[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 96 (Thursday, June 30, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S4294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. HATCH (for himself, Ms. Klobuchar, and Mr. Rubio):
  S. 1308. A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, with respect 
to child pornography and child exploitation offenses; to the Committee 
on the Judiciary.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to help 
protect children from Internet predators and pornographers. I am joined 
by the distinguished senior Senator from Minnesota, Senator Klobuchar, 
with whom I serve on the Judiciary Committee and who is herself a 
former prosecutor. The same bill has been introduced in the House by 
Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith and Rep. Debbie Wasserman 
Schultz.
  Technology can do so much for us today, but it also has a dark side. 
Students and Senators can use it, but so can predators and 
pornographers. Sadly, in some ways children are more at risk than ever 
and we must do whatever we can to protect them. This means equipping 
law enforcement with the tools they need to combat the sexual 
exploitation of children wherever it occurs.
  This bill does several things. First, it makes it a crime to 
financially facilitate access to child pornography. Second, this bill 
requires companies such as Internet service providers to retain 
information such as subscriber network addresses for at least 18 
months. Third, it expands existing authority to issue administrative 
subpoenas while investigating federal offenses involving the sexual 
exploitation or abuse of children. Fourth, it provides for protecting 
from intimidation or harassment child witnesses and victims in criminal 
investigations and prosecutions. Finally, it provides for enhancing 
criminal penalties or sentences for crimes such as the sex trafficking 
of children or child pornography.
  Several of these provisions may look familiar. The provisions 
relating to subpoena authority, protection of child witnesses, child 
sex trafficking, and sentencing come directly from S. 2925, the 
Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2009, which Senator 
Wyden introduced in the 111 Congress.
  In preparing this bill for introduction today, Senator Klobuchar and 
I met or spoke with law enforcement groups, financial institutions, 
communications companies, and child advocates. Many of them are 
stepping up their own voluntary efforts through coalitions such as the 
Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography and the Family Online 
Safety Institute. I have worked with many of these organizations and 
companies for years and look forward to doing so again on this 
important legislation.
  This is a strong bill, a balanced bill, which will provide effective 
tools for addressing these threats to our children. I know that many 
divisions exist today, in the country and in the Congress, on many 
issues. But I trust that those divisions will disappear when it comes 
to protecting children from sexual exploitation. That must be an 
ongoing commitment and I hope that all of my colleagues, on both sides 
of the aisle and across the political spectrum, will join me and 
Senator Klobuchar in supporting this legislation and helping us get it 
enacted into law.
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