The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held two hearings this week on the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet. The hearing on June 27 focused on efforts to limit child pornography and the danger children face from adult sexual predators through chat rooms; the June 28 hearing examined the similar vulnerabilities children face when they participate in social networking sites. The hearings were intended to discuss concrete solutions as a follow-up to hearings earlier this year examining sexual exploitation of children over the Internet (see The Source, 5/5/06).
June 27 Hearing
In his opening remarks, Chair Ed Whitfield (R-KY) said that it is our duty to minimize exploitation of children over the Internet, since the Internet has become a social gathering place for children. He emphasized the need for proactive searches by Internet service providers (ISPs) to locate child pornography, catch predators, and to make it as difficult as possible for them to engage in illegal activities over the Internet.
Ranking Member Bart Stupak (D-MI) further stated that he “would like to see our Internet and telecom companies commit to taking down every identified site in the United States and blocking the American predators from using US-based network platforms to access child pornography from any identified site worldwide.” He expressed his concern that the current level of effort by the ISPs in eliminating child pornography from their networks is not enough.
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) stressed the need for a federal law or an industry standard to require ISPs to keep certain customer-identifying records for one year for the purpose of investigations. She stated, “Eradicating this pernicious practice [of online child pornography] will take a national, indeed global, partnership of citizenry, government, industry, and law enforcement.”
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) urged the ISPs to use all technological tools to prevent predators from gaining access to our children. She stressed, “Our constituents want action with results…We do not want half-hearted efforts.”
Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC explained the outcome of the Dateline investigative series on child predators that began two years ago to catch “computer predators, adults who go on-line into chat rooms and try to meet underage boys and girls.” Perverted Justice, the on-line watchdog group, “posed as young teens home alone and open to the idea of an encounter.” To date, 130 men have surfaced in the five investigations. Mr. Hansen mentioned that the vast majority of the predators have had no prior convictions; they were men from all walks of life, including a firefighter, a rabbi, an emergency room doctor, and a sixth grade teacher. He further stated that social networking sites such as MySpace, Xanga, and Facebook are popular trolling grounds for potential predators, and suggested a dialogue between parents and their children as the best approach to protect children from child predators.
Director for Microsoft Corporation’s Trustworthy Computing in Washington, D.C. Philip Reitinger emphasized Microsoft’s commitment to protecting children from online predators and inappropriate material. Mr. Reitinger stated that Microsoft currently engages in efforts that include partnering with law enforcement to identify, investigate, and prosecute child pornography and exploitation; empowering families through safety technology and tools; and partnering with citizens, other companies, organizations, and government to educate communities about child online safety.
Chief Counsel of Compliance and Investigation John Ryan from American Online, Inc.; Vice President of Law and Public Policy Dave Baker from Earthlink, Inc.; Associate General Counsel Elizabeth Banker from Yahoo! Inc.; General Counsel Tom Dailey from Verizon Communications; Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, and Chief Privacy Officer Gerard Lewis, Jr. from Comcast Cable Communications; and Associate General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer Nicole Wong from Google, Inc. also testified and voiced similar commitments.
June 28 Hearing
Detective Frank Dannahey from the Rocky Hill Police Department discussed how social networking sites can easily be used by child predators. He shared his experience conducting an “online test of teen vulnerability,” where he took on the role of a 19-year-old male named “Matt.” In just two weeks, “Matt” had over 100 online “friends” on MySpace.com, and the majority of 14- and 15-year-olds with “private” pages allowed “Matt” on their page as a “friend.” Mr. Dannahey stated that this experience showed that teens are very vulnerable online, as they readily give personal information such as real names, addresses, and phone numbers online to virtual strangers. He contended that in order to solve the problem of online safety, “it will take vigilance by government officials, schools, law enforcement, ISPs, including social networking sites, as well as parents and teens themselves.” He urged social networking sites to develop industry-wide safety standards.
Executive Vice President and General Counsel Michael Angus testified for Fox Interactive Media, which hosts MySpace.com. Mr. Angus explained the additional safety features MySpace.com has implemented to protect younger teen users, and stated that “all users over 18 must know either the email address or first and last name of the member in order to connect to a user who is 14 or 15.” They also developed technology to screen images on MySpace to quickly eradicate images that do not meet their community standards. Furthermore, Mr. Angus said that they now provide a direct link to the CyberTipLine, which allows users to report images related to child exploitation directly to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Despite improved efforts by social networking sites, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal urged Congress to consider immediately “encouraging the restriction of all adult social networking sites to individuals 16 years and older while limiting teen access to sexually explicit materials on these sites; providing incentives for social networking sites to employ effective age verification methods; requiring all social networking sites to establish clear operating standards and employ an effective security system to monitor compliance with those standards and to work with law enforcement if potential criminal activity is detected; and funding parent and child education programs through local law enforcement agencies.”
