[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 34 (Thursday, March 23, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S1674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. McCONNELL:
  S. 2280. A bill to provide for the effective punishment of online 
child molesters; to the Committee on the Judiciary.


                 cybermolesters enforcement act of 2000

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as we are all aware, the Internet has 
revolutionized communication and business. However, it also provides a 
new tool for some very traditional villains: child molesters. 
Unfortunately, loopholes in the current law allow some of these 
predators to escape without any real consequences. For this reason I 
have introduced the Cybermolesters Enforcement Act to ensure that these 
new on-line molesters are brought to justice.
  It is already a federal crime to cross state lines to sexually molest 
a minor. In recent years the number of people using the Internet to 
violate this law has skyrocketed. In the last two years alone the FBI's 
cybermolester caseload his increased by 550 percent.
  Most cybermolesters are well-educated, middle-class, and have no 
previous criminal record. As a result, many judges are giving them 
laughably light sentences. Ironically, the purveyors of child-
pornography receive a ten-year mandatory sentence, but those who use 
the Internet to meet children and act out pornographic fantasies often 
receive no jail time at all. We need to end the double standard that 
gives lighter sentences to a special set of privileged criminals. The 
Cybermolesters Enforcement Act takes a measured approach to this 
problem by imposing a five-year mandatory minimum sentence without 
changing the maximum sentence already contained in the law.
  I would like to thank the high-tech industry for their help in 
drafting this bill. In particular, I would like to thank the Law 
Enforcement Security Council of the Internet Alliance. This broad-based 
internet industry coalition is doing important work in the fight 
against online crime, and helped to ensure that this bill will not 
burden Internet service providers.
  The Cybermolesters Enforcement Act addresses a real and chilling 
threat to our children. It is supported by the FBI's ``Innocent 
Images'' program, which is on the front lines of the battle against on-
line pedophiles. It doesn't create any new federal crimes or 
regulations. It simply takes a common sense step to ensure that we 
bring today's high-tech child molesters to justice. I hope my 
colleagues will join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation.
  I ask unanimous consent that this article by George Will outlining 
this problem be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 23, 2000]

                               Nasty Work

                          (By George F. Will)

       To visit a crime scene, turn on your computer. Log on to a 
     list of ``bulletin boards'' or real-time chat rooms, which 
     come and go rapidly. Look for names like 
     ``Ilovemuchyoungerf'' (``f'' stands for females) or 
     ``vryvryvrybrlylegal'' or ``Moms'nsons'' or ``likemyung.''
       The Internet, like the telephone and automobile before it, 
     has created new possibilities for crime. Some people wielding 
     computers for criminal purposes are being combated by FBI 
     agents working out of an office park in Calverton, Md.
       The FBI operation, named Innocent Images, targets cyber-
     stalkers seeking sex with children, and traffickers in child 
     pornography. As one agent here says, ``Business is good--
     unfortunately.'' Criminal sexual activity on the Internet is 
     a growth industry.
       In many homes, children are the most competent computer 
     users. They are as comfortable on the Internet as their 
     parents are on the telephone. On the Web, children can be pen 
     pals with the entire world, instantly and at minimal cost. 
     But the world contains many bad people. Parents should take 
     seriously a cartoon that shows two dogs working on computers. 
     One says to the other, ``When you're online no one knows 
     you're a dog.''
       A child does not know if the person with whom he or she is 
     chatting is another child or a much older person with 
     sinister intentions. The typical person that the agents call 
     a ``traveler''--someone who will cross state lines hoping to 
     have a sexual encounter with a child--is a white male age 25-
     45. He has above-average education--often an advanced degree, 
     and he can find his way around the Internet--and above-
     average income, enabling him to travel. Many ``travelers'' 
     are married.
       But these cyber-stalkers do not know if the person with 
     whom they are chatting is really, as they think, a young boy 
     or girl, or an FBI agent. Some ``travelers'' who thought they 
     had arranged meetings with children have been unpleasantly 
     surprised, arrested, tried and jailed.
       Since the first arrest under Innocent Images in 1995, there 
     have been 487 arrests of ``travelers'' and pornographers, and 
     409 convictions. Most of the 78 nonconvictions are in cases 
     still pending. The conviction rate is above 95 percent. 
     However, the FBI is distressed by light sentences from some 
     judges who justify their leniency by the fact that the 
     offenders are socially upscale and first offenders. 
     (Actually, probably not: How likely is it that they get 
     caught the first time they become predators?) Lenient 
     judges also call the crime ``victimless'' because it is an 
     FBI agent, not a child, receiving the offender's 
     attention.
       Agents are trained to avoid entrapment, and predators 
     usually initiate talk about sexual encounters. But children 
     implicitly raise the subject by visiting such chat rooms. 
     Most children recoil when sexual importunings become overt. 
     (``When you come to meet me, make sure you're not wearing any 
     underwear.'') But some importunings, including gifts and 
     sympathetic conversation about the problems of children, are 
     cunning, subtle and effective.
       Publicity about Innocent Images may deter some predators, 
     but most are driven to risk-taking by obsessions. America 
     Online and other service providers look for suspect chat 
     rooms and close those they spot, but they exist in such 
     rapidly changing profusion that there are always many 
     menacing ones open.
       Digital cameras, and the plunging price of computer storage 
     capacity for downloaded photographs, have made this, so to 
     speak, the golden age of child pornography. The fact that the 
     mere possession of it is a crime does not deter people from 
     finding, in the blizzard of Internet activities, like-minded 
     people to whom they say things like, ``I'm interested in 
     pictures of boys 6 to 8 having sex with adults.''
       A booklet available from any FBI office, ``A Parent's Guide 
     to Internet Safety,'' lists signs that a child might be at 
     risk online. These include the child's being online for 
     protracted periods, particularly at night. Being online like 
     that is the unenviable duty of FBI agents running Innocent 
     Images.
       Each of the FBI's 56 field offices has an officer trained 
     to seek cyber-stalkers and traffickers in child pornography. 
     Ten offices have Innocent Images operations. Agents assigned 
     to Innocent Images can spend as many as 10 hours a day 
     monitoring the sexual sewer that is a significant part of the 
     ``information superhighway.'' So the FBI looks for 
     ``reluctant volunteers'' who, while working, are given 
     psychological tests to see that they are not becoming 
     ``damaged goods.'' Whatever these agents are being paid, they 
     are underpaid.
                                 ______