[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16994-16995]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           GROWING CONCERN OF CHILD MODELING ON THE INTERNET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss an issue that is of 
prime importance, I hope, to many American families and their children; 
and it is as a member of the Congressional Caucus on Missing and 
Exploited Children that I rise today, because I have introduced 
legislation that deals with a growing concern of child modeling on the 
Internet.
  What occurs is that young girls, 10, 12, 13 years old, are encouraged 
by their parents and aided and abetted by

[[Page 16995]]

individuals to display themselves on the Internet for viewership, if 
you will, people who pay a fee, a monthly fee in order to view the 
site. I am not going to mention the names of the sites, because I do 
not want to encourage anybody to go, but to understand the gravity of 
the situation we are facing. The girls initially pose in not very 
suggestive ways. They may be appearing next to a horse; they may be 
outside in their bathing suit; they may be holding a tennis racket. As 
time goes on, they are encouraged to pose more provocatively for their 
viewers. They are asked to expose themselves, they are asked to wear 
things like belly dancing outfits, they are asked to emulate an 
activity that is highly inappropriate for somebody their age. Many of 
these parents are deceived into thinking that the person witnessing 
their child on the Internet is another young person, a young girl or 
boy who is taking part in this little modeling expedition and 
encouraging their children or their friend to continue their activities 
as a child model.
  What we found out through investigation at the National Center for 
Missing and Exploited Children is that often, the people that are 
paying $19 a month to view these sites are pedophiles. They are often 
people who are depraved and who are looking at 11- and 12-year-old 
girls, and they are e-mailing each other back and forth saying, why do 
you not do this or pose like this. It is such a serious problem that I 
have designed legislation that I hope will answer some of the concerns.
  Today on John Walsh's show we talked for an hour about this very 
topic, and Mr. Walsh had on two mothers, two daughters, and two of the 
promoters of these Web sites in order for us all to hear from them why 
they thought this was an appropriate and legitimate act for their child 
to pursue. Oftentimes they said it was to raise money for the child's 
college, even though one of the girls on the show quit school and was 
now being home schooled because she said she had asthma and could not 
conduct the hard work of school because of her condition. Nonetheless, 
she would find time in her day to be a child model. What we heard was 
startling, that they would allow their child to come into contact of 
people of such ill repute.
  Now, again, I urge people to listen to what I am saying. I am not 
suggesting that young girls cannot be models, and I am not suggesting 
that there is not an appropriate place in commerce for young people to 
display their talents; but what we are finding on these particular Web 
sites, and it was first brought to my attention by a local NBC 
affiliate in Florida, in Miami, WTBJ, they had done an investigation on 
somebody who actually happened to live in my district and they went on 
to find these cases where the girl was posing. All I want to suggest to 
people is first, to my colleagues, look at the legislation.
  There has been much written about this legislation in the mainstream 
media. There has been much discussed, in fact, on national radio shows 
about this very topical issue and the legislation I have sponsored. We 
hope we can generate the debate in order to have parents hear our 
voices on what I hope is a clarion call for them to be very, very 
careful of what they subject their young children to.
  If we look at almost every case of abduction, every case of rape, 
every instance where a child has gone missing, typically, when they 
find the suspected person who has committed a crime, when the agents, 
the police officers raid the house, they often find reams of 
pornography, reams of material that uses young children in a 
provocative, nasty, and disturbing way. So there is a cause and effect 
between the harm caused to these children and their activities or the 
utilization of this type of material.
  Now, not every girl is going to be molested or harmed, and I 
understand that. But what they have to be aware of is that too much is 
occurring on the Internet today that should cause parents considerable 
concern. First and foremost, I urge every parent to make certain that 
the computer they use is in the family room where they can observe 
their young children using the computer.

                              {time}  1645

  The person that may be chatting with their child may not be the 
person who purports to be on the other end. They may say they are a 
fellow student from school. It may turn out to be the neighbor next 
door who has ill intent on their child. We should warn our children not 
to be engaged in conversations with adults on the Internet, and 
certainly warn them never to meet a parent or adult out in a public 
setting after a chat on the Internet.
  I hope my colleagues will look at this legislation very carefully and 
consider cosponsoring it, because I do think there is an appropriate 
time now to address some of the growing concerns on this issue. I urge 
my colleagues to do so.

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