[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 75 (Tuesday, June 13, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5786-S5789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KYL (for himself, Mr. Grassley, Mr. DeWine, Mr. Cornyn, 
        Mr. Brownback, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Burns, Mrs. Hutchison, and Mr. 
        Allen):
  S. 3499. A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to protect 
youth from exploitation by adults using the Internet, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Internet SAFETY 
Act of 2006. The word ``SAFETY'' in the bill's title stands for Stop 
Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Youth. It is a fairly 
descriptive acronym, for the provisions of the Internet SAFETY Act are 
designed to crack down on the spread of Internet child pornography and 
related conduct. The act does so by creating new Federal offenses and 
causes of action targeted at those who produce or knowingly facilitate 
Internet child pornography, by increasing penalties for child 
pornography, sex trafficking, and sexual abuse offenses, and by 
increasing resources available for prosecution and prevention of child 
sexual-abuse offenses, including authorizing 200 new assistant U.S. 
attorneys across the country to prosecute child pornography and sexual 
exploitation crimes.
  The need for renewed law-enforcement attention to child pornography 
is demonstrated in a recent report of the U.S. Justice Department 
titled ``Project Safe Childhood.'' I will ask to have an extended 
excerpt from the report printed in the Record at the conclusion of my 
remarks. As the report notes, ``judging simply by [recent] crime 
statistics, it is clear that the Internet is helping to fuel an 
epidemic of child pornography'' in this country. Unfortunately, by 
providing greater technical ease and increased anonymity in trading 
images, the Internet has ``taken down barriers that one time served as 
a deterrent to child pornographers.'' In 2003, an estimated 20,000 
images of child pornography were posted on the Internet every week. 
Between 1998 and 2004, child pornography reports made to the National 
Center for Missing and Exploited Children increased from 3,267 to 
106,119--a thirty-fold increase over a 6-year period. The Justice 
Department also notes that there has been an escalation in the severity 
of abuse depicted in child pornography in recent years, ``with the 
images found today more frequently involving younger children--
including toddlers and even infants--and despicable acts such as 
penetration of infants.'' The Project Safe Childhood report concludes 
that ``the nation should be alarmed at the fact that child pornography 
is being produced,

[[Page S5787]]

possessed, and distributed in record numbers.'' As the report notes, 
child pornography's harm extends beyond that done to the children who 
are sexually abused to produce such images: ``child pornography [also] 
plays a central role in child molestations, serving to justify 
offenders' conduct, assist them in gaining compliance with their 
victims, and to provide a means to blackmail the children they have 
molested in order to prevent exposure.''
  The Internet SAFETY Act does the following things. It creates a new 
Federal offense, punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison, for 
financially facilitating access to child pornography on the Internet. 
The act also deters Internet facilitation of child pornography by 
imposing civil penalties for Internet communications providers that 
fail to report child pornography, criminal penalties for Web site 
operators who insert words or images into source code with the intent 
to deceive persons into viewing obscene material on the Internet, and 
by requiring commercial Web site operators to place warning marks 
prescribed by the Federal Trade Commission on Web pages that contain 
sexually explicit material.
  The Internet SAFETY Act also punishes the operation of child 
pornography enterprises. It creates a new Federal offense, punishable 
by a minimum of 10 years in prison, for the operation of an enterprise 
that profits from the sexual exploitation of children. The act also 
imposes mandatory, consecutive 10 year sentences for any child 
pornography or exploitation offense committed by a registered sex 
offender. In addition, the act increases penalties for offenses 
involving child pornography, child prostitution and sex trafficking, 
child sexual abuse, and sexual assault.
  The Internet SAFETY Act also expands the Federal private right of 
action against child pornographers. It allows a victim, including 
parents of a minor victim, to seek civil remedies, and also allows a 
victim to seek remedies as an adult. This provision is inspired by a 
young girl named Masha who was adopted from Russia by a man who 
repeatedly molested her, photographed her, and posted pornographic 
images of her on the Internet. In addition, the act adds the obscenity 
and child pornography statutes to the RICO predicates and adds 
electronic mail fraud to the wiretap predicates.
  The Internet SAFETY Act also establishes within the Justice 
Department an Office on Sexual Violence and Crimes Against Children to 
coordinate sex offender registration and notification programs and 
grant programs, and to assist State, local, and tribal governments and 
other entities with sex offender registration or notification and other 
measures.
  Finally, the act authorizes and directs the Attorney General to make 
grants to States, local governments, Indian tribes, and nonprofit 
organizations for child sexual abuse prevention programs. In addition, 
the act authorizes appropriations for 200 additional child exploitation 
prosecutors in U.S. Attorneys' Offices around the country and 20 
additional Internet Crimes Against Children task forces.
  I ask unanimous consent that the following passages from the Justice 
Department's report Project Safe Childhood be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the additional material was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

