[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 175 (Tuesday, November 13, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H13589-H13591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
KIDS ACT OF 2007
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 719) to require convicted sex offenders to register online
identifiers, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 719
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Keeping the Internet Devoid
of Sexual Predators Act of 2007'' or the ``KIDS Act of
2007''.
SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR
SUPERVISION OF INTERNET ACCESS BY SEX OFFENDERS
CONVICTED UNDER FEDERAL LAW.
In addition to any other sums authorized to be appropriated
for the purposes of supervising persons on probation and
pretrial release in connection with convictions for Federal
offenses, there are authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000
for each fiscal years 2008 through 2013 for any or all of the
following purposes:
(1) To evaluate computer internet filtering, monitoring and
other programs and devices that are designed to filter access
to certain web sites, permit monitoring of the use by persons
under supervision of internet, and related purposes.
(2) To purchase those programs and devices determined
through that evaluation to be the best for those purposes.
(3) To train probation officers in the use of those
programs and devices.
(4) To train probation officers in the supervision of sex
offenders.
(5) To hire probation officers and other personnel as
required to supervise convicted sex offenders effectively.
SEC. 3. DISCRETIONARY CONDITION OF PROBATION AND SUPERVISED
RELEASE FOR SEX OFFENDERS.
(a) Probation.--Section 3563(b) of title 18, United States
Code, is amended--
(1) in paragraph (22), by striking ``or'';
(2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (23) and
inserting ``; or'' and
(3) by inserting after paragraph (23) the following:
``(24) if required to register under the Sex Offender
Registration and Notification Act--
``(A) obtain access to the Internet only from computers
approved by the probation officer;
``(B) consent and fully cooperate with periodic
examinations of the computers by the probation officer,
including the retrieval and copying of all data from those
computers and removal of the computer equipment for a
reasonable period of time for the purpose of conducting a
more thorough inspection;
``(C) consent and fully cooperate with the installation on
the computers any hardware or software filtering systems
designated by the probation officer that restrict the
defendant's access to classes of web sites designated by the
officer as to which, under the circumstances of the offense,
access should be restricted;
``(D) consent and fully cooperate with the installation on
the computers of monitoring systems or hardware that permit
the probation officer to monitor the defendant's computer use
to assure compliance with the law, conditions of probation,
and to protect public safety; and
``(E) take no steps to disable or evade the filtering or
monitoring programs or devices.''.
(b) Supervised Release.--Section 3583(d) of title 18,
United States Code, is amended by striking ``any condition
set forth as a discretionary condition of probation in
section 3563(b)(1) through (b)(10) and (b)(12) through
(b)(20)'' and inserting ``a condition set forth in section
3563(b), other than that described in paragraph (11) of that
section''.
SEC. 4. DIRECTION TO SENTENCING COMMISSION.
The United States Sentencing Commission, pursuant to its
authority under section 994 of title 28, United States Code,
and in accordance with this section, shall review and, if
appropriate amend the Federal sentencing guidelines
(including its policy statements) applicable to persons
convicted of sex offenses involving children in circumstances
where the offense is committed or facilitated by the use of
the Internet, and--
(1) a misrepresentation is made over the Internet as to the
age of the offender; or
(2) there is a failure of the offender to reveal the
offender's status as a sex offender.
SEC. 5. MODIFICATION OF MINIMUM STANDARDS REQUIRED FOR
ELECTRONIC MONITORING UNITS USED IN SEXUAL
OFFENDER MONITORING PILOT PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--Subparagraph (C) of section 621(a)(1) of
the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (42
U.S.C. 16981(a)(1)) is amended to read as follows:
``(C) Minimum standards.--The electronic monitoring units
used in the pilot program shall at a minimum--
``(i) provide a tracking device for each offender that
contains a central processing unit with global positioning
system; and
``(ii) permit continuous monitoring of offenders 24 hours a
day.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a)
shall apply to grants provided on or after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
SEC. 6. FINANCIAL FACILITATION OF ACCESS TO CHILD
PORNOGRAPHY.
(a) Offense.--Chapter 95 of title 18, United States Code,
is amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 1960A. Financial facilitation of access to child
pornography
``Whoever knowingly conducts, or attempts or conspires to
conduct, a financial transaction (as defined in section
1956(c)) in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce,
knowing that such transaction will facilitate access to, or
possession of, child pornography (as defined in Section 2256)
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than
20 years, or both.''.
