Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act (SAFETY) of 2007

Mr. Speaker, I thank the honorable Mr. Conyers from Michigan for yielding me the time and for the great work that you've done on the Judiciary Committee and particularly on this particular issue, and I thank you for letting me be a part of this.

And for Mr. Chabot, the work that he has done on not just this, but other legislation having to do with child safety, child protection.

I rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in voting for H.R. 3791, the Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act of 2007. This bill modernizes and expands the reporting requirements relating to child pornography and expands cooperation in combating child pornography.

Stories of Internet predators preying on innocents making their way into our children's bedrooms with the simple click of a mouse, and they're seen and heard all too often in our media. The age of sweet 16 used to be about parties and learning to drive, but now it marks the threshold of Internet freedom. Popular social networking Web sites allow profiles to be public, providing predators with an encyclopedia

of pictures, personal interests and even addresses, which they can be used, or they can use to cause harm.

Well, this dangerous trend has become a feeding ground for pedophiles and convicted sex offenders. Parents, law enforcement and legislators must work together to bring social networking Web sites into the fight to protect America's children. And I've joined with one of my cochairs of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, I just mentioned Mr. Chabot, in introducing the Securing Adolescents From Exploitation- Online, the SAFE Act.

The SAFE Act provides increased resources for law enforcement to capture and prosecute and incarcerate these criminals. By expanding the system for service providers to report child pornography found on the systems, we improve child safety and prevent future atrocities.

Currently, Internet service providers are mandated to report child pornography to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Under the SAFE Act, all electronic service communications providers and remote computing service providers will have to report child pornography. For knowingly and willingly not filing a report after being made aware of a child pornography image, these providers will be subject to increased fines of $150,000 per image per day for the first offense and up to $300,000 per image per day for any image found thereafter.

This bill will also increase the efficiency of the CyberTipline, making it a better investigative tool for law enforcement by mandating that all information submitted by providers is consistent. The process outlined in this bill keeps law enforcement officials in the loop by making information more readily accessible and requires providers to retain key data that law enforcement agencies can use to investigate and prosecute child predators.

Over 10 years ago, I created the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children after a young girl in my district was kidnapped and murdered. And since then, I have continued to work extensively with organizations such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on educating Members of Congress and others on legislation such as the SAFE Act that strengthen the National Center's ability to keep children safer online and on our streets.

Many of us have watched Dateline's popular series ``To Catch a Predator,'' and organizations such as Perverted Justice that actively look for Internet child predators. We need to become partners in this fight by talking with our children about the dangers of strangers online and making Internet use a family activity.

While parents should teach their children that the Internet may offer many different types of resources, from entertainment to educational, it also poses many risks. Parents are the first line of defense against online predators, and the SAFE Act will reinforce their efforts.

Internet companies will need to do their part as well. When we begin to hold Web sites accountable for the images that they host, we've taken the first step toward supporting parents in their efforts to protect children. Our combined efforts will help make the Internet a safer place.

I again want to thank and recognize some of the people who have worked so hard to make this legislation what it has become, those staffers who have worked diligently in bringing this legislation to fruition: Committee on Judiciary staffers Ted Kalo and Mark Dubester; Congressman Steve Chabot's staffer Kim Betz; and my staffers, Dan Easley and Abby Shannon, and a very special thank you to my distinguished Republican colleague, Steve Chabot, who has worked tirelessly on the issue of child safety, working with me as one of the cochairs of the Congressional Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. I have great respect for the work that he has done here in Congress as well as for the work that he has done in his congressional district, and for championing this legislation on his side of the aisle and for helping to ensure that not only are Ohio's children protected but all of America's children are as well.

Once again, I would like to thank John and Reve Walsh for all the time that they have spent in helping us make this legislation successful, and Ernie Allen, who has spent, along with the Walshes, a good part of this day making sure that others of our colleagues were aware of it, and to be willing to support it. I thank them for their magnificent contribution that they've made to protecting children across this world, not just in the United States of America. It's because of their persistent dedication to this cause that so many of our children sleep more safely at night.

Again, I ask my colleagues to support H.R. 3791.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3791, the Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act of 2007. The bill's author, the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Lampson) and I have worked closely on several bills in strengthening our child protection laws.

I also want to thank Chairman Conyers and also the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Forbes) for their leadership in this area as well. And I'm pleased to be the principal cosponsor of this bill with Mr. Lampson, particularly as it provides law enforcement with better information to fight the despicable act of child pornography.