 Project Safe Childhood--Protecting Children From Online Exploitation 
                               and Abuse


                              INTRODUCTION

       The Internet and other communications technologies are 
     increasingly used by sexual predators and abusers as tools 
     for exploiting and victimizing our children. First, these 
     technologies have contributed to a significant increase in 
     the proliferation and severity of child pornography. They 
     provide pornographers with an easily accessible and seemingly 
     anonymous means for collecting large number of images of 
     child sexual abuse. Eventually, some predators turn to 
     producing their own images. The result has been that images 
     of child sexual abuse today are more disturbing, more 
     graphic, and more sadistic than ever before, and they involve 
     younger and younger children. Second, as the Internet and 
     related technologies have grown, children have become 
     increasingly at risk of being sexually solicited online by 
     predators. Law enforcement is uncovering an escalating number 
     of ``enticement'' cases, where perpetrators contact children 
     in chat rooms or through instant messaging and arrange to 
     meet at a designated location for the purpose of making 
     sexual contact.

                           *   *   *   *   *


    Part II. The Need for a national initiative to protect children

       Two types of dangers to children are especially 
     problematic. First, the threat of sexual predators contacting 
     children online, with the hope of luring them to meet in 
     person, has been amply demonstrated by academic studies as 
     well as recent investigative journalism reports. A Youth 
     Internet Safety Survey conducted between August 1999 and 
     January 2000 found that approximately one in five children 
     per year receives an unwanted sexual solicitation online. One 
     in thirty-three children per year receives an aggressive 
     sexual solicitation--i.e., one in which a solicitor asks to 
     meet them somewhere, calls them on the telephone, or sends 
     mail, money, or gifts. And one in four per year has an 
     unwanted exposure to sexually explicit material. Meanwhile, 
     only 25 percent of the youth who encountered a sexual 
     solicitation told a parent. Only a fraction of all episodes 
     were reported to authorities, such as a law enforcement 
     agency, an Internet service provider, or a hotline. According 
     to a recent media report, at any given time, 50,000 predators 
     are on the Internet prowling for children. These figures make 
     clear that the threat of online enticement of children is 
     immense.
       Second, the victimization of children through the 
     production and distribution of child pornography is equally 
     troubling, and on the rise. It was estimated, even in 2003, 
     that more than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted 
     on the Internet each week. NCMEC's CyberTipline logged a 39 
     percent increase in reports of the possession, creation, or 
     distribution of child pornography in 2004. The gravity of 
     these increases is more dramatically demonstrated by 
     comparing the actual number of reports in 1998 to those 
     logged in 2004, rather than merely reciting percentage 
     increases. In 1998, the CyberTipline received 3,267 
     reports of child pornography. In 2004, the CyberTipline 
     received 106,119 of these reports, marking more than a 30-
     fold increase in child pornography reports in a six year 
     period. Judging simply by crime statistics, it is clear 
     that the Internet is helping to fuel an epidemic of child 
     pornography.
       Not only is there an increase in the volume of pornographic 
     images, there is also an escalation in the severity of the 
     abuse depicted, with the images found today more frequently 
     involving younger children-including toddlers and even 
     infants-and despicable acts such as penetration of infants. 
     And technology lends itself to the dissemination of more 
     graphic images via the web, with its easy access, low cost, 
     and apparent anonymity.
       Experts agree that the escalation in both the prevalence 
     and severity of child pornography is driven at least in part 
     by advances in computer technology and increased access to 
     the Internet. According to a recent study, 78.6 percent of 
     Americans go online, and almost two-thirds of Americans use 
     the Internet at home. While it is impossible to determine 
     exactly how many people are looking at child pornography, 
     experts attribute the escalation in the quantity of child 
     pornography being created and distributed to the growth of 
     the Internet, and the concomitant ease with which child 
     predators can now buy, sell, and swap images. The resulting 
     sense of community among child predators is in turn helping 
     to embolden those who may have had misgivings about a sexual 
     interest in children, and it is thus driving a market for new 
     images with fresh faces. Before the Internet, it was 
     difficult and risky for child exploiters to go out and find 
     other child exploiters with whom to share images, which left 
     the child pornography industry relegated to small black 
     markets in underground bookstores or secret mailings. Today, 
     the Internet has provided these pedophiles with an 
     accessible, convenient, and anonymous means for interacting 
     with their community and obtaining illicit material. The 
     Internet has thus taken down borders that at one time served 
     as a deterrent to child pornographers.


