Senate Moves Ahead with Bill to Fight Online Child Porn

Last Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee reported out the Combating Child Exploitation Act (S.1738) to the full Senate for a possible vote.

The bill would:

• establish a Special Counsel for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction within the Office of the Deputy Attorney General;
• improve the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force;
• increase resources for regional computer forensic labs; and
• make other improvements to increase the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute predators.

The cost of these measures would be more than $1 billion over the next eight years. Among the "other improvements" would be the hiring of 250 new federal agents dedicated to child exploitation cases, mostly at the FBI, the Immigrations and Custom Enforcement Agency, and the U.S. Postal Service.