_________________________________________________________________
   
THIS SEARCH     THIS DOCUMENT     THIS CR ISSUE     GO TO
Next Hit        Forward           Next Document     New Search
Prev Hit        Back              Prev Document     HomePage
Hit List        Best Sections     Daily Digest      Help
                Doc Contents      [Part] Contents   CR Issues by Date

   
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   STATEMENTS OF INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS (Senate -
   September 13, 1995) 
   
   
   
  THE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY PREVENTION ACT OF 1995
  
   
   
   Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, it is impossible for any decent American not
   to be outraged by child pornography and the sexual exploitation of
   children. Such material is a plague upon our people and the moral
   fabric of this great Nation.
   
   And, as a great Nation, I believe that we have both the constitutional
   right and moral obligation to protect our children from those who,
   motivated by profit or perversion or both, would abuse, exploit, and
   degrade the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society.
   
   Current Federal law dealing with child pornography reflects the
   overwhelming bipartisan consensus which has always existed, both in
   Congress and in the country, that there is no place for such filth
   even in a free society and that those who produce or peddle this
   reprehensible material must be made to feel the full weight of the law
   and suffer a punishment reflective of the seriousness of their
   offense.
   
   As with many of our criminal statutes, however, effective enforcement
   of our laws against child pornography today faces a new obstacle: The
   criminal use, or misuse, of new technology which is outside the scope
   of existing statutes. In order to close this computer-generated
   loophole and to give our law enforcement authorities the tools they
   need to stem the increasing flow of high-tech child pornography, I am
   today introducing the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1995.
   
   The necessity for prompt legislative action amending our existing
   Federal child pornography statutes to cover the use of computer
   technology in the production of such material was vividly illustrated
   by a recent story in the Washington Times. This story, dated July 23,
   1995, reported the conviction in Canada of a child pornographer who
   copied innocuous pictures of children from books and catalogs onto a
   computer, altered the images to remove the childrens' clothing, and
   then arranged the children into sexual positions. According to
   Canadian police, these sexual scenes involved not only adults and
   children, but also animals.
   
   Even more shocking than the occurrence of this type of repulsive
   conduct is the fact that, under current Federal law, those pictures,
   depicting naked children involved in sex with other children, adults,
   and even animals, would not be prosecutable as child pornography. That
   is because current Federal child pornography and sexual exploitation
   of children laws, United States Code title 18, sections 2251, 2251A,
   and 2252, cover only visual depictions of children engaging in
   sexually explicit conduct whose production involved the use of a minor
   engaging in such conduct; materials such as photographs, films, and
   videotapes.
   
   Today, however, visual depictions of children engaging in any
   imaginable forms of sexual conduct can be produced entirely by
   computer, without using children, thereby placing such depictions
   outside the scope of Federal law. Computers can also be used to alter
   sexually explicit
   
   photographs, films, and videos in such a way as to make it virtually
   impossible for prosecutors to identify individuals, or to prove that
   the offending material was produced using children.
   
   The problem is simple: While Federal law has failed to keep pace with
   technology, the purveyors of child pornography have been right on line
   with it. This bill will help to correct that problem.
   
   The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1995, which includes a
   statement of congressional findings as to harm, both to children and
   adults, resulting from child pornography, has three major provisions.
   First, it would amend United States Code title 18, section 2256, to
   establish, for the first time, a specific, comprehensive, Federal
   statutory definition of child pornography. Under this bill, any visual
   depiction, such as a photograph, film, videotape or computer image,
   which is produced by any means, including electronically by computer,
   of sexually explicit conduct will be classified as child pornography
   if: (a) its production involved the use of a minor engaging in
   sexually explicit conduct; or (b) it depicts, or appears to depict, a
   minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or (c) it is promoted or
   advertised as depicting a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
   
   
   
     _________________________________________________________________
   
THIS SEARCH     THIS DOCUMENT     THIS CR ISSUE     GO TO
Next Hit        Forward           Next Document     New Search
Prev Hit        Back              Prev Document     HomePage
Hit List        Best Sections     Daily Digest      Help
                Doc Contents      [Part] Contents   CR Issues by Date

   
     _________________________________________________________________