[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11155-11156]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          INTERNET SAFETY ACT

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about S. 3499, the 
Internet SAFETY Act, a bill that I have co-sponsored with Senator Kyl 
and other Members of this body.
  This legislation targets child pornographers, and it continues the 
important progress this Congress has made to crack down on those who 
commit crimes against children.
  Earlier this year, the Senate passed S. 1086, which would require 
lifetime registration by sex offenders throughout the United States and 
would substantially increase punishments for those convicted of sex 
crimes against children. The House has passed its own sex offender 
bill, which contains many sensible provisions. And the two Chambers are 
negotiating to resolve their differences. Hopefully we will soon reach 
an agreement--and a tough, smart bill will be reported to the 
President.
  I firmly believe there is only one way to deal with those who prey on 
children: they must be caught sooner, punished longer and more 
stringently, and they must be watched much more closely than they are 
today. I began advancing this law enforcement theme while I served as 
Texas attorney general. There, I created a specialized unit known as 
the Texas Internet Bureau to coordinate and direct efforts to fight 
Internet crimes such as fraud, child pornography, and privacy concerns. 
The Texas Internet Bureau successfully identified several Internet 
predators that were caught, prosecuted and convicted.
  I will continue to work in the Senate to ensure that law enforcement 
agencies have every tool they need to bring these criminals to justice. 
The Internet SAFETY Act will play an integral part in bringing child 
crime predators to justice.
  This bill creates a new Federal offense for financially facilitating 
access to child pornography on the Internet, mandates penalties for Web 
site operators who insert words or images into their internet source 
codes with the intent to deceive persons into viewing obscene material 
on the internet; and requires commercial Web site operators to place 
warning marks prescribed by the Federal Trade Commission on Web pages 
that contain sexually explicit material.
  It is critical that this legislation become law. The supposed 
anonymity of the Internet has apparently emboldened child 
pornographers. The availability of child pornography on the Internet is 
staggering, as is the presence of those who would prey on innocent 
children. To illustrate this point, consider that in 1998 the National 
Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline received 3,267 
reports of child pornography. In 2004, the CyberTipline received 
106,119 of these reports, marking more than a thirtyfold increase in 
child pornography reports in just a 6-year period. This is more than a 
disturbing trend, and it shows no sign of slowing down.
  The Internet is uniquely suited to facilitate the creation and 
replication of pornographic images of children, as well as the speed 
and anonymity to distribute them. And, not surprisingly, criminal 
enterprises spring up for the purpose of distributing child pornography 
and feeding the insatiable desire of those who target children.
  Let me provide an example from my home State of Texas. Several years 
ago, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, in cooperation with Dallas's 
Internet Crimes Against Children, ICAC, task force, was able to locate 
and dismantle a multimillion-dollar child pornography enterprise 
conducting business over the Internet. This effort, dubbed Operation 
Avalanche, resulted in over 7,000 searches and more than 4,000 arrests 
around the world.
  This Congress simply cannot stop working until we are certain that we 
have provided all of the resources necessary to stop those who commit 
crimes by exploiting children. And so this bill, in addition to 
providing additional legal authorities, also creates an Office on 
Sexual Violence and Crimes Against Children within the Department of 
Justice to coordinate sex offender registration and notification 
programs, directs the Attorney General to provide grants to state and 
local governments for child sexual abuse prevention programs, and 
authorizes 200 additional child exploitation prosecutors in U.S. 
attorneys offices around the country and 20 additional Internet Crimes 
Against Children, ICAC, task forces.

[[Page 11156]]

  I urge my colleagues to study this bill carefully. I am hopeful that 
we can garner enough support to quickly bring it to a vote and pass it 
out of the Senate.

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