be held accountable, and I look forward to hearing
from our witnesses on how that can occur.
We know trafficking is an issue that occurs within the
United States and abroad. Many of us have heard and seen the
movie ``Sound of Freedom'' and how it opened our eyes to the
horror that is occurring both in and outside our country.
However, many do not know Hollywood attempted to shut the film
down not wanting the American people to see the film and learn
about these terrible crimes, yet the film became one of the
most successful independent films in history. It has grossed
$191 million and counting. ``Sound of Freedom'' truly exposed
the worst of humanity and showed us how we can all play a part
to keep children safe.
Our Committee is collaborating with Homeland Security
Investigations to enhance our knowledge and understanding of
investigations related to human trafficking and child
exploitation. I express my gratitude to the special agents of
HSI for their unwavering commitment to safeguarding children
and liberating victims from the atrocities of human
trafficking.
Many children, especially those crossing the border as
unaccompanied minors, are not safe. Lax border policies
promoted by the Biden Administration are leading to vulnerable
children being exploited by cartels and smugglers as they
attempt to come to America. The journey today for them is
incredibly dangerous, and the risk of being sex trafficked is
incredibly high while being smuggled across our border. In
fact, the United Nations this week alone said, ``the most
dangerous immigration route is Mexico to the United States.''
In 2014, then President Obama stated, quote, ``Don't send
your children unaccompanied. They might not make it.''
I have heard nothing like that from this administration. We
need to be louder, stronger, and bolder.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on how we can
enforce the law, hold Big Tech accountable, and protect our
children from the horrific crime of sex trafficking because
children are not for sale.
This topic is tough and, unfortunately, a necessary topic.
I hope that we can each learn together. I think there will be
broad aspects of support across this entire Committee, both
sides of the aisle, and I look forward to working together with
my colleagues across the aisle.
With that, I thank you again for being here, and I yield
back.
Unfortunately, today, Ms. Jackson Lee, the Ranking Member,
is unable to join us for health reasons. In her stead, I will
recognize Ms. Dean for an opening statement.
Ms. Dean. I thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair Biggs, thank you for convening this important hearing
today. I thank all of you for being here, both those in the
audience and those who have come to testify before us.
It is an important hearing to discuss the deeply disturbing
and pervasive issue that is plaguing our country and our world:
Child exploitation. I'm standing in for Ranking Member Sheila
Jackson Lee, who regrettably cannot be with us today, and I'm
honored to be in her stead. I know that this subject is deeply
personal to her, as it is to me, because, although the United
States is a Nation known for its foundational ideals of liberty
and protection of its citizens, we continue to struggle with
the existence and prevalence of child exploitation.
It takes on various forms, ranging from child labor and sex
trafficking to the production and distribution of child sexual
abuse materials online, harassment, and sextortion.
Perpetrators of these repulsive crimes hide within our society,
preying on innocent and defenseless young people, their
victims, who should be experiencing the joys of their formative
years. I take this particularly personally as a mother and as a
grandmother of four.
Last Congress Ranking Member Jackson Lee convened a hearing
on the Federal response to human trafficking that provided a
wealth of information that I was able to apply in my own
efforts to tackle the scourge of trafficking. Child labor
trafficking, a sad reality in many industries around the globe
and even in the United States, harms children's health, often
deprives them of an education, denies them a normal childhood,
and deprives them of their basic human rights.
Another ghastly aspect of child exploitation is child sex
trafficking where children are lured away from the safety of
their homes, their loved ones, their schools, their
communities, stripped of their humanity, and exploited for
various nefarious purposes. Roughly 25 percent of all human
trafficking victims are children worldwide, and most of them
being sex trafficked.
At this very moment, there are children as young as 11
years old in the United States and abroad who are forced to
commit commercial sex acts and other unspeakable acts. Let me
be clear, there is no such thing as a child prostitute. These
young victims who have been exploited, abused, and trafficked,
whether for sex or labor, deserve victim-focused, culturally
informed responses that direct them away from the criminal
justice system and toward services and programming critical to
the restoration of their health and their dignity.
Some people would have us believe that the trafficking of
minors is primarily an immigration problem, a result of poor
control at our borders or a problem of urban impoverished
children and youth. The reality is that the traffickers prey on
stigmatized, forgotten, vulnerable American children and youths
in suburban, rural, urban, in cities, in every corner of this
country, only valuing them as commodities and not as the
precious people that they are.
While any child can become a victim of sex or labor
trafficking, some children and youth are more vulnerable than
others. If we truly want to extend an end to the trafficking of
children and youth or child exploitation of any kind, we will
make certain that all children and youth are located, treated
as victims, not criminals, and connected to the services and
programs they need.
In this digital age of smartphones and handhelds, social
media, direct messages, and TikTok, predators can victimize
children and youth without having to move from one location to
another. Online child exploitation has reached epidemic status
globally. These individuals exploit children throughout the
United States from anywhere in the world, and their criminal
activity is often cloaked behind encryption. They also hide
behind cute screen names, catchy hashtags, fake profiles with
the goal of eventually coercing, manipulating, or even
blackmailing their young victims.
Because child predators tend to prey on children even when
they are in school, Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee
introduced H.R. 30, The Stop Human Trafficking in School Zones
Act, that would establish an enhanced penalty for child
exploitation offenses that are committed within school zones or
near school activities or other child center locations. This
would apply to those individuals who dare contact children
while they are attempting to gain an education or participating
in school-related activities.
Child sexual abuse material inflicts untold emotional
damage on victims especially, as you point out, Mr. Chair,
since the internet enables their repeated victimization each
time images of their suffering are viewed. Recognizing the
breadth and scope of this issue, it is our collective
responsibility as representatives, all of us, to protect all
our children and eradicate every form of child exploitation.
That's why I hope today's discussion will be not about
blame, speculation, fearmongering, but about ideas and
solutions. I have a few of my own.
First, we must adapt and strengthen our legal framework
that exist to ensure that children and youth are protected,
that perpetrators and facilitators of any manner of child
exploitation are exposed and face severe consequences. That's
why I introduced H.R. 3686, Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation
and Limiting Distribution Act, the SHIELD Act. This is
bipartisan legislation, and it will create new penalties. I'm
also the original Cosponsor of H.R. 5082, The Revising Existing
Procedures on Reporting via Technology Act, more we can talk
about.
Second, we must also continue to support organizations that
work tirelessly to identify, rescue, restore young victims,
providing them with culturally specific care, counseling, and
support that they need to heal. These organizations, like the
ones represented here today, do lifesaving work.
Last, we must continue to provide public education and
awareness, both of which play a pivotal role in preventing
child exploitation. Child exploitation is an unconscionable
reality that we must directly confront on a bipartisan basis.
Every child deserves to be free from exploitation.
I thank you, the witnesses, who are here today. I thank you
in the audience for your kind consideration of what we are
talking about and your life experience. Today's conversations
will lead to solutions.
As I'm yielding back, Mr. Chair, I ask unanimous consent to
render the testimony of survivors from advisory board members
of PACT into the record.
Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
Ms. Dean. Thank you.
I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
That's also--for the record, I want to include a document,
a letter to myself and Ranking Member Jackson Lee from Ending
Online Exploitation of Abuse and Abuse of Children Coalition.
Without objection.
Without objection, all the opening statements will be
included in the record.
I will now introduce today's witnesses. We have a very
distinguished panel with tremendous insight and experience and
wisdom on this subject. We appreciate all of you being here.
Mr. John Pizzuro is the Chief Executive Officer of Raven, a
nonprofit organization focused on preventing child
exploitation. He previously served with New Jersey State
Police, including as the commander of the New Jersey Internet
Crimes Against Children. Welcome.
We welcome Ms. Vanessa Bautista. Ms. Bautista is a founding
member of the Leadership Council for the Global Survivor
Network and is a survivor of sexual abuse. The Global Survivor
Network works with survivors of various forms of abuse and
exploitation and advocates before local and national
governments. Thank you for being here.
Ms. Lori Cohen. Ms. Cohen is the Chief Executive Officer of
Protect All Children from Trafficking, or PACT. PACT works to
protect children from sexual exploitation and trafficking
through education, legislative advocacy, and partnerships.
Thank you, Ms. Cohen, for being here.
Mr. Jose Alfaro. Mr. Alfaro serves on the Board of
Directors of the Human Trafficking Legal Center. He is a public
speaker, author, advocate, and a survivor of child sex
trafficking. The Human Trafficking Legal Center connects
trafficking survivors with pro bono legal representation and
advocates on their behalf. Mr. Alfaro, thank you for being
here.
Mr. John Tanagho--how's that? Is that close?
Mr. Tanagho. That's fine.
Mr. Biggs. Yes, thank you.
Mr. Tanagho is the Executive Director of the Center to End
Online Sexual Exploitation of Children. The center partners
with governments, companies, nongovernmental organizations, and
other stakeholders to expose, neutralize, and deter the online
sexual exploitation of children. Thank you, Mr. Tanagho.
Mr. Frank Russo. Mr. Russo is an Associate General Counsel
and Director of the Center for Combating Human Trafficking at
the American Conservative Union. The center advocates for
policies that address the needs of victims and provide law
enforcement with the tools necessary to hold traffickers
accountable. Thank you for being here, Mr. Russo.
Ms. Anne Basham is the founder and Chair of the
Interparliamentary Task Force on Human Trafficking. The task
force is a consortium of members of Parliament and Congress,
government leaders and survivors from more than 25 countries
who work to stop human trafficking.
We welcome each of you and thank you for appearing today.
Now, we'll begin by swearing you in. If you would each rise
and raise your right hand.
Do each of you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury
that the testimony you are about to give is true and correct,
to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief, so help
you God?
Let the record reflect that the witnesses have all answered
in the affirmative.
Thank you. You may be seated.
I want you to know that your written testimony will be
entered into the record in its entirety. Accordingly, we ask
that you summarize your testimony in five minutes. There should
be a yellow light that appears when there's a minute left, and
then, when it goes red, then we would ask you to end your
testimony at that point.
