Whitfield's Subcommittee Continues Investigation into Online Sex Predators | News | Congressman Ed Whitfield

News | Congressman Ed Whitfield | United States Representative

Whitfield's Subcommittee Continues Investigation into Online Sex Predators April 14, 2006

Washington, Apr 6 - U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, on Thursday held the second in a pair of investigative hearings examining the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet. Thursdays hearing focused on the efforts of federal law enforcement agencies to combat the spread of child pornography online and putting Internet sex predators behind bars.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) failed to produce the witnesses the Subcommittee asked to appear, sending in their place individuals that could not address the Subcommittees questions. Whitfield, who said on Tuesday that he was disturbed by an apparent lack of action by federal law enforcement to stop online child pornography, said the refusal by the requested witnesses to testify before the Subcommittee hurts Congressional efforts to develop a comprehensive strategy to uncover and prosecute these crimes.

It is embarrassing that the Justice Department would send their representatives before the national media to comment on child pornography and yet willfully ignore the request of our Committee that is interested in eliminating these crimes once and for all, said Whitfield. Americans deserve to know that federal law enforcement agencies understand the urgency of this problem. The refusal of the Justice Department witnesses to appear before the Committee, despite our requests, does nothing to give comfort to parents and families that these types of crimes are being addressed as quickly and as seriously as they should.

The decision by DOJ not to make the requested witnesses available to the Subcommittee was especially troubling considering the disturbing testimony that teenage witness and online child sexual abuse victim Justin Berry provided earlier in the week. On Tuesday, Berry testified that he had been repeatedly molested and abused by individuals that had contacted him over the Internet. After approaching the Justice Departments Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) with documented evidence of his abuse and the names of over 1,500 alleged pedophiles that had maintained contact with him, Berry told Whitfields Subcommittee that federal prosecutors failed to pursue the individuals Berry had named. Berry expressed frustration with federal agents involved in his case and said that online child predators had little to fear from increased law enforcement efforts.

According to witness testimony submitted to the Subcommittee, child pornography and the online sexual abuse of children has increased exponentially because of the anonymous nature and ease of use of the Internet. Law enforcement officials told the Subcommittee that there is a intensifying demand in online forums for new, graphic images of child pornography, contributing to a rising number of incidents of child molestation and sexual abuse. Government witnesses provided the panel with disturbing testimony about the ages of some of the children depicted in these images, with some victims of online child sexual abuse known to be as young as 18 months old.

Federal penalties for child pornography offenses range from five years imprisonment for possession to potential life imprisonment for the distribution of these abusive images, and in some instances, federal offenders are required to register as a known sex offender. Law enforcement statistics show, however, that the vast majority of all prosecutions involving child pornography are handled at the state level. The Kentucky General Assembly recently passed legislation that makes the possession a child pornography a felony instead of a misdemeanor. In other states, however, the laws are not as tough, with some states categorizing the possession of child pornography as a misdemeanor penalized by probation. Whitfield noted that efforts to prosecute online pedophiles will continue to lag until all state laws are as strong as federal statutes.

Congress needs to give law enforcement whatever resources they need to round up and lock away the people responsible for these deplorable crimes. At the same time, law enforcement authorities must cooperate with us in finding the answers we need to address this problem. This issue is too important for bureaucratic indecision to get in the way. We need to move forward quickly together and ensure that children and families are safe from these dangerous predators, said Whitfield.

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