This week Texas Rep. Nick Lampson hopes to secure House approval of two bills aimed at curbing crimes against children by authorizing a $30 million increase in the budget for the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and toughening sanctions against Internet service providers that fail to report users possibly committing crimes against children through
cyberspace. Lampson hopes one of his bills will make a dent in Internet solicitations, raising fines on Internet service providers who fail to report child exploitation via the Internet. First time offenses would triple to $150,000 per incident, per day and second offenses would double to $300,000 per incident, per day.
The internet is quickly becoming the foremost avenue is which children are victimized. This includes cyberbullying, being solicited for sex in chat rooms, or even being bombarded with explicitly sexual images when they open their email. While the duty lies with the parents to monitor their child’s use of the internet, it is unreasonable to expect a parent to be aware of internet use 24 hours a day. This is why it is important for the government to step in to help pick up the slack when parents fail to protect their children in this setting. The next bill should make stiffer penalties for individual offenders.
1 comment:
I think this is huge because the internet is quickly becomming a unsafe place for kids and policing the internet will cut down on some of these internet crimes. Its a shame that the government will probably drag its feet on this one too.
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