Mr. Pizzuro, you may begin.
STATEMENT OF JOHN PIZZURO
Mr. Pizzuro. Chair Biggs, Ranking Member Jackson Lee, and
distinguished Members of Congress. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify today.
Legislation is falling behind the technology that's putting
our children at risk. Every day our inaction to pass
legislation results in children being victimized at ever
increasing rates. As someone who's dedicated their life to
protecting children, I can assure you we need better awareness,
support, policy, and legislation to protect our children.
The sad reality is that protecting our children has not
been a priority. I'm here to ask you to change that, making
protecting our children a priority that they deserve to be.
The tech industry has provided limited solutions to protect
our children. There's not been a decrease in online
victimization. There's been a substantial increase. The tech
industry's answer has been to reduce trust and safety teams,
employ greater privacy measures, such as end-to-end encryption,
and hide behind virtual private networks or VPNs. Everything
they do to protect children is voluntary, which includes the
information that they share with the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children and law enforcement.
The truth is they do the bare minimum of what is required.
Children remain vulnerable on these platforms as a result of
poor moderation, the absence of age or identity verification,
and inadequate safety mechanisms. The truth is we have not
protected our children sufficiently due to the ever-increasing
use of social media apps and the growth of their online lives.
The risk for their harm has increased at such a significant
pace that shielding them from abuse and exploitation has become
untenable.
Today there are countless victims of CSAM, child
trafficking, hands-on offenders, sextortion, and other
exploitive crimes that we have yet to even identify. Those who
would protect our youth are overburdened and underresourced,
which makes children vulnerable. Our Nation's young people are
unable to escape from the bombardment of post reels and online
social interactions. AI and algorithms push children to those
viewers who crave content and are interested in children. These
same algorithms push harmful content to children.
A major disadvantage of a global society is that any
offender can reach any victim anywhere in the world through any
app or gaming platform. With AI, offenders can now machine
learn and mimic the behavior of children to infiltrate their
lives, allowing them to groom children at scale. Criminal
organizations have used grooming techniques to sextort children
so they might financially benefit. The financial component of
profiting off children has increased exponentially.
The Cyber Tipline is challenging law enforcement not only
with respect to quantity of leads, but also the quality of
leads. Most of these leads provided by service providers are
not actionable. The lack of uniformity of what is reported to
service providers results in law enforcement being forced to
sort through thousands and thousands of tips to find actionable
cases.
As an example, in the last 90 days, there have been over
99,000 IP addresses throughout the U.S. that have distributed
known child sexual abuse images and videos through peer-to-peer
networks, yet 637, less than one percent, are being actually
investigated.
The dark net has become a haven for child exploitation.
Some forums and boards contain the most abusive child
exploitation, videos, and images law enforcement has
encountered. Chat forums allow offenders to create best
practices on how to groom and abuse children. A post named
``The Art of Seduction'' has been viewed over 54,000 times on
how to groom children.
We need the help of our lawmakers. Raven has currently
supported and sponsored legislation in the Senate and the House
from the Protect Our Children Act to stop CSAM, Project Safe
Childhood, SHIELD, REPORT, and Child Exploitation EARN IT, and
The Child Online Safety Modernization Act, and the Kids Online
Safety Act.
Alas, some of these bills have passed their respective
Committees, but there has been no vote on the floor. If there
was ever a bipartisan call to action that everyone can agree on
it's the protection of all our children.
We are at a point where we need to identify what works and
provide authorities with sufficient resources to increase their
capabilities. One simply can look at the statistics to
determine the real story, what is truly happening to our
children. Based on what I experience, I can confidently tell
you three things: At the moment, (1) the predators are winning,
(2) our children are not safe, and (3) those who are fiercely
committed to protect them are drowning and will continue to
unless we can get the legislation and resources they need to
protect our children.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Pizzuro follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Pizzuro.
The Chair recognizes Ms. Bautista.
STATEMENT OF VANESSA BAUTISTA
Ms. Bautista. Chair Biggs; Ms. Dean, on behalf of Ranking
Member Jackson Lee; and distinguished Members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify.
My name is Vanessa. I am Asian American. I'm a survivor of
child sexual abuse in the Philippines, and today I am a
founding member of the Global Survivor Network, an
international group of survivors, and a human rights advocate.
I was only eight years old when the abuse started. It
finally stopped when I found the courage to pick up the phone,
trembling, and my hands shaking, called my best friend at
school, and she answered. Through the tears, my hands shaking
still, I told her: ``I don't want to be here anymore. I need
help.''
I was put in a shelter home in the Philippines where
there's so many children like me. I became a part of a survivor
group, healing together and advocating for protection together.
Today I don't speak just for myself, but I speak on behalf of
all my brothers and sisters in our survivor network group.
Joy is one of my survivor sisters. She was seven years old.
She should have been going to school, playing with friends.
Instead, she was taken into a room and abused in front of a
camera every day for 10 years. Her abuse was livestreamed to
pedophiles around the world. Perpetrators logged into the
cameras, into the computers and forced her to do terrible
things in front of a camera.
I share this because the threat of child sexual
exploitation is very real. I know as a country we can be
divided along partisan lines, but the one thing we can all
agree on is that children need to be safe.
We are here because we agree that children should not be
bought and sold. We are here because the Congress has the power
to act. In 2008, Congress came together to pass the Protect
Act, so children were safe. However, crimes have continued to
evolve since then, and our responses also have to evolve.
Offenders in the U.S. should not be able to log online in
the privacy in their own homes and with a simple click of their
mouse violate the privacy and dignity of little children as far
as like the Philippines.
We need to create and enforce strong regulations so that
children are protected. Today as we consider proposed
legislation, I want to leave you with three key
recommendations.
(1) Survivor representation. I want to encourage us to keep
survivor experiences at the forefront. I am pleased that there
is a provision requiring survivors to serve on the National
Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation, and I strongly
recommend that this provision be included in the final version
of the EARN IT Act and that people with lived experience of
this crime be included on this commission.
(2) Financial restitution. Survivors have been exploited
for profit, and so it only makes sense that offenders must be
held financially accountable. These offenders have taken years
from survivors. They took 10 years from Joy, so she must be
compensated. We must build systems where the money goes
straight directly to survivors, so they can heal and be
restored.
(3) Removal of child sexual abuse materials. Remember that
the act of abuse is recorded online, and imagine that the most
vulnerable, painful memories of your life are just one online
search away. How can we expect survivors to carry on with their
lives when their privacy is violated every day? In 2021, Apple
promised child safety measures, and two years later, our
survivor groups, we are still petitioning for them to remove
these images of abuse. All child sexual abuse should not be
distributed online and existing material has to be removed.
Please hold tech companies and social media platforms
accountable when they fail to keep children safe and
incentivize them to do better in the future.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bautista follows:]
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Mr. Biggs. Thank you very much.
Mr. Tanagho.
STATEMENT OF JOHN TANAGHO
Mr. Tanagho. Chair Biggs, Congresswoman Dean, thank you for
the invitation to testify at this important hearing.
My name is John Tanagho, and I serve as Executive Director
for International Justice Mission's Center to End Online Sexual
Exploitation of Children. IJM is a global, nongovernment
organization that protects people in poverty from violence.
We are at a crisis point when it comes to child sexual
abuse and exploitation online. I spent seven years living in
the Philippines leading IJM teams to combat the trafficking of
children to produce new child sexual exploitation material,
especially in livestreams. This is the in-person sexual abuse
of children by adults in the Philippines while foreign
offenders watch and direct the abuse live online for a fee.
This is Pay-Per-View CSAM live on demand.
Based on IJM's experience supporting over 340 Philippine-
led police operations, the abuse usually includes rape,
children forced to engage in sex acts with other children, and
even children who are harmed in other degrading ways such as in
bestiality. Victims are abused for two years on average, with
the median age only 11 years old. IJM has even supported
Philippine police in bringing infants to safety.
Offenders, including in the U.S., can pay as little as $33
to watch and direct a child being sexually abused in a
livestream. Last week IJM released findings from our two-year
research study, Scale of Harm, estimating that in 2022, nearly
half a million Filipino children were sexually abused to create
images, videos, and livestreams for sale to offenders around
the world. That is one in 100 Filipino children.
Global tech platforms remain fertile ground for this abuse,
with Australia's e-Safety Commissioner reporting that companies
are failing to address child sexual exploitation in livestreams
or video calls. The United States is the No. 1 country of
offenders paying for and directing this abuse, with 34 percent
of Philippine cases involving U.S.-based offenders according to
IJM's 2020 study. In April of this year, the Philippine Anti-
Money Laundering Council reported that the highest number of
payments for child sexual exploitation flagged by financial
institutions in suspicious transaction reports came from the
U.S.
Make no mistake, offenders who abuse children online also
pose a threat to abuse kids right here. In fact, 58 percent of
respondents reported feeling afraid that viewing CSAM might
lead them to commit abuse in person according to a survey in
the Stanford Internet Observatory's Journal of Online Trust and
Safety.
Laws are urgently needed to prevent child sexual abuse
online. Companies must prioritize the safety and privacy of
victims by expediting detection, reporting, and removal of
CSAM. Early detection and reporting allow law enforcement to
bring offenders to justice and victims to safety.
IJM prevalent studies across crime types show that
replacing offender impunity with accountability can also serve
to prevent future harm by deterring offenders. At the same
time, the sheer scale of child sexual abuse material
necessitates technological prevention. Companies should deploy
tools in video chat and messaging apps to disrupt the
production of CSAM.
Today's phones and apps are not safe by design precisely
because they are built without any technology to prevent child
abuse images and video from being taken, streamed, or shared.
Without tech safeguards designed to prevent abuse, offenders
operate with ease and impunity.
Imagine cars without seat belts, airbags, or antilock
brakes. Without laws, child exploitation online is a global
crisis spiraling out of order. That's why IJM supports the EARN
IT Act to change the incentives for tech companies to do
everything in their power to prevent child exploitation on
their platforms.