We don't have to look any further than our homes and our communities to see that predators are threatening and victimizing our children with just a simple click. The Internet, while providing a world of opportunity to our children, has also contributed to a worldwide expansion of child pornography enabling predators to more easily abuse, exploit and prey on our most precious items, and that's our children.

H.R. 3791 builds on the investigative tools already in place under the leadership of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Through the CyberTipline, the center plays a critical role interfacing between Federal, State and foreign law enforcement and the public, providing valuable information in ongoing investigations.

H.R. 3791 recognizes that advances in technology have made electronic communication service providers the first line of defense against crimes against children, possessing the real-time information critical to child pornography investigations. By requiring electronic communication service providers to report this information to the CyberTipline as soon as reasonably possible and maintain this information for an investigation, this act, the SAFE Act, is giving Federal, State and foreign law enforcement and prosecutors a fighting chance to put these criminals away, no matter where they are located.

And one of the things that I found out in doing investigations into this particular area was the shocking fact that there are only 50 nations, including the United States, where child pornography is illegal. Fifty nations. There are 184 nations around the world where it's perfectly legal to have, possess, to convey child pornography. So that's something that I think we need to have some focus and some attention directed upon, how much of the world, and that stuff gets in here through the Internet. It may be in China, it may be in Pakistan, it may be somewhere else, but it can be on our computers in our living rooms with our children very quickly, so we need to do a much better job on that, too.

But I want to again thank Mr. Lampson for his leadership in this area, and I again want to urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3791 today.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3791) to modernize and expand the reporting requirements relating to child pornography, to expand cooperation in combating child pornography, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks, including extraneous material, on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Members of the House, this measure, H.R. 3791, called the SAFE Act, will improve the ability of our law enforcement officers to investigate offenses involving child pornography and the exploitation of children by the Internet.

Under current law, Internet service providers are required to file a report to the cyber tip line of the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children when the provider learns of child pornography. The center serves as a clearinghouse for leads and sends the reports to law enforcement agencies around the United States and to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Unfortunately though, many Internet companies are unaware of these obligations, and the law is unclear as to the precise information that is required to be reported to the center. This bill addresses the aforementioned problems.

First, it facilitates the reporting of child pornography from Internet service providers to the center by clarifying the information that must be reported. Then it specifies the data that must be maintained by the reporting company for law enforcement purposes. And finally, it provides certain liability waivers for the center and Internet service providers for their roles in dealing with child pornography as required by law. Therefore, H.R. 3791 makes clear the precise reporting obligations of Internet providers and, in this way, will facilitate the investigation and prosecution of child pornography and other crimes against children that involve the Internet. I think this is an important measure.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased now to recognize again Nick Lampson of Texas for the great work he has done in this area. I yield him as much time as he may consume.

But I do want to mention Steve Chabot of the Judiciary Committee, who has worked with us all in the creation of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to, at this time yield so much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Ohio, Congressman Chabot, who was an original cosponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join those voices in support of H.R. 3791, the Securing Adolescents from Exploitation-Online Act of 2007, otherwise known as the SAFE Act.

Child pornography is a profitable, global criminal enterprise and is growing rapidly in technical sophistication in response to efforts to detect and disrupt these criminal operations. It is despicable in its scope and in its vicious victimization of children.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that 50,000 child predators are online at any time searching for potential victims. The Internet is a virtual playground for sexual predators, who satiate their desire for child pornography with relative anonymity.

H.R. 3791, the SAFE Act, would, first of all, strengthen the requirements applicable to Internet service providers to report violations of child pornography laws, and second, provide limited liability to ISPs, telecommunications carriers, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in connection with the reporting to law enforcement agencies of child pornography violations.

This legislation is a good first step in addressing the problem of child pornography. However, there is much more that needs to be done. In February 2007, Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Smith and I introduced H.R. 837, the Internet SAFETY Act of 2007, a comprehensive proposal to provide law enforcement with the tools and resources needed to deal with the problem of child pornography. Unfortunately, the majority has chosen not to consider this vital proposal. I am hopeful that the majority will bring H.R. 837 up for consideration by the Judiciary Committee and then to the House floor.

Our children deserve as much protection as we can provide. They are vulnerable victims of the child pornography industry. We need to do more. A first step is good, but we cannot stop here. We must keep moving forward to keep our children safe.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.