     THESE ESCALATING TRENDS PRESENT A SERIOUS RISK TO OUR SOCIETY

       The harm caused by enticement offenses is beyond question. 
     Sexual abuse is a serious crime that deeply affects any 
     victim, especially children, and it has dramatic secondary 
     effects on our society. The looming danger of our children 
     being preyed upon by pedophiles in chat rooms or through 
     social networking sites is, in short, among the gravest 
     threats facing children today.
       The impact of child pornography on victims, and on society 
     as a whole, is far less appreciated today than the threat of 
     enticement offenses. Child pornography images are not just 
     pictures, akin to any number of other images legally 
     available on the Internet. Most images of child pornography 
     depict victims--children--who have been exploited and abused. 
     These images are permanent visual records of child sexual 
     abuse. For this reason, the very term commonly used to 
     describe these terrible images--``child pornography''--does 
     not adequately convey the horrors these images depict. A more 
     accurate term would be ``images of child sexual 
     abuse,'' because the very production of the images 
     necessarily involves the sexual abuse of a child. And the 
     child is re-victimized each time they are viewed.
       The nation should be alarmed at the fact that child 
     pornography is being produced, possessed, and distributed in 
     record numbers.

[[Page S5788]]

     According to a 2005 study entitled ``Child-Pornography 
     Possessors Arrested in Internet-Related Crimes: Findings from 
     the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study,'' which 
     studied defendants arrested and charged with possession of 
     child pornography between July 2000 and June 2001:
       More than 80 percent of arrested [child pornography] 
     possessors had images of prepubescent children, and 80 
     percent had images of minors being sexually penetrated. 
     Approximately 1 in 5 (21 percent) arrested [ child 
     pornography] possessors had images of children enduring 
     bondage, sadistic sex, and other sexual violence. More than 1 
     in 3 (39 percent) [child pornography] possessors had videos 
     depicting child pornography with motion and sound.
       Although their identities are often unknown, many of the 
     children in these graphic images were sexually victimized and 
     assaulted. Those who possess these pictures--for sexual 
     gratification, curiosity, as a means of profit, or for other 
     reasons--are adding to the burdens of these young victims, 
     whose trauma may be increased by knowing their pictures are 
     circulating globally on the Internet with no hope of 
     permanent removal or could be entered into circulation in the 
     future.
       Child pornography victimizes children in a very real and 
     dramatic way. Of course, no child can consent to being 
     sexually exploited through the production of sexually-
     explicit images. Each time the image is viewed or 
     distributed, the child is again victimized. ``[N]o mere words 
     could ever truly describe the daily torture of victims who 
     were forced to participate in child pornography years ago and 
     now, as adults, see images of themselves `performing' on the 
     Internet. In addition to the obvious physical injuries that a 
     child can suffer due to sexual abuse, the emotional and 
     psychological trauma is devastating, and lasting. Many child 
     victims suffer from depression, withdrawal, anger, and other 
     conditions that often continue into adulthood. They 
     experience feelings of guilt and responsibility for the 
     abuse, a sense of powerlessness and feelings of 
     worthlessness.
       Thus, for the sole fact of the victimization and damage 
     that child pornography visits upon children, possession of 
     child pornography is a heinous crime that must be stamped 
     out. But that is only half of the story of the pernicious 
     effect of child pornography. Possession of child pornography 
     is a serious crime for four additional reasons, each of which 
     is described more fully below:
       1. The exchange of child pornography by and between child 
     exploiters validates and encourages them in their beliefs and 
     behaviors;
       2. The greater availability of child pornography has led to 
     the production, receipt, and distribution of more shocking, 
     graphic images, which are increasingly involving younger 
     children and infants;
       3. The compulsion to collect child pornography images may 
     lead to a compulsion to molest children, or may be indicative 
     of a propensity to molest children; and
       4. Child pornography is frequently used by molesters as an 
     affirmative tool, either to silence their victims, to 
     blackmail them into further exploitation, or to entice other 
     children.