In closing, some lobby against online safety legislation
under the so-called banner of privacy or free speech.
Australia, a well-respected democracy, passed an online safety
bill in 2021 requiring tech transparency and safety by design.
Free speech and privacy are alive and well in Australia. If
Congress passes online safety legislation to protect kids, the
sky won't fall here either.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Tanagho follows:]
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Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
The Chair recognizes Mr. Alfaro.
STATEMENT OF JOSE ALFARO
Mr. Alfaro. Mr. Chair Biggs and Members of the
Subcommittee, it is an honor to testify before you today.
I was born and raised right here in the United States in a
small rural town in Texas, and I was kicked out of my home at
the age of 16 for being gay. There were no resources for the
LGBTQ community within my hometown, and I was terrified of
sharing with anyone what I was going through, since I had
already been rejected by my own family.
I had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. I was on my own
and was quickly in the hands of my trafficker. I went online to
look for resources. It took my trafficker, Jason Daniel Gandy,
less than two hours to proposition me online. Jason trafficked
me through his massage business where he locked me in a room
with adult men who were allowed to rape and abuse me.
I believe that I was silenced by society long before I was
silenced by my trafficker, but he also added to that silencing
by telling me that if I ever shared with anyone what happened
to me, then I would go to prison. I stayed silent for seven
years after my escape. Because of the harm that was done to me,
I self-medicated, abusing drugs and alcohol as a way to cope. I
had several suicide attempts. I dropped out of school, and I
was homeless.
I needed for one person to recognize that I was not OK and
that I needed support as a homeless and trafficked youth, but
no one saw me, not the homeless program that I was enrolled in,
not the school system, not my doctors, and certainly not law
enforcement. I was invisible.
In 2014, a friend told me that Jason Gandy had been
arrested. I was put in contact with the Federal prosecutors
working on the case. This was the first time I put a name to
what happened to me, human trafficking.
In 2018, I and three other male survivors testified in the
Federal trial. Jason Gandy was sentenced to 30 years in prison
with no chance of parole, and he was also ordered to pay
restitution.
I have reflected on the trafficking I experienced as a
child, and I have six recommendations to share with you today.
The U.S. Government should strengthen and add resources for
the LGBTQ community. Currently, in certain States, LGBTQ
resources and education are banned for minors. This will
continue to perpetuate trafficking. The lack of resources for
LGBTQ youth will cause more vulnerabilities and more
trafficking of these young
people.
We need more resources for homeless youth. I don't think I
have to elaborate further on that one.
Stop using language that stigmatizes young people. Language
matters. The label runaway stigmatizes children. There is just
one difference between a missing child and a runaway child, the
term. People search for missing children, but runaway children
are often stigmatized as bad children. ``Runaway'' is a term
associated with children who are marginalized and children who
are poor. To often no one is looking for runaway children.
Train law enforcement to identify male victims of
trafficking and educate the public that trafficking can happen
to males.
Improve victims' compensation and restitution. Criminal
restitution is mandatory. In my case, the government had
forfeited Jason Gandy's assets. The Federal Treasury kept the
money. It took me two years and a team of pro bono attorneys to
receive the restitution ordered by the court.
There is a need for bipartisan legislation to prevent
trafficking and hold traffickers accountable because technology
gives predators access to children almost everywhere, and it is
critical that we provide safe spaces for all children.
In closing, human trafficking is a systemic issue.
Marginalized and underserved communities are impacted
disproportionately. If we want to help end human trafficking,
we have to start with prevention.
We need better systems to protect all children. Human
trafficking is not a gender-based issue, but a human issue. We
have to identify vulnerabilities and intervene to support all
children no matter their gender, their race, or their
sexuality.
The current politics around the LGBTQ community are hateful
and horrifying. After hearing my story today, I hope you can
see how certain legislation and hatred can perpetuate human
trafficking. Harm to LGBTQ young people creates more
vulnerabilities in almost vulnerable communities.
Thank you for your time today.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Alfaro follows:]
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Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Alfaro.
The Chair recognizes now Ms. Cohen.
STATEMENT OF LORI COHEN
Ms. Cohen. Dear Chair Biggs, Ranking Member--
Mr. Biggs. Is your microphone on? Thank you.
Ms. Cohen. Got it.
Dear Chair Biggs, Ranking Member Jackson Lee, and
distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for
inviting me and my respected colleagues to discuss how we can
better protect--
Mr. Biggs. Ms. Cohen, I don't want to interrupt you, but
could you pull the mic just a little bit closer to you, please.
Yes, we all want to hear from you.
Ms. Cohen. Thank you.
Mr. Biggs. We know you have an important message.
Ms. Cohen. Should I start over?
Mr. Biggs. Yes, that would be fine.
Let's go ahead and restart the five. There we go.
Ms. Cohen. All right. Dear Chair Biggs, Ranking Member
Jackson Lee, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee.
Thank you for inviting me and my respected colleagues to
discuss how we can better protect children from trafficking and
online exploitation.
I am Lori Cohen, the Chief Executive Officer at PACT,
Protect All Children from Trafficking, previously known as
ECPACT-USA. PACT remains a proud member of the global ECPACT
network, active in over 100 countries. We are survivor
informed. I'd like to recognize PACT board member and survivor
counsel liaison Katrina Massey, who has joined us today for
this testimony.
Mr. Biggs. Welcome.
Ms. Cohen. PACT is deeply concerned about the welfare of
unaccompanied minor children traveling to the United States.
Many of them did not wish to leave their homes, but gang
violence, war, repressive governments, gender-based
persecution, and catastrophic climate events left them with an
impossible choice. They face death, sexual abuse, or torture if
they remain or risk their lives through a perilous journey to
the United States in hope of securing freedom.
COVID-19 exacerbated this migration, and we noticed an
increase in migrant arrivals as early as April 2020. In 2022,
PACT published a study with ECPACT-Mexico, ECPACT-Guatemala,
and Yale University that explored the impact of the pandemic on
child migration, trafficking, and sexual exploitation.
Half the experts indicated that COVID-19 spurred an
increase in trafficking. However, 44 percent lacked the
information to answer this question, and 67 percent could not
say whether the migrant children they served were directly
affected by sexual exploitation.
We called the report undetected because the people and
institutions meant to prevent and stop trafficking don't even
know how to identify it.
Our report also explored the role of technology in youth
migration. As with trafficking, half the experts could not tell
us whether these children had been affected by online grooming.
This figure is alarming as current research indicates that
nearly all CSAM is created abroad. The National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children found that of 32 million reports
that a Cyber Tipline received in 2022, 89.9 percent resolved to
locations outside the United States.
Information about trafficking and grooming is lacking on
both sides of the border. When visiting shelter facilities for
migrant children and their families in Southern California, we
learned that trafficking screening was not incorporated into
safety protocols. Likewise, limited training of Customs and
Border Patrol raises concerns of missed opportunities to
identify at-risk children.
In Fiscal Year 2022, CBP processed over 120,000
unaccompanied minors, but reported only a handful of instances
of child trafficking to the Office on Trafficking in Persons as
mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Similarly, CSAM content creation abroad has a domestic
nexus. Our existing regulatory structure and unchecked demand
for pedophilic content have enabled U.S.-based exploiters to
access CSAM with ease. The Internet Watch Foundation recently
noted that our Nation accounts for 30 percent of the world's
CSAM URLs, displacing the Netherlands after that country
cracked down on illicit websites.
If we want to shut down CSAM, we need legislation that
stops it from being hosted on U.S.-based platforms and enforce
penalties against U.S. citizens who are fueling the demand for
this despicable content.
We also need to look ahead to the next development in child
exploitation, the use of artificial intelligence to generate
sexually explicit imagery of children. Last week, attorneys
general from all 50 States wrote to Congress asking you to
expand existing laws against CSAM that explicitly cover AI-
generated materials, a request that we support fully.
PACT urges Congress to pass the child protection bills that
have been introduced, including the EARN IT Act, Project Safe
Childhood Act, the No Trafficking in School Zones Act, and stop
CSAM so that we can prevent human trafficking, online sexual
exploitation, abuse of children, and help survivors access
justice.
Most importantly, PACT urges the Federal Government to
target demand, which ultimately drives the profit fueling this
criminal enterprise.
Again, thank you for allowing me and my colleagues to speak
on the realities of human trafficking.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Cohen follows:]
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Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Ms. Cohen.
The Chair recognizes Mr. Russo for your five minutes.
STATEMENT OF FRANK RUSSO
Mr. Russo. Thank you, Chair Biggs, Congresswoman Dean, and
the distinguished Members of this Committee. Thank you for the
opportunity to testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee
on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance on the need to end
child exploitation.
I'm Frank Russo, CPAC's Director of our Center for
Combating Human Trafficking. Most importantly, I'm a husband
and father who understands the importance of protecting the
most vulnerable among us.
CPAC has long recognized the needs to improve efforts to
combat the scourge of human trafficking that faces communities,
as Ms. Dean said, ``both urban and rural across this country.''
CPAC was excited to announce the new Center for Combating Human
Trafficking at our screening of the film ``Sound of Freedom''
earlier this year, and we then partnered with our friends in
Mexico to hold an international summit here on Capitol Hill to
focus on these very issues.
Our new initiative will focus on advancing policies that
support victims in reintegrating into society and removing
collateral consequences resulting from their abuses you've
heard about earlier. We also want to strengthen accountability
for traffickers and improve the cross-collaboration between
domestic and international entities.
As you've heard throughout the day, human trafficking and
child exploitation are the fastest growing illicit industries
both in the United States and abroad. The State Department
estimates that annually over 17,000 individuals are trafficked
into the United States, with Mexico being the largest seller
and, unfortunately, the United States being the largest
provider and buyer.
We also know that nearly 72 percent of these trafficking
victims are immigrants, meaning that cartels are taking
advantage of our lax border policies to enrich themselves in
this horrific trade and practice.