(b) Amendment to Table of Sections.--The table of sections
at the beginning of
[[Page H13590]]
chapter 95 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by
adding at the end the following new item:
``1960A. Financial facilitation of access to child pornography .''.
SEC. 7. CHANGE IN DEFINITION OF MONETARY INSTRUMENTS FOR
MONEY LAUNDERING AND OTHER OFFENSES.
Section 1956(c)(5) of title 18, United States Code, is
amended--
(1) by striking ``or'' at the end of clause (i); and
(2) by inserting ``, (iii) electronic or digital
currencies, and the corresponding monetary value of any
associated account, or (iv) stored value cards or similar
devices'' after ``delivery''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Conyers) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.
General Leave
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Michigan?
There was no objection.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Members of the House, H.R. 719, the KIDS Act, addresses the problems
of convicted sex offenders infiltrating the Internet to contact and
prey on minors.
You've heard about this problem before under the measure that has
just passed the House. We are all familiar with the problem. There is
not a parent who is not concerned that through the Internet a sex
offender may attempt to contact a child for criminal, vicious sex
purposes.
The KIDS Act addresses this problem in three ways: It authorizes
funding for the Federal Probation and Pretrial Office to enhance the
agency's ability to monitor the computer use by convicted Federal sex
offenders. In particular, it authorizes funding to evaluate and
purchase Internet filtering and monitoring systems to better enable
probation officers to monitor the computer use of sex offenders. This
is very important. This should help ensure that if an offender violates
the terms of release as to Internet use, the violation will be
discovered so the offender's release can be promptly revoked.
The next thing we do here is codify the current practice of some
sentencing judges by specifically authorizing a court to require as a
condition of probation that a convicted sex offender cooperate with the
installation of Internet filtering and monitoring systems.
Finally, the bill directs the Sentencing Commission to consider
increased penalties for sex crimes committed over the Internet where
the defendant lied about his age or concealed identity as a sex
offender.
This measure before us now adds a new criminal provision to reach
those who set up ``virtual money systems'' to facilitate the
trafficking of child pornography over the Internet. There's no simple
way of keeping the Internet out of the hands of those who would use it
for these and other sinister purposes. Nonetheless, the KIDS Act goes a
long way toward addressing the problem of Internet sex predation by
enhancing supervision of convicted sex offenders and increasing
penalties for these crimes.
I can't imagine anyone in this House on either side of the aisle not
supporting a measure such as this.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, recently we were all shocked to learn that over 20,000
registered sex offenders were on commercial social networking sites. In
response to press attention, the social networking sites removed the
sex offenders from these sites.
H.R. 719, as introduced, included an important provision requiring
that sex offenders update their registration information to include
their electronic mail addresses, instant messaging addresses, and other
similar Internet identifiers used by the sex offender.
In addition, H.R. 719 included a mechanism to permit social
networking sites to check sex offender registries to prevent sex
offenders from accessing the social networking site.
Finally, H.R. 719 included on introduction a new criminal prohibition
on misrepresentation of age by a person designed to lure children into
sexual activity.
Unfortunately, H.R. 719 has been stripped of all of these important
provisions. It's my hope that my colleagues on the other side of the
aisle will work with us to address these important provisions in the
future. The gap in our laws must be filled so that children on social
networking sites do not have to fear sex predators joining their circle
of so-called friends.
I wish to commend my colleagues for including in this legislation a
critical provision to prohibit the financial facilitation of child
pornography. Originally proposed by our ranking member, Lamar Smith, at
the beginning of the year, this criminal penalty is vitally important
for prosecuting an emerging tool used by child pornographers to prey on
children anonymously: virtual money systems. Unlike credit card
companies, which require merchants and customers to provide personal
information such as name, address, and Social Security number, virtual
money is essentially anonymous. Subscribers provide fictitious personal
information, or no personal information, and no credit card or Social
Security number is required, making them virtually untraceable.
The key to combating the commercial child pornography industry is to
cut it off at its source: money. Virtual money is now the payment
method of choice. It is imperative that our law enforcement tools keep
pace with changing technologies.
H.R. 719 also includes a technical correction to the Adam Walsh Act
to expand the eligibility for participation in a child safety grant
program. And I want to particularly thank Congressman Forbes, the
ranking member of the Crime Subcommittee, for introducing legislation
that would have accomplished this technical correction.