                      Validation and Encouragement

       Use of the Internet by child pornographers to exchange 
     images and communications regarding those images provides 
     positive reinforcement for them in their beliefs and 
     behaviors, encouraging further exploitation of children. One 
     study of offenders revealed that exploiters' relationships 
     with other offenders, forged online, ``legitimize[d] and 
     normalize[d] their interests'' in their own minds. In short, 
     the process of collecting and trading child pornography bonds 
     the offenders together, and having an extensive child 
     pornography collection heightens an offender's status within 
     this community. The incentives to abuse children, capture the 
     abuse, and share the images are strong, allowing the producer 
     a way into the community and a means for obtaining yet more 
     images of abuse from other producers or distributors. Child 
     pornography is used as a means of establishing trust and 
     camaraderie amongst child exploiters and molesters, as proof 
     of good intentions when initiating contacts with one another. 
     It is, in part, for these reasons that offenders are 
     frequently found with thousands of images.
       In considering this factor, one can see the important role 
     that the Internet has played in the growth of the child 
     pornography market. Before the Internet, child exploiters 
     were isolated. Without knowing that others like them existed, 
     pedophilia or a sexual interest in children was a shameful 
     secret. Through the Internet, however, persons who desire to 
     exploit children get to know that others like them exist, 
     they share their preferences and their child pornography, and 
     they no longer feel abnormal. The child exploiter sees in the 
     Internet a way of validating his behavior: he is able to 
     convince himself that his behavior or obsession is not 
     abnormal, but is in fact shared by thousands of other 
     people who, in the predator's mind, are sensitive, 
     intelligent, and caring people.


                     MORE SHOCKING, GRAPHIC IMAGES

       A more distressing trend is that, as pedophiles collect 
     more and more images of child sexual abuse, they become de-
     sensitized to the horrors contained within their existing 
     collections, and they seek gratification through novel and 
     yet more disturbing images. The only way that this demand can 
     be met is through a supply of new images involving more 
     horrific images of I hands-on sexual abuse than that already 
     present in the person's collection of images. The result has 
     been a rise in demand for pornographic images of younger 
     children, including babies and toddlers. Twenty percent of 
     the images seized depicting sexual exploitation of children 
     involved images of babies and two- and three-year-olds. And, 
     disturbingly, the abuse is getting worse, with the depictions 
     being more sadistic than ever.