This trafficking of children often involves multiple layers
of abuse with some victims being used for both sex and labor
trafficking across the United States. Coercion is at the heart
of these crimes as transnational gangs such as MS-13 infiltrate
communities and take advantage of young men and women who come
from broken homes or broken communities. At the same time, the
amount of human trafficking convictions across the country are
dropping, both here and internationally.
To confront what has become a $150 billion criminal
enterprise, Congress must work in tandem with, yes, their
Federal, State, and local partners, but also their
international partners to assist in ending this trafficking and
these crimes.
Meaningful and effective policy to combat human trafficking
requires an approach that first identifies the needs of victims
while creating swift and effective penalties for criminal
traffickers. We know that victims are caught in the horrors of
labor, sex, and financial trafficking, often children. We must
expose and replace these misguided policies that provide
victims a safe pathway back to society while proportionately
punishing their traffickers.
For example, Congress has the opportunity to provide
pathways to ensure providers--or survivors are given mental
health and drug treatment services in lieu of harsh criminal
penalties. We've heard earlier that often these children are
caught and forced into crimes that then we prosecute those
children for. We can't allow that to happen. They need to be
given services first and then focus on their reintegration into
society.
By ensuring open resources to children who are coerced into
these crimes, lawmakers make sure that we do not exacerbate the
cycle of abuse for these survivors. Existing legislation, such
as the bipartisan Trafficking Survivors Relief Act and Sara's
law provide avenues for these young victims of trafficking to
be survivors--or to be able to beat their cycle of abuse, and
they rescue these survivors and also hold their traffickers
accountable.
Accountability does not begin or end when the offender
traffics within our borders as we must do more to keep these
criminals out of our country and off the very devices our
children use on a daily basis.
Familiar DNA testing at the U.S.-Mexican border in the
prior administration revealed that around 30 percent of minors
were actually related to those they were coming across the
border with. Unfortunately, that testing has ended which allows
cartels even greater comfort to recycle these children across
the border to move more adults into the country.
Most concernedly our partners at the Department of Homeland
Security, HSI, are unable to keep up with these children once
that cycle and repetition of abuse ends, and they're brought to
this country likely to be trafficked either into sex or labor.
Criminal traffickers have exploited the explosion of social
media and digital platforms among children of all ages to
manipulate victims and connect with their offenders. The data,
as you've heard earlier, bears this out. Our partners at the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified
roughly 16.9 million tips in 2019. That number has ballooned to
29.4 million tips in the last calendar year.
Congress must do more to not only hold these offenders
accountable, but require technology platforms to take child
sexual exploitation seriously. For example, the EARN IT Act
would address this exponential growth in child sexual abuse
material by removing blanket civil immunity for technology
companies that refuse to remove these abhorrent images. Let's
be clear, they were refusing under this law to remove those
images from their sites.
CPAC stands ready to work with our partners in Congress to
bring an end to all forms of trafficking. We are grateful that
Tim Ballard's story in the ``Sound of Freedom'' has reignited a
conversation in America on the importance of protecting the
most important asset this country has, our next generation.
It's now on all of us in this space to deliver real results
that will first protect the victims, break the cycle of abuse,
and, of course, hold offenders accountable.
Chair Biggs and Congresswoman Dean, thank you for sending a
clear message today: God's children are not for sale.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Russo follows:]
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Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Russo.
The Chair recognizes now Ms. Basham for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF ANNE BASHAM
Ms. Basham. Thank you, Chair Biggs and Representative Dean.
It is an honor to testify before you today on child
exploitation both here in the United States and
internationally.
Today we have an opportunity to address one of the most
important human rights issues, but also one of the most
critical global security images facing our world: The
exploitation of children for profit by human traffickers, human
smugglers, and advanced criminal networks.
Child exploitation and sex trafficking is big business.
Unlike any other human rights abuse, it is a transnational
organized crime. This is the Subcommittee on Crime, and human
trafficking specifically generates $150 billion for traffickers
annually, and it is the second largest criminal enterprise in
the world.
The average age sex trafficking victims are targeted is
just 11-14 years old. China, Russia, North Korea, the Taliban,
and terrorist groups all use child trafficking to fund their
operations because, unlike drugs or weapons, a person can be
sold over and over again.
Child sex trafficking also funds organized criminal
networks, including MS-13, one of the most notorious gangs
operating in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. These three
countries make up 87 percent of unaccompanied children
apprehended at the Southern border. A U.S. Treasury
investigation found that money generated by local MS-13 cliques
engaged in sex trafficking--and this is a quote, ``sex
trafficking, drug trafficking, murder for hire, extortion, and
money laundering.'' It was consolidated and funneled to the
group's central leadership in Central America.
The reality is that children are a primary component of
this illicit finance network. Many of the Latin American
children sent across the border have been taken by organized
criminals such as this, and what frequently follows is child
sexual exploitation or labor exploitation.
From March-May of this year, more than 33,000 unaccompanied
children crossed the U.S. border. The physical and sexual
violence, hunger, and thirst that these children often
experience traveling to the United States is appalling. Many
children and parents who arrive in the United States are from
remote regions of Central America which are often impoverished
and isolated specifically by language barriers. I think that
this is something that most people don't recognize. For
example, nearly half of those who cross the U.S. border are
from Guatemala, and within this one nation they have 24
different dialects, which means it is difficult to speak with
parents regarding the incredible risks that their children face
if they send them to the U.S. Because of this, coyotes often
trick or coerce mothers into paying children's hefty smuggling
fees, and the mothers do so because they believe a better life
awaits their children in the United States. Unfortunately, this
is often not the case.
Because of scenarios like this, many unaccompanied children
eventually enter the U.S. foster care system. We know that the
foster care system is already incredibly overburdened, and 60
percent of child trafficking victims are current or former
foster youth. In fact, just a few days ago it was reported that
human trafficking rings have been targeting children in
temporary foster care settings specifically in Texas. Child
Protective Services has paid $30 million to off-duty police
officers to watch children who are housed unsupervised in
hotels and churches because there is no family for them within
the foster care system.
Increased burdens on the foster care system put already
vulnerable children firmly into the crosshairs of online sexual
exploitation and abuse, which has become one of the fastest
growing threats against children globally as we know today.
Child trafficking at the Southern border is real, and at
the same time in our modern world, human trafficking is a
borderless crime, and so is sexual exploitation. The most
prevalent form of online sexual abuse is the advertisement of
children actually through websites and social media. According
to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
such advertisements--and this is a quote: ``Such advertisements
for sexual services are now central to the human trafficking
business model.'' Another study concluded that 75 percent of
sex trafficking victims are advertised online.
There are many things that we can do, but to stop human
trafficking at its core, we must prioritize widespread
prevention curriculum here in the United States so that all
children can recognize and report their own abuse. The UNODC
actually reported that most victims identified in cases--and
this is a recent report--were, quote, ``self-rescued.'' That
means that they had to self-report or escape exploitation on
their own. This is why that's one of the most important fixes
that we have.
I also encourage you to prioritize many of the bills which
have been spoken here today, whether it be the EARN IT Act,
REPORT Act, SHIELD Act, and more.
Thank you so much for your time.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Basham follows:]
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Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Ms. Basham.
I thank all of you for your poignant and important
testimony.
We'll now proceed to Member questioning under the five-
minute rule, and I will begin by recognizing the gentleman from
Florida, Mr. Gaetz.
Mr. Gaetz. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for holding this hearing.
I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record
TexasPolicy.com, ``How poorest borders fuel human trafficking
in the United States,'' and also from Heritage, ``Fighting
human trafficking and battling Biden's open border.''
Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
Mr. Gaetz. Ms. Cohen, I think a number of us on the panel
took great interest in your description of the screening that
doesn't occur at the border. I'd love to give you some time to
maybe lend your expertise to the type of screening that we
ought to really pursue.
Ms. Cohen. Thank you so much, Congressman Gaetz.
PACT has worked very closely with schools, with shelters,
with programs around the country to look at indicators of
trafficking and red flags, and we are extremely eager to engage
in working with people at the border, with Customs, Border
Patrol, and with shelters. We did find it somewhat concerning
that shelters were--indicated a reluctance to ask questions
that might be indicators of trafficking.
Mr. Gaetz. Just so I know what category that falls in,
these are the shelters that unaccompanied minors go to as
they're being processed through HSS?
Ms. Cohen. We were visiting shelters that had children with
family members. Some of the testimony we've heard today has
indicated that there's a concern of trafficking among those
categories as well. In those shelters, we were informed that
there was not any screening done on children specifically for
indicators for trafficking because there was a fear of asking
questions that might be triggering, that might be problematic
for those children. There are questions that can be asked in a
trauma-informed way that could easily assess whether or not the
narrative that's being presented is, in fact, the true
narrative, the true situation of the child in question.
Mr. Gaetz. Chair Biggs has led delegations down to the
border, and we've seen the chaotic enterprise that exists
there.
Could you give us a sense of how long an effective
screening could take that was trauma-informed and that was
effective at determining if there's a way to uproot some of
these networks?
Ms. Cohen. I think the questioning can be done fairly
quickly, if there's certain indicators that might appear
immediately that could lead to additional questioning, but I
think that it can be ruled out. We have our survivors' council
is very happy actually to provide input. We have members of the
survivors' council who were trafficked across the Southern
border who said that no one asked them anything. That for us is
a true source of concern, that there should be more focused
questioning and just some basic questions about the family
dynamics, the family relationship, and to really assess whether
what's being presented in some cases by the adults speaking on
behalf of the child actually matches up with the child's own
testimony.
Mr. Gaetz. I'd love to draw on your law enforcement
experience, Mr. Pizzuro. When you're able to get that type of
real-time data from an effective screening, how can that be
useful in disrupting these networks?
Mr. Pizzuro. The more data that you have, the better the
investigation, the better the leads. So, it's really important
on any information that you can really get, and the challenge
with most investigations is being in the dark. So, the more
information that law enforcement has to understand where things
are going, the more likely we can remedy something.