I commend my colleague from North Dakota (Mr. Pomeroy) for his
dedication to protecting children and for working with us on this
legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1645
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
First of all, I want to thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Goodlatte) for the hard work that he has put in on this measure. We
appreciate the cooperation that we've had in the course of this. And of
course we yield to no one in recognizing him as the Congress' foremost
expert on the Internet, and thus his being involved in this kind of
legislation for quite a few years.
Earlier versions of this bill required registration of online
identifiers of sex offenders. And as the gentleman knows, a sex
offender can change his user name and IP address in about two seconds,
so we didn't feel that was particularly helpful. We thought monitoring
sex offenders before they ever got on the Internet was a better way to
go, and we're glad that we've been able to reach some closure with him
on that subject.
Now, on the criminal provisions, I want to tactfully suggest that
we've got a better way here in this bill, and I think most of the
lawyers and those who followed this shall agree with us. There is no
point in overburdening prosecutors. What we've done with reference to
criminal provisions is that the practice of grooming, where sex
predators lie about their age on the Internet to entice minors into
sexual activity, obviously is horrific and widespread, but the other
approach would have required prosecutors to prove a new and separate
offense in order to get a higher sentence for offenses involving
grooming. We didn't think that would be the better way to proceed.
Under the minority approach, a prosecutor would have had to prove all
the elements of this new crime beyond a reasonable doubt. This is, I
think, unnecessary and probably a very high burden to reach, given that
there exists in criminal law a law against enticement that covers
grooming activity. And so the approach we finally settled on directs
the sentencing commission to provide tougher sentences for predatory
behavior that involves grooming.
[[Page H13591]]
And you don't get the chairman of this committee talking about tougher
sentencing on very many things around here; this is one that I can
support without qualification.
So what we've done is deal with a serious problem of grooming and get
to the same place as other approaches that have been suggested to us in
what we believe, from a criminal justice point of view, is far more
efficient. And with the new provisions that would fight financial
facilitation of child pornography, we think we've got a bill. And we
thank Mr. Pomeroy for helping us get there.
And with that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, at this time I have no further speakers
remaining on this legislation, so I would yield back the balance of my
time.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I have the final closing speaker, Mr.
Pomeroy, to whom I will yield the balance of our time.
Mr. POMEROY. I thank my friend, the chairman, for yielding.
I want to begin by acknowledging the work Paul Gillmor put into this
legislation. He and I were the original cosponsors. He was a colleague
with whom I worked on a variety of initiatives trying to keep our
children safe against those who would prey upon them through the
Internet. We miss Paul, but his efforts and his work continue with this
legislation.
I agree with the words of the chairman in the facet of this bill
relating to grooming, and I think stiffening the sentences for those
convicted of engaging in deceptive behavior relative to lying about
their age to incur the trust of minors with whom they're interacting on
the Internet, making that an item that would bring them longer prison
time when convicted is a positive clarification to this bill, probably
better than the original bill.
There is a feature of the bill that was left out, that I'm quite
disappointed at, and work is going to need to continue on this one, and
that is, helping these Internet sites keep sexual predators off in the
first place.
We have a number of provisions in our code dealing with what's
required of high-risk sexual predators, and I believe it would be
appropriate to have a voluntary registry where their names would be
required to be on file, and social networking sites could keep them off
of their site.
I want to especially commend the efforts of MySpace, one of the most
popular sites out there, for the extraordinary efforts they've gone to
to identify sex predators and keep them off the site; 29,000 are
blocked from participating on the MySpace domain because of their
efforts, and I think the Federal Government ought to do more to help
them. That's work in progress. A lot of bills that come to the floor
aren't perfect, at least at this iteration in the legislative process,
so this is an aspect of this bill I want to continue to work on.
There are a couple of other things that I think are very useful, and
that is the authorization of funds to step up the supervision of the
Internet activities of high-risk sexual predators, as well as the
portion that criminalizes financial facilitation of child pornography.
If there is a banker making a buck by basically facilitating the credit
card transactions on child pornography over the Internet, that is not
an acceptable business practice. It is so not acceptable that we are
criminalizing it, and I hope they get that message loud and clear.
We've worked a lot with the Judiciary Committee on this bill. I think
the chairman's comments about higher sentences aren't something that he
is often willing to put in a code. I think that he has been fair-minded
in this, and I look forward to continuing to work with him as we get
this legislation where it needs to be.
Thank you. This is a positive bill. I urge Members to vote for it.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 719, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be
postponed.
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