           INCREASED COMPULSION/PROPENSITY TO MOLEST CHILDREN

       As an offender's interest in children draws him to the 
     child pornography market, his compulsion to view and collect 
     images may become entwined with, or lead to, a compulsion to 
     molest children. A study conducted by Ethel Quayle and Max 
     Taylor revealed that the subject's access to child 
     pornography ``intensified his levels of sexual arousal and 
     behavior and fueled his desire to engage in a relationship 
     with a child.'' The subject progressed from viewing images, 
     to entering chat rooms, to attempting to meet children 
     offline.
       Several factors other than mere sexual perversion may cause 
     the tendency of child pornography collectors to begin to 
     molest children. For instance, a collector's desire for novel 
     and more graphic images could provide an incentive simply to 
     produce the images himself, and computer technology today 
     makes it easier to create the images and distribute them. In 
     addition, collectors often feel that they have to produce new 
     images because, in order to continue trading for new images, 
     they have to offer up their own new images as part of the 
     rules of some child pornography communities.
       Empirical studies support the proposition that individuals 
     who view child pornography are often also child molesters. 
     According to a study completed in 2000 by Dr. Andres E. 
     Hernandez, Director of the Sex Offender Treatment Program at 
     the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, 
     79.6% of 54 offenders convicted of child pornography offenses 
     admitted that they had molested significant numbers of 
     children without detection. On average, the offenders had 
     26.37 child sex victims and admitted to over 1,424 contact 
     sexual crimes. Of these 1,400+ contact sexual crimes, only 53 
     were detected or known about and taken into account at 
     sentencing.
       Consistent with these studies, a 1986 Report of the U.S. 
     Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Child 
     Pornography and Pedophilia stated: ``No single characteristic 
     of pedophilia is more pervasive than the obsession with child 
     pornography. The fascination of pedophiles with child 
     pornography and child abuse has been documented in many 
     studies and has been established by hundreds of sexually 
     explicit materials involving children.''
       Although the U.S. Senate Subcommittee found no direct 
     evidence of causality--i.e., that possession of child 
     pornography causes people to commit child sex offenses--it 
     did conclude that child pornography plays a central role in 
     child molestations, ``serving to justify [the offender's] 
     conduct, assist them in seducing their victims and provide a 
     means to blackmail the children they have molested in order 
     to prevent exposure.'' In a 2005 study of child pornography 
     possessors arrested in Internet-related crimes, the reviewers 
     concluded that ``one out of six [child pornography] 
     possession cases beginning with an investigation of or 
     allegation about [child pornography] possession discovered a 
     dual offender who had also sexually victimized a child or 
     attempted to do so.''
       According to Raymond Smith, Assistant Inspector-in-Charge 
     of the Special Investigations Division and the manager of 
     USPIS's Child Exploitation Program, the USPIS began in 1997 
     compiling statistical information on the number of child 
     pornography suspects arrested by U.S. Postal Inspectors that 
     were also child molesters. Additionally, the USPIS began to 
     collect data on the number of child victims identified and 
     rescued from further sexual abuse as a result of 
     investigations conducted by Postal Inspectors. Since 1997, 
     802 child molesters were identified and stopped, and 1,048 
     victimized children were rescued. According to Smith, of the 
     more than 2,400 individuals arrested since 1997 for using the 
     U.S. Mail and the Internet to sexually exploit children, 
     child molesters were identified in one out of every three 
     cases.


                     AFFIRMATIVE TOOLS OF MOLESTERS

       Not only do images of child pornography record horrific 
     abuse and victimization of children, but they often are also 
     used as affirmative tools by the abusers. Abusers frequently 
     use such pornography to lower another child's inhibitions 
     with images that appear to show the victim enjoying the abuse 
     or to validate sex between children and adults as normal. 
     Moreover, offenders use the images to blackmail the victim 
     into silence or into performing further acts of abuse, 
     threatening to release the images to parents, peers, or 
     others if the victim talks or does not allow further 
     exploitation. Such blackmailing even can be aimed at forcing 
     kids into prostitution and the child trafficking trade.
       Child pornography plays a central role in child 
     molestations, serving to justify offenders' conduct, to 
     assist them in gaining compliance from their victims, and to 
     provide a means to blackmail the children they have molested 
     in order to prevent exposure. Consequently, child pornography 
     does not simply involve abuse of the individual child victim 
     whose image is created; it is also used

[[Page S5789]]

     affirmatively to perpetuate the sexual exploitation of the 
     same child or other children.
       Child and adult pornography is frequently used by child 
     exploiters to lure children into physical sex acts. After a 
     child molester befriends a child and gains the child's trust, 
     he will expose the child to pornography to persuade the child 
     that the behavior is normal and acceptable, and to coax him 
     or her into participation. The Sexually Exploited Child Unit 
     of the Los Angeles Police Department conducted a ten year 
     study and found that adult and child pornography was 
     reportedly used in over 87% of all their child molestation 
     cases. Child pornography is therefore not just a tool for 
     perpetuating more (and more graphic) child pornography--it is 
     also a tool for exploiters to gain opportunities to exploit 
     and molest even more children.


                             A CALL TO ARMs

       The measures taken to this point have not served to 
     dramatically lessen the number of incidents of child 
     exploitation. Indeed, all of the evidence leads to the 
     conclusion that the exploitation of children is a burgeoning 
     problem. The explosion in the production and trafficking of 
     child pornography, in particular, represents nothing short of 
     an epidemic confronting our country.
                                 ______