Mr. Gaetz. We have all different layers of law enforcement
working on this problem. Where have you seen it be most
effective?
Mr. Pizzuro. The most effective is--just from a trafficking
standpoint is the actual training and the actual, let's say,
prioritizing of it. I think the challenge is it's not really
prioritized in law enforcement because we're doing so many
different things, and I think we're inundated. So, I think
that's part of the challenge.
Mr. Gaetz. All right. It completely is.
Mr. Chair, I reflect back on when we had Steve Friend
before us who had been at the FBI, and he had been working some
of these cases from a Federal level. When he was assigned to
surveil parents at school board meetings, then no one else
picked up those files, and they just went by the wayside. So, I
think you're right that prioritization is probably pretty
central to--
Mr. Pizzuro. The subject matter, honestly, is that from a
law enforcement perspective, it's--even child sexual abuse
material, we don't want to know. So, law enforcement generally
doesn't really spend that much time doing that. So, it's
underfunded. There are less resources, and that comes from the
agencies itself.
Mr. Gaetz. Thank you for your testimony.
I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. The gentleman yields.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee, Mr.
Cohen.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Is it Mr. Pizzuro?
Mr. Pizzuro. Yes, sir.
Mr. Cohen. Good. Thank you.
What branch of law enforcement does the most work on these
cases? Is it the FBI or is it local law enforcement? Who is the
most active?
Mr. Pizzuro. The Internet Crimes Against Children task
force, which is comprised of 61 task forces throughout the
U.S., does the bulk of all the child sexual abuse cases in the
U.S.
Mr. Cohen. How do they do that? I'm not sure how a 61-
member group does that. What do they do?
Mr. Pizzuro. So, the Protect Our Children Act in 2008
authorized a task force, and it created 61 tasks forces
throughout the U.S. The challenge is that they're really
underfunded and under-
resourced. So, for example, from New Jersey where I was from,
the New Jersey State Police, we were in charge of that entire
task force for that State. So, what we would do is the task
force probably has about 5,000 affiliated agencies. So, most of
the cyber tips that are sent go to those local law enforcement
to investigate.
Mr. Cohen. Then those cases are prosecuted mostly in State
court or Federal court?
Mr. Pizzuro. State court. You will have different
jurisdictions. For example, sometimes you will get a Federal
prosecution, but the majority of them are handled in State
court.
Mr. Cohen. Does the FBI get involved at all in interstate
operations?
Mr. Pizzuro. They will do operations, but generally
speaking is that some will be interstate. Some they'll do some
larger investigations as well. For the most part, the ICAC task
force, along with HSI, are really the two predominant agencies
that do most of the child exploitation.
Mr. Cohen. They're mostly State agencies?
Mr. Pizzuro. Yes.
Mr. Cohen. All right? Anybody up here from law enforcement?
No? I didn't think so.
Mr. Russo, you were here--what years were you here with
Goodlatte?
Mr. Russo. So, I was here with Congressman Goodlatte back
in 2016 and 2017, sir.
Mr. Cohen. Do you remember anything DeSantis did when he
was on this Committee?
Mr. Russo. No, sir, I cannot speak to that. It's quite lost
in my mind. I'm glad you asked the question because--
Mr. Cohen. I have the same problem.
Mr. Russo. Sir, I think it's really important. I
represented prosecutors prior to this as well, as I think you
know, and one of the pieces I mentioned was that prosecutions
are down domestically and internationally. One of the problems
we have that you speak to directly is getting survivor input
and support in that space is extremely difficult to do because
we don't do enough for those survivors to then assist in those
investigations. So, we're asking so much of them, and we're
providing so little in return.
Mr. Cohen. Now, you're looking at legislation, are you not,
that would be helpful here. Is there any particular law that is
before us that you recommend that we take up and sponsor or
support?
Mr. Russo. Thank you, Congressman.
I think there's a couple that comes to mind. First, as I
mentioned, was the Trafficking Survivor Relief Act, as well as
Sara's Law. Both of those are focused on providing those--not
just to children, but also adults who have faced criminal
offenses as a part of their trafficking. Often, they're coerced
into the crimes you would expect; things like prostitution, but
they're also coerced into other crimes that you may not
suspect, such as drug distribution, forced to commit robberies
or assaults. Well, those things hang over those individuals as
we then need them to prosecute the actual criminal offender.
Well, if you have a criminal record hanging over your head, how
likely are you to comply with law enforcement knowing that you
may not be able to yourself come out of trouble? I think that's
presented a significant problem.
Then the only other one I'll mention is the EARN IT Act,
which I think will help focus on actually holding tech
accountable--tech platforms accountable, so that they are doing
a better job. Mr. Pizzuro can speak better to this, but they
are often nonresponsive to law enforcement, and that's a
significant problem as well.
Mr. Cohen. I know my staff can do this for me, but who are
the prime sponsors of those bills in the House?
Mr. Russo. On Sara's Law, Congressman Westerman from
Arkansas, and then, on TSRA, we're working through that
process, but we know that Senator Gillibrand in the Senate has
been a big champion of that as well.
Mr. Cohen. Right. There was some legislation that I was
involved in sometime in the past to get more money for nurses
to be aware of the signs of trafficking. Is that still
providing funding for nurses to be trained in finding those
signs?
Mr. Russo. It is, but I'll say a couple of things. One is
that there's--like anything, there's a need for more funding
and resources in that space. Specifically forensic nurses, like
every profession right now, especially in the medical industry,
are strapped for both time and talent. So, you're getting
actually nurses into that profession, and having them trained
appropriately takes both a larger financial investment, but
also a focus on pushing the medical profession in that
direction, which is a difficult challenge.
So, yes, the law has been very successful, but it needs,
like anything, more resources and more attention.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Russo. It's nice to see a
Goodlatte person back.
Mr. Russo. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Cohen. I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Biggs. The gentleman yields.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Moore.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to all the
witnesses for being here today.
Mr. Pizzuro, a couple of questions. I understand from your
testimony that you have extensive experience in investigating
crimes against children. I have a couple of questions I would
like to ask.
From a law enforcement perspective, what can Congress do to
help alleviate the red tape to allow officers to go out and get
these criminals?
Mr. Pizzuro. Well, one of the biggest solutions is actual
uniformity in the actual tips that are being sent to law
enforcement. For example, is that different companies sent
different points of data. So, maybe Snapchat might only give
me, for example, a screen name. Dropbox might give me a couple
other points of data. The challenge is that some of the
companies either report nothing or then they report everything.
So, the challenge is law enforcement must go and filter all
through those tips, and we're not getting to the most egregious
cases.
So, the more information that we have and the more data
that we have from those companies to help identify that would
be a solution.
Mr. Moore. Gotcha.
I also understand there are more juvenile offenders now
victimizing other juveniles. How did this come to be and what's
going on there?
Mr. Pizzuro. Well, it's a disturbing trend. If you talk to
a lot of different task forces throughout the U.S., they are
now coming in contact with a lot more juveniles. The challenge
is because everyone is online. So, you now have 16-year-olds
looking at eight-year-olds.
So, the challenge is that all that content, when we were
talking about the AI algorithms, everything is pushed that way.
So, now what's happening is you're going to have that content
as a child, and it's pushed there, so no different than we look
at something, and then all of a sudden we're getting those same
videos.
So that content, those algorithms are pushed, and now we're
getting more child offenders than ever before. You're talking
16- and 17-year-olds as opposed to anytime.
Mr. Moore. Thank you.
Mr. Russo, I've been down to the border with Mr. Biggs a
couple of times, and one of the things that we found out--and I
mentioned this in testimony or in a hearing here before on
questioning--is that the prices on people's head now to come
across the U.S. Southern border and just South of the border,
it's $4,000-$5,000, further South in the triangle nations,
$7,000-$8,000. I think Syrians were paying $20,000 to cross the
U.S. border. My understanding is that the cartel is actually
getting the money. In some situations, my understanding, the
administration's policy on the border has created basically two
things. They're either muling the drugs across to pay that
passage, whether it's $4,000, $7,000, or $8,000, they can
backpack heroin, cocaine, or fentanyl across the border to pay
that passage, but the other thing is they can become indentured
servants and slaves.
Are you seeing that at the child trafficking? Are the
making installment payments through child trafficking back to
the cartel?
Mr. Russo. Thank you, Congressman, for the question.
Mr. Moore. Sure.
Mr. Russo. The answer is absolutely. I think something we
haven't talked as much about is labor trafficking. Labor
trafficking is a significant portion of this. So, when they put
that indentured servitude piece on someone's head--I'll give
you an example. In Oklahoma, we know that they've had legal
marijuana dispensaries pop up. Some of the illegal grows around
them have been produced and basically staffed by those
individuals who have come across the border and owed debt.
So, law enforcement is coming across, Chinese Nationals,
Mexican Nationals, and Honduran Nationals--you choose where--
with obvious dialect challenges who have then put in a State
that they're unfamiliar with, oftentimes away from family or
other known contacts, and in that process they owe that debt to
pay through that labor trafficking for an undetermined amount
of time.
Mr. Moore. Another thing I found really interesting is
these sponsors that are supposed to be taking these children,
and we have sponsors that sign up for maybe 30 children, and
they never see the children. We're trying to figure out now on
our end legislatively, how do we put teeth into that so that if
you sponsor those children--you don't know those children, you
never see those children, but somehow or another, you were
their sponsor to get them in this country unaccompanied, then
we're going to try to put teeth in that law as well. Hopefully,
we can get support from your groups and organizations for that
as well.
With that, Mr. Chair, I'll yield back. Thank you.
Mr. Biggs. The gentleman yields back.
The Chair recognizes now the gentleman from Georgia, Mr.
Johnson.
Mr. Johnson of Georgia. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to
begin by thanking the survivors and advocates for your
testimony today.
This is a wide-ranging hearing covering numerous topics,
and I'd like to focus on a couple of points. The Ranking Member
of the Committee, Sheila Jackson Lee, is absent today because
she has the flu. I did want to let you know that had she been
here, she would have talked about her bill, H.R. 30, which
strengthens the legal framework that exists to ensure children
and youth are protected and that perpetrators and facilitators
of any manner of child exploitation are exposed and face severe
consequences.
