[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 70 (Wednesday, June 3, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     THE CHILDREN'S PROTECTION FROM INTERNET PREDATORS ACT OF 1998

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, as Chairman of the Congressional Missing 
and Exploited Children's Caucus, I am introducing the Children's 
Protection From Internet Predators Act of 1998 to help combat the 
exploitation of our children on the Internet.
  While the Internet is one of the most powerful tools in finding 
missing children, its vast reach is unfortunately also being used to 
hurt our children. Child pornography has resurfaced with a vengeance 
with the advent of computer technology. Now, child predators have a new 
medium to lure our children away through chat rooms and web pages.
  Child pornography has flourished on the Internet, with child 
pornography being traded freely in chat rooms, news groups and private 
E-mail.
  During one week in March of this year, the Houston Chronicle reported 
that U.S. customs agents, who are charged with investigating Internet 
crimes against children, seized computers from a home and a church, 
saying the equipment was used to send and receive child pornography 
through the Internet.
  Apparently that was not the only seizure of child porn during that 
week. A man was accused of possessing and distributing pornographic 
images of children on the Internet. A subsequent search of his home 
revealed thousands of pornographic images on his computers, including 
at least 150 illegal pornographic images of children as young as six 
years of age.
  Chat rooms on the Internet are being used by predators to lure our 
children away from their families. We read in the newspapers about 
tragic incidents. One of a chemical engineer who traveled from Oklahoma 
to Corpus Christi, planning a sexual rendezvous with a 13-year-old girl 
he met over the Internet. In Tacoma, Washington, a 36-year-old man was 
arrested for raping a girl he met and lured over an Internet chat room.
  Well, today I am introducing the Children's Protection from Internet 
Predators Act of 1998 in Congress. It will fund the U.S. Customs 
Service child pornography enforcement program. That program is called 
the International Child Pornography Investigation and Coordination 
Center. It is designed to help combat the growing problem of child 
pornography and child predators on the Internet.
  Child pornography and incidents of children being lured on the 
Internet vastly outnumber the people and the resources in the law 
enforcement community who are trained to handle such crimes. Well, this 
legislation gives an extra $2 million to law enforcement to track, 
monitor and stop child exploitation on the Internet.
  My concern with the lack of funding provided for the U.S. Customs 
Service child pornography enforcement program is obvious. Ever mindful 
of the widespread benefits which the Customs Service provides, I am 
greatly discouraged that the fiscal year 1999 budget does not provide 
adequate funding for this program. So I urge my colleagues to take this 
issue seriously, that we fund the $2 million necessary to help protect 
our children from victimization.
  Mr. Speaker, I am sure you will agree that this is a small price to 
pay to reduce the exploitation of our children.

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