Bill of the Month — January 2024: Invest in Child Safety Act

Invest in Child Safety Act

Introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), alongside Reps. Don Bacon (R-Ne.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas).

Online abuse of children must be met with well-coordinated, swift justice that protects potential victims, prosecutes perpetrators, and preserves Americans’ civil liberties. The Invest in Child Safety Act from Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Don Bacon, and their colleagues, authorizes $5 billion, spread throughout the web of law enforcement, towards the goal of striking this delicate balance. It is for these reasons, among others, that TPA is pleased to make the Invest in Child Safety Act its Bill of the Month for January 2024.

Background:

Online abuse of children is a growing and pervasive problem. Given the interstate nature of the issue, federal government involvement in coordination and law enforcement is necessary. In the last two decades, as technology has evolved, Congress has passed legislation to address the issue, including the PROTECT Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-21), sponsored by Sens. Orin Hatch (R-Utah) and Patrick Lehey (D-Vt.), and the PROTECT Out Children Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-401), sponsored by then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

The latter, sponsored by the now-President Biden, established the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force within the Department of Justice (DOJ) and required the agency to coordinate a strategy with state and local law enforcement, updated every two years, to prevent, investigate, and prosecute crimes against children online. However, since its enactment, the DOJ has consistently failed to implement the law. In December 2022, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report stating:

“In the past 14 years, 9 detailees have rotated through the national coordinator position. DOJ has only issued a strategy twice, hasn’t fully included 12 of 19 elements, and hasn’t updated it since 2016 to address advances in technology, like encryption, that make it harder to catch online predators preying on children.”

In the two years that the DOJ did release a national strategy, it did so months late. The 2009 report came in August 2010; the 2015 report was issued in April 2016. The same GAO report clearly states that the agency did not make the strategy a priority.

Because of DOJ’s dereliction, between 2020 and 2022, reports of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)’s CyberTipline have gone from 21.7 million (2020) to 32 million (2022). Electronic service providers (ESPs), including tech platforms, account for 99 percent of CSAM reports.

Clearly, this is an issue of law enforcement capacity, coordination, and resources. In a 90-day period at the beginning of 2023, there were 99,172 IP addresses in the U.S. that distributed known CSAM images and videos; however, only 782 were investigated.

Some lawmakers purport that responsibility for CSAM falls on platforms, not perpetrators, and, in doing so, aim to undo the last 30 years of internet regulation. This perspective – prioritizing liability for tool producers versus prosecuting those who abuse those tools – will ultimately place more children in danger. Proposed legislation such as the EARN It Act, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Act (COPPA 2.0) all include serious civil rights violations that will make prosecuting offenders more difficult, if not impossible. As the adage goes: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Invest in Child Safety Act:

The Invest in Child Safety Act authorizes $5 billion in mandatory funding to support prevention, investigations, prosecutions, and treatment for victims of child sexual abuse. It quadruples the number of agents and prosecutors in the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Unit, would allow for 190 new investigators at the DOJ and FBI, funds 65 new NCMEC analysts and provides for systems upgrades and doubles funding for state ICAC task forces. Importantly, it would shift coordination responsibility for child exploitation efforts from the DOJ, which has clearly failed at its mission, to a new White House Office to Enforce and Protection Against Child Sexual Exploitation.

Online abuse of children must be met with well-coordinated, swift justice that provides for victims, prosecutes perpetrators, and protects Americans’ civil liberties. The Invest in Child Safety Act from Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Don Bacon, and their colleagues, strikes this delicate balance. It is for these reasons, among others, that TPA is pleased to make the Invest in Child Safety Act its Bill of the Month for January 2024.