She introduced that bill, H.R. 30, the Stop Human
Trafficking in School Zones Act, along with Republican
Representative Mike McCaul to ensure that schools will be safe
havens for our children. She pointed out that a 2018 survey
reports that 55 percent of young sex trafficking survivors in
Texas were trafficked while at school or school activities and
that 60 percent of trafficked adults said they were first
groomed or solicited for trafficking on school campuses.
I also want to point out that data from 2017 shows that 53
percent of arrests for so-called child prostitution, in quote,
``were of Black children; 53 percent of arrests for child
prostitution were of Black children.'' This data reflects the
reality that Black children who are survivors of sex
trafficking are more likely than their White counterparts to be
surveilled and arrested by law enforcement for prostitution-
related offenses.
Ms. Cohen, equity and inclusion are bad words today, but
what can be done to advance racial equity for survivors and
victims of child sex trafficking?
Ms. Cohen. Thank you, Congressman, for this question.
I do actually want to thank you for bringing attention to
the issue of child sex trafficking in the United States among
domestically trafficked youth. Our research had specifically
been on this question of looking at screening along the border,
but PACT is well aware that the majority of child sex
trafficking actually occurs in the United States with U.S.
citizen children. It's important because I believe that Ranking
Member Jackson Lee's research that's cited there is looking at
primarily U.S. citizen children.
It is absolutely essential that we bring equity, inclusion,
and an awareness of the existing vulnerabilities for Black and
Brown children and specifically Black and Brown girls, who are
disproportionately arrested and criminalized.
As we discussed and Mr. Russo mentioned, Sara's Law
attempts to address some of that issue at the point of
conviction, but PACT has been advocating very strongly against
the arrest of these children in the first place. What we really
need to be doing is when we're looking at this transaction of
someone purchasing a child, who's the buyer? Why are we not
arresting the buyers when buyers actually classify--if an adult
is purchasing a child, that adult is a trafficker under the
existing language of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Mr. Johnson of Georgia. OK. Let me stop you right there and
ask you another question.
You've heard the majority sing the praises of the movie
``Sound of Freedom.'' In your experience, are the events
depicted in that movie representative of how trafficking
typically occurs in the United States? Yes or no?
Ms. Cohen. No, that is not the case and--
Mr. Johnson of Georgia. All right. Mr. Alfaro, you have
publicly spoken about the ``Sound of Freedom'' and its failure
to depict the most common forms of child trafficking. Can you
please tell us how your critique of the film was received by
the movie's fans and what have you had to endure as a result of
you pointing out the truths about that film?
Mr. Alfaro. Thanks for your question.
Anytime I speak publicly, there's always fear of backlash.
Because I am gay, Latino, and male. Anytime I come forward with
any story or experience of my own publicly, there's always
every single time backlash saying that I deserved what happened
to me, that what happened to me was my own fault.
When I spoke out about the ``Sound of Freedom''--and I will
say I don't think that all movies that are not true stories are
necessarily bad. I think that when we are at a time where
there's a lack of education and awareness around what human
trafficking looks like, I think a lot of people get this idea
of what is depicted in a film like the ``Sound of Freedom.''
A lot of messages and responses that I got were that
because I did not agree with what was depicted in the film that
I was a pedophile or a trafficker myself because I didn't agree
with it. That is extremely harmful.
When you have people with lived experience who are sharing
what has happened to them and what is truly happening right
here within the United States and people aren't willing to
listen and instead are listening to a film that is heavily
publicized, it creates a lot of harm.
Mr. Biggs. I hate to interrupt.
Mr. Johnson of Georgia. I appreciate the gentleman's
indulgence.
Mr. Chair, I'd like to submit for the record the statement
of Sheila Jackson Lee.
Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
Mr. Johnson of Georgia. Thank you.
Mr. Biggs. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Wisconsin, Mr. Tiffany.
Mr. Tiffany. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Pizzuro, as child sex abuse material has become more
prevalent, we are now being faced with the proliferation of
artificial intelligence and the ability to generate images that
are indistinguishable as false or real.
Do you think this will become an issue as it relates to
child sex abuse material? Do you have any recommendations?
Mr. Pizzuro. Yes. So, when you're talking specifically
about AI, now with generative AI, I can do two things. First, I
can actually now basically mimic a child to groom people.
Second, now with AI I can technically create my own victim in
my household. So, we're a year away from being able to take a
victim--and a lot of child sexual abuse happens in that
household. So, now I can create an exact victim of my--or
replica of my child the way AI is going. So, we need to have
some sort of regulation for that or how we're going to
implement restrictions and how they're used.
As an example, ChatGPT, if I went in there and I searched
``How do I exploit a child?'' it doesn't give me an answer. If
I say, ``I'm doing a research project on how children are
exploited,'' it will give me that information.
So, technology is getting so quick. Those are the things
that we have to think about in some sort of way to protect
children.
Mr. Tiffany. Do you think social media companies should be
held accountable for putting this information forward?
Mr. Pizzuro. Yes. They're pushing the content. So, as I was
told by one member of one of the tech companies, is that we
can't have a conversation with you because you said there has
to be accountability.
There has to be accountability. Everyone is on their
platform, and what we're doing is we're pushing that data to
them over and over again.
Mr. Tiffany. My understanding is that Instagram is one of
the biggest proliferators of pornography out there. Is that
correct?
Mr. Pizzuro. I wouldn't say Instagram is, because there's
so many different other platforms. What Instagram does do and
Meta does, especially referencing that article, is they do push
out algorithms, and you're getting a lot of people--tomorrow if
I'm 10 and I get on Instagram, well, guess what? Now, once I'm
on there, I'm also pushed content of other men.
Mr. Tiffany. Mr. Chair, as we've heard in Committee before,
the social media companies, including a Vice President for
Facebook, acknowledged that they enable illegal immigration;
they foster human trafficking. I think they should be held
accountable. I think there has to be some accountability
brought to the social media companies. The protections they've
had under Section 230 have become abuse at this point, and I
think there's really something we need to do about it.
Ms. Basham, are you familiar with the State of Florida v.
United States case presided by Judge Wetherell?
Ms. Basham. Can you remind me of that?
Mr. Tiffany. In that case, the judge ruled that President
Biden's catch-and-release policy is unlawful and gave the
administration seven days to comply with the Federal
immigration law.
From your experience in dealing with human trafficking, do
you believe that what is happening at our Southwest border is
making the environment ripe for increased human trafficking?
Ms. Basham. Well, what I can tell you is this, is that
there does need to be a solution right now, that when we see
33--children crossing the U.S. border unaccompanied within a
three-month period, that something is wrong. These children are
largely unprotected once they get into other settings within
here.
So, that's what I can tell you.
Mr. Tiffany. Mr. Alfaro, I appreciate your comments
earlier. Welcome to the world of politics with people slamming
you, whatever. Join the crowd.
In regard to ``Sound of Freedom,'' isn't it good, though,
that there's an awareness being brought to child exploitation,
human trafficking?
Mr. Alfaro. It is good when it is accurate.
Mr. Tiffany. Don't movies take license frequently? I see
movies, and I go, that's not--I've read the book. I've read a
few books, whatever. That's not depicting it accurately.
They're not true to the story, but they are delivering a
message.
Mr. Alfaro. They're definitely delivering a message. Like I
mentioned, I don't think all stories that are not based on a
true story are bad. There were parts of the ``Sound of
Freedom'' that I didn't fully agree with, and this super hero
idea that people need someone to come and save them out of
their situation is actually very unlikely.
No one came in and saved me out of my situation, and the
majority of my survivor colleagues have the same feelings, that
no one has ever stepped in and--
Mr. Tiffany. So, as someone that consumes a little bit of
Hollywood, isn't that Mel Gibson in a few movies? Isn't that
the beautiful actress that is headlines in a movie or whatever?
Isn't that the same thing that we do? We caricature with--
Mr. Biggs. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Tiffany. I yield back, sir.
Mr. Biggs. OK. Thank you.
The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Pennsylvania,
Ms. Dean.
Ms. Dean. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Again, I want to start by thanking all of you for your
testimony.
Mr. Alfaro and Ms. Bautista, if I could start with both of
you. Thank you for your honest account, and I know it's a very
truncated account of what you have gone through, very different
stories. I guess I just--I'll start with you, Mr. Alfaro. How
are you?
Mr. Alfaro. Um, that's kind of hard to answer right now,
but I'm OK.
Ms. Dean. OK. Ms. Bautista?
Ms. Bautista. I am OK too. I just want to express how I am
looking forward to how the Congress would act and how the
Congress would move forward into proposed legislations to date,
because I know it is very important. Even as we speak today,
there are children that are being exploited.
So, I am emotional because it's my friends in the
Philippines. It's younger children. I, myself, don't have a kid
right now, but in the future I don't want to see another kid
being exploited. I don't want to see another survivor like me
going here to say, like, ``Hey, we need to do something.''
Congress has to do something. A lot of people around here are
here to come forward and say we have to do something, and we
have to do it right now.
So, thank you.
Ms. Dean. I appreciate that. I speak for myself. I don't
speak for anybody else. We want to come up with solutions. We
want to come up with answers.
On the prevention and protection side, and I guess also on
the healing side, can you tell me, each of you briefly, what
has been the most effective parts of healing? How can we learn
as a society how to lift up those who are survivors and help
them heal?
Mr. Alfaro. Thank you for redirecting the conversation to
important prevention and the post-work for survivors.
For me it was a really long and tough journey living in
silence as I mentioned earlier. No one really understood--I
didn't even understand what human trafficking was, and I didn't
know that what happened to me was human trafficking. Right? So,
if you don't really know what happened to you, how do you
identify the tools and resources that you need to heal from the
trauma that you've experienced? That's why there's such a huge
need for accurate awareness out there to really help survivors
or those who are vulnerable to the crime to understand what
human trafficking is and, if it has happened to them, that they
know where to go and what resources that they need to get to a
place where I now am.
