Lawmakers Urged to Raise Penalties on Child Porn Peddlers
A 13-year-old Russian orphan pleaded with lawmakers Wed. to enact legislation to crack down on those seeking online to exploit children for sex. Masha Allen was molested and raped for more than 5 years, and her nude photos were circulated on the Internet by her adoptive father. She urged a House Commerce panel on oversight and investigations to take action.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Matthew Mancuso, convicted as her abuser, is serving a 15-year federal jail term and was sentenced to 35 years by a state court. He made the girl’s photos some of the most prevalent images among online child porn rings, said law enforcement officials. Allen -- already frustrated that Mancuso didn’t receive a longer sentence -- said a recent revelation about penalties for child porn added insult to injury. If a Web user illegally downloads song online, the penalty is 3 times greater than for downloading child porn, she said. Sens. Kerry (D-Mass.), Isakson (R-Ga.) and Reps. Gingery (R-Ga.) and Tierney (D-Mass.) introduced bills that make the penalty for child porn possession the same as for downloading songs, but the measures haven’t been put to a vote.
“I want every single member of Congress to sponsor these bills and I want the Congress to pass them right away,” Allen said in her written testimony. The Web users who downloaded her photos should be “punished as much as possible,” she said. “People stopped downloading songs when they found out they could be sued. We're going to sue these guys too -- every single one we find out about,” Allen said.
Former Ga. prosecutor and CNN anchor Nancy Grace told the committee that Web technology has made it “so easy for these twisted perpetrators to fill their appetites.” The “so-called [information] superhighway is a pit-stop for predators to gather, share stories, share their illegal photos and pass on tips to each other,” Grace said. The offenders swap stories of how best to “meet, seduce, have sex with and sometimes kidnap our children,” she said. Grace called on lawmakers to “force through” legislation to tackle the problem.
Rep. DeGette (D-Colo.) -- who wants to force Internet providers to retain some subscriber data for a year -- said she’s committed to promoting the issue. Her crusade was triggered by a Colo. case in which a cable company no longer had records for a former subscriber alleged to have had child porn. Some “simple legislation” from DeGette, first introduced and withdrawn as an amendment during the markup of the Communications Opportunity, Promotion & Enhancement Act, created a furor among Internet players, she said. The measure wouldn’t force ISPs to keep all communications by subscribers -- “that would be burdensome,” she said: “I am horrified that the provider community is not working with us on this. I don’t understand what the big deal is.”
Subcommittee members furious after not getting the top-level law enforcement officials they requested at 2 previous hearings on online child porn last month got their wish late Wed. Asst. Attorney Gen. Alice Fisher, FBI Cyber Crime Section Chief Raul Roldan and FBI Innocent Images Unit Chief Arnold Bell told the House Commerce panel on oversight and investigations that agencies are making great strides in tracking down child predators. But subcommittee Chmn. Whitfield (R-Ky.) said he was “disheartened” that DoJ didn’t send Andrew Oosterbaan, chief of the Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section (CEOS), whom members requested last time (WID April 5 p1, April 7 p1). The hearing was continuing at our deadline.