Ms. Dean. I appreciate that, and I agree with you. I don't
think Hollywood or anybody else ought to take creative license
with the facts. That's one thing in fiction, but not with the
facts.
Ms. Bautista, for your own healing, and I was thinking
about your friend Joy. How is Joy? I hope she's on the path to
healing.
Ms. Bautista. She is. Yes, she is. She is thriving. She is
a social worker now in the Philippines.
So, one of the things really that really help us for
survivors like me in our healing journey and our restoration
journey is to provide more resources on education and on
awareness of the crime and financial assistance, because all of
us came from a really hard life of poverty. So, a lot of us
really need to move on. Through financing or through
educational assistance, that helps us because, in reality, a
lot of survivors are culturally--education is the primary
source of hope, source of moving on to our healing to what bad
thing happened to us. That's our--and achieving to those dreams
and hopes would really help--would really help survivors. So,
because I want to get something in about tech.
Ms. Dean. Very well said. I appreciate that. Forgive me for
moving just--
Ms. Bautista. Yes.
Ms. Dean. It seems to me there ought to be legislation that
could force the Big Tech companies to block and fail to
distribute the images we're talking about. What is that
solution?
Mr. Pizzuro. Well, if you look at Apple, Apple had that
device-base scanning that they rolled back in 2021, and I think
that's part of the challenge, with end-to-end encryption in a
lot of the other tech proposals, nothing is being scanned. So,
with nothing being scanned, we don't have any way to look at
it.
So, even if you can use AI or other programs to do that in
solutions, again, hopefully it will identify victims. My
challenge is, like Ms. Bautista, is there are hundreds of
thousands of victims that law enforcement can't get to and
identify and get them the help they need.
Ms. Dean. I thank the Chair for his indulgence.
I thank the Ranking Member for asking me to sit in on her
behalf, and I fully support all the legislative work she is
doing in that area.
I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. The gentlelady yields back.
I recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Kiley.
Mr. Kiley. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all our witnesses today for helping us gain a
fuller understanding of this absolute horror that is going on
and victimizing far too many people, and particularly young
people.
Listening to the testimony it seems to me there are a few
facets of the approach we can take to addressing this problem.
That starts with just increased public awareness. That all of
us have a responsibility and a role we can play working with
nonprofits, working with law enforcement, working with other
stakeholders in our community to help people not become
victims. Also, to raise awareness about the political
dimensions of the problem.
In my State of California, for example, for many years, we
have tried in the legislature to get the legislation to take
this issue more seriously by classifying human trafficking as a
serious felony. Unfortunately, every year, the Public Safety
Committee has stopped it from passing. They did that this year
as well, a bill to make trafficking of a minor a serious
felony.
After a public outcry, they ended up doing something
unprecedented in recent history--is the Committee reversed
itself. Just a couple days ago, that bill passed the State
Assembly unanimously and is now going to the governor's desk.
So, I think that is a testament to the power of public
awareness.
Beyond that, there seems to be three main facets of the
solutions that we need to be working on with great urgency and
doing everything we can. First, being holding those who pedal
this material and those who traffic young people accountable.
Second, being the social media element. Third, being what's
going on at the border.
So, on the first, Mr. Russo, you mentioned in your
testimony that we need to have stricter penalties for the
abusers. What do you think would be the specific changes that
would be most important?
Mr. Russo. It's a great question. I'll note one in
California. It's great that they have moved that legislation
forward. The idea of being supportive of victims is not
incompatible with the idea of being harder on traffickers, and
we need to be balancing that appropriately.
One approach that our organization is focused on is looking
at things such that already exist in the law, like gang
enhancements, and applying them for human traffickers who
coerce minors into other criminal behavior. Oftentimes, you
can't make that straight gang connection, so that enhancement
may not be available.
If you are an individual who forces a 16-year-old into
prostitution or a 15-year-old into trafficking fentanyl or
other drugs, that penalty increase, that gang enhancement that
exists in the law, should be eligible for you regardless of
whether you are in a criminal organization or not.
So, that's something I would ask that the Committee
consider, is that focusing on actually enhancing for folks who
are using that coercive element. Let's make the game harder for
the traffickers that they're already playing.
Mr. Kiley. Thank you. That's a great insight.
Ms. Basham, when it comes to the immigration facet, you
testified that, from March-May of this year, more than 33,000
unaccompanied children crossed the U.S. border. The physical
and sexual violence, human degradation, hunger, and thirst that
these children often experience en route to the United States
is appalling. Sadly, you go on, this is just a prelude to the
violence that many experience once they are in the U.S.
So, why do you think it is that we have had this huge
increase in the number of unaccompanied minors, and how do we
stop it from happening? What are the steps that we should be
taking right now?
Ms. Basham. Well, there are several things I think that--
I'm not going to dive into specific border policy, what we can
do now. I will say that there are several things for deterrence
purposes.
First, in Guatemala--that was the country that I brought up
early on. I actually went there last year, spoke there. The
secretary of sexual trafficking is on my task force. One of the
things that they're doing--she said, we want this to stop. They
have--47 percent of unaccompanied minors are coming from
Guatemala.
The problem is--she said that a lot of these mothers are
handing over their children to smugglers because they do not
know. So, what they've actually done there is they've developed
mobile units.
So, I think that one thing I would suggest--and this is a
little bit out of sort of the scope of some of this--is a
CODEL. I actually think it would be really, really helpful to
do a CODEL down to Guatemala to actually see some of this and
talk to some of these people in person because, I do think, if
there was increased funding or things like that for them to get
mobile education units into these places, that it would
actually be extremely helpful to some of these children from a
prevention standpoint alone. That's one country in Guatemala.
Outside of that--and then, again, that gets to an awareness
campaign, which is really central to a lot of this.
Outside of that, I really think it comes down to, also, the
communication between children here and their parents back
there. That's one of the things that wasn't really discussed
much today. There needs to be a really clear, good
communication loop so that children who are unaccompanied here
can communicate back with their parents there. Because if more
parents knew of the dangers that their kids would face, they
would not send them.
Mr. Kiley. Thank you very much.
With your indulgence, Mr. Chair, if I could just quickly
ask Mr. Pizzuro.
Of the laws that you listed for holding social media
companies accountable, what do you think is the most important
change to make them more proactive in making sure that this
material isn't disseminated on their platforms?
Mr. Biggs. The time is expired, but you may answer.
Mr. Pizzuro. OK. They need to be mandated, and they
definitely--from a standpoint of just--if we can just get them
to standardize what they give and be a little bit more
proactive. We're looking for incremental changes. There's a lot
of changes that need to be done. That's where we need to at
least start.
Mr. Kiley. Thank you very much.
Mr. Biggs. The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from
Florida, Ms. Lee.
Ms. Lee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all our witnesses for being here today, for
sharing your stories, your expertise, and your insight about
this important issue.
I spent a large part of my professional career working on
ending the sexual exploitation of children, domestic violence,
and human trafficking. It's very important to me that, as
Congress, we are doing everything we can to bring awareness to
this issue, to incarcerate perpetrators, and to support
survivors. So, each of you has brought important perspective to
us today about how we might do those things, and we appreciate
that very much.
This session, I have introduced the National Trafficking
Hotline Enhancement Act and also the REPORT Act in the House,
which would modernize and strengthen existing reporting
procedures to disclose crimes involving child sex abuse to
NCMEC and ensure we're giving law enforcement the tools that
they need to help identify this type of behavior and intercept
and bring it to a stop.
I'm very proud that, in both cases, those bills have
bipartisan support in this Committee, and I want to
particularly acknowledge Ranking Member Dean for cosponsoring
the REPORT Act. I believe it is a very important part of
legislation that I hope to see us bring to the full House.
Now, with that, Ms. Basham, I would like to return to your
testimony and talk in some more depth about the concepts of how
minors are enticed and groomed on the internet and how abusers
target and exploit them. One of the things that the REPORT Act
aims to do is to require electronic communication service
providers to report incidents of enticement of minors online.
Can you explain how this happens and how that type of
requirement would help stop human trafficking?
Ms. Basham. Yes. So, the REPORT Act, first, is very
important. So, I'm really grateful that you have sponsored
that.
So, enticement can happen in a variety of ways. First, the
reason they target children--and that's something I need to
State up front--is because they are especially vulnerable.
Children are, by nature, more trusting and all of that.
With the REPORT Act, and just in general with children
being groomed online, one of the ways is it's someone who
usually--they develop a trusting relationship online, and
through that process, they learn--that's why we call it
grooming. It's not kidnapping. It's a form of really luring the
child in to do things. Then it dives into actual coercion.
So, we have children who have been threatened or their
families have been threatened, and then through that, they are
lured to do things or other things have happened to them
through that.
Ms. Lee. A study by Rain found that law enforcement--and I
think Mr. Pizzuro also touched on this issue--is overburdened
at times by the number of leads that they have, the sheer
volume of cases and tips that they're trying to investigate.
Another provision of the REPORT Act would increase the
retention period for this type of information and tip-line
reports to allow law enforcement more time to go back and
investigate these cases.
Could you explain how this measure and other tools might
help law enforcement manage the growing number of tips and
cases that they are investigating?
Ms. Basham, we'll start with you, and then we'll hear from
Mr. Pizzuro.
Ms. Basham. OK. OK. So, I think one of the main things with
all this is to--sorry. Can you State that again? I thought that
you were stating it for him over there. Sorry.
Ms. Lee. Yes. My question was about retention of
information.
So, one of the other provisions would require these
companies to retain--when they have information that looks like
it may be exploitative or is a tip for law enforcement, they
would keep it for longer to help law enforcement deal with the
volume of potential cases that are coming in.
The question was, how might that be helpful and any other
tools you can think of that we could be providing that would
make the investigation of these cases something that is easier
to tackle?
Ms. Basham. Well, absolutely. First, the No. 1 thing is
that law enforcement needs every bit of help that they can get.
So, that's the No. 1 thing. They are understaffed, and we know
that there is an increased burden. So, that's first of all.
The second thing is, just simply, it takes some of the
burden off with some of the training. Like, law enforcement has
to be trained to recognize and report this. So, it's obviously
called the REPORT Act. So, I think it alleviates some of that
key burden that really needs to come off law enforcement.
Ms. Lee. Mr. Pizzuro, what would you add in response to
that question?
Mr. Pizzuro. So, 90 days was the standard going to one
year, and that's the standard for probable cause. So, the
challenge is that we can't get to the victims and identify them
because, most likely--most of the time, we're getting a case
after six months. So, the ability to actually find and locate
that victim, identify that victim, is really important from
that retention standpoint.
One of the other things I'll add is that we need companies
to actually be responsive to legal process immediately and send
us that data, and we have difficulties with a lot of those
companies now as well.
Ms. Lee. Thank you. That's very helpful insight.
With that, Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. The gentlelady yields back.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr.
Fry.
Mr. Fry. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here.
I was a former member of the South Carolina General
Assembly just last year. A few years ago, I worked with Shared
Hope International and our Attorney General Alan Wilson to
craft a human trafficking bill.
To Mr. Russo's point earlier about how you have to balance
both the prosecution side while also being compassionate and
taking care of victims, particularly minors--that was really
the crux of the legislation that we did. We were considered
that year to be the most improved State in the country in
addressing human trafficking. We've got a long way to go.
Our attorney general is doing a fantastic job. He actually
recently spearheaded a letter with over 50--it was actually 54
attorneys general from all the States and territories about the
threat of how artificial intelligence is being used to exploit
children.
Mr. Chair, at this time, I seek unanimous consent to endear
into the record Attorney General Wilson's letter and the letter
from all the attorneys general.
Sadly, our children are constantly exploited through child
sexual abuse material daily in our country. The U.S. is now the
host--it's not a proud moment, but we host more child sexual
abuse material than any other country in the world.
Mr. Chair, I'd also like unanimous consent to enter into
the record a statement from our friend, Congresswoman Ann
Wagner, who is doing an incredible job in this space, too,
trying to update some of our laws.
Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
Mr. Fry. Look, online platforms--by design, maybe--are
created, and kids spend an inordinate amount of time--7-8 hours
a day--online. They get addicted to these apps. They are on
their phones constantly. I think the mission here is to protect
our kids from things that they see, things that happen online,
the grooming that takes place.
Earlier this year, I introduced the Targeting Child
Predators Act to help in this effort. Would it surprise this
body to know that, if you are an internet service provider and
you receive a subpoena, that you actually let the individual
know that you're trying to subpoena that law enforcement is
looking at them? So, we're trying to put a stop to that. This
is just one avenue that we have talked about that would have a
meaningful effect on this.
Ms. Basham, South Carolina--and I'm just going to use my
State as an example, but this is really everywhere. We have a--
in my district specifically, it's very rural, but it's also a
heavily tourist economy. We have the beach. What kinds of
trends in child exploitation do you generally find in tourist
areas?
Ms. Basham. Well, tourist areas specifically are always hot
spots. I will say this. I actually think sexual exploitation--
this is one of the unique things--it happens everywhere. So, it
really is a borderless crime.
Tourist hot spots, obviously, leave children more
vulnerable because people are there to vacation. They tend to
be intoxicated. So, that actually can increase some of it, too.
Mr. Fry. Thank you. Can you talk a little bit more about
how vulnerable populations, such as foster youth or
unaccompanied minors, are more susceptible to being victims of
these crimes?
Ms. Basham. Well, I think there are a number of populations
that are really susceptible because of any vulnerabilities. So,
when you are detached from your family and you are an
unaccompanied minor, you're vulnerable to several different
things.
One of those would be someone who poses as a family member,
a trusted friend, an adult that leaves you vulnerable to
actually participating in a gang or actually being trafficked
yourself and exploited yourself.
Mr. Fry. Thank you.
Mr. Pizzuro, I want to turn to you really quick. Last year,
the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's cyber
tip line received 32 million reports of suspected child
exploitation online.
In your experience--I think you testified social media
companies are not properly censoring that material or
regulating that material, are they?
Mr. Pizzuro. No. If you go further, like--and that's where
the Apple--out of 32 million tips, Apple had 175 last year. So,
what does Apple have? Fifty-eight percent of the market share
in the U.S. for iPhones.
So, I think that's--and it's not just calling out Apple.
It's just the industry as a whole.
Mr. Fry. I think you're actually heading exactly where I
wanted to go here. Because, to me, when I'm looking at
Facebooks, Googles, and Instagrams, the gulf between maybe the
top reporter and the bottom is just so wide. Facebook had 21
million, but Apple had 234. Can you touch on that contrast?
How--it's kind of crazy to me. Social media companies will
censor our own speech, but they won't get this stuff off their
platforms.
So, talk about the privacy concerns, I guess, what are they
talking about? What are they alleging from a privacy
perspective as to why they will not fight back against child
sexual abuse material on their platforms?
Mr. Pizzuro. Well, they move so that they can't see it on
their platforms. So, if you go to end-to-end encryption where
you have basically both sides where that data is there, they're
saying that we can't see it. So, again, they're not even
scanning for that.
So, the challenge becomes--is that they're totally dark.
So, the idea is that, if I don't know what's happening on my
platform, then technically, I don't have to report it. So, what
happens is then other companies do the direct opposite. If it's
something, then I'm going to report it. So, that is really the
disparity between Meta and Apple, as an example.
Mr. Fry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. With that, I yield.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you. I now recognize myself for five
minutes of questioning.
I'll tell you; I have questions for each one of you. I'm
going to probably limit myself to one. I urge you to be as
succinct as possible, yet say what you think is pertinent to
it.
So, I'll start with you, Mr. Alfaro, because one thing you
said that really caught my attention is that the restitution
that you were awarded wasn't awarded to you. It went to the
Federal Government, and you actually had to litigate to get
restitution back as a victim. Do I understand that correctly?
Mr. Alfaro. Well, sort of.
Mr. Biggs. OK.
Mr. Alfaro. It was a process. It was a gruesome process. I
hate that anyone has to go through a process after testifying
in a criminal or Federal trial and has to explain why they are
deserving of the money owed to them.
Basically, I went about a year questioning, when will I be
receiving the restitution? More time went on. I was told I
would be receiving it by Christmastime. Then another year went
by, and then they said I would receive it by Christmastime.
Then things just kept changing.
So, I had to seek out legal counsel just to help me figure
out where this money was. Eventually, shortly after that, I did
receive legal counsel. I had to contact the other survivors and
help them with legal counsel as we went through a second
process called the remission process, where they were supposed
to be contacted, and not one of them were contacted.
So, I contacted them again. I asked them if they had been
contacted. They said no. So, I connected them with pro bono
attorneys as well.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you for explaining that. That's something
I think Congress should look into as well.
Ms. Bautista, you mentioned something which I am aware of--
is the difficulty of getting images removed, even after the
tech companies are aware that those--basically, the criminal
images have been viralized.
So, can you talk about that for a second? You implied that
you got some of those removed. How did you get that done?
Ms. Bautista. Thanks for that question.
The petition--it was currently being petitioned against
Apple--well, not against Apple, but asking Apple to remove the
child sexual abuse materials online.
My fellow survivors of OSEC have been living and hoping to
move forward from this abuse, from this horrific situation they
were in. Being into that situation where they have these
materials still online, and they can't move forward.
So, that's why I am asking, alongside with survivors of
OSEC--is to have these removed permanently because it keeps
going back into our lives. It keeps going back into OSEC
survivors' lives. How can we move forward? How can we move
forward with our lives if we still keep being reminded of all
these horrific situations?
Mr. Biggs. I appreciate that. Thank you for sharing that. I
agree with you. Again, Congress needs to act.
Mr. Tanagho, I am reminded as we're listening to this of
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which a lot of
these platforms hide behind and shelter. Do you have any
opinion, or do you want to comment on that?
Mr. Tanagho. Well, I think there's two things I would say
to that. Thank you for that question.
First, I would say that Section 230 does not protect
electronic service providers from their own design decisions.
So, when they design an app or a platform in such a way that
actually encourages or facilitates child sexual abuse and
exploitation, then they have no Section 230 protection.
I do think that it is important that the EARN IT Act and
other legislation address this gap because the reality is,
every industry is governed by regulations. Every industry has
industrywide standards. If they don't meet those standards,
then they can be held to account. It's up to judges, and it's
up to courts to decide if a company has failed to meet its duty
of care or its obligations.
Right now, there are no obligations. There are no
requirements on the tech sector to build their platforms safe
by design, to detect and remove child sexual abuse material.
So, what we see is incredibly uneven responses from the tech
sector.
I think the reality is, it's not just about any one
company, but it's an industrywide problem. That's why you need
something like the EARN IT Act that can really transform the
entire industry's response.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
I'm going to go really quick to Mr. Pizzuro.
Fusion centers. Are you familiar with fusion centers, and
how are they working on this problem?
Mr. Pizzuro. Yes. Right now, well, I could speak to New
Jersey. New Jersey's fusion centers aren't working on the ICAC
problem or the social media problem. So, that's something--
again additional resources. Maybe they can start looking into
that for more prior-
itization.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you. I appreciate all of you being here.
We are out of time. This is an incredibly important subject,
and we have all learned a lot. Congress must act.
I would anticipate that some pieces of legislation--we know
that some of them have passed out of the Committee in the
Senate, but we don't have them across the Mall yet. Then there
are some that we have that I know that we're going to be taking
up soon as well.
So, thank you to the audience.
Thank you to the witnesses.
Thank you to Ms. Dean and my colleagues on both sides of
the aisle for being here today.
With that, we are adjourned.
[Whereon, at 4:11 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
The record for this hearing by the Members of the
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance is
available at: https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/
ByEvent.aspx?Event ID=116344.
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