President Bush Signs Internet Crime Measures
(Photo Credit: FBI)
President Bush signed legislation on Monday that bans sending live images of child abuse via the Internet and authorizes money to hire FBI agents who work on child exploitation cases. Funds would be used for the development of a nationwide program to fight Web-based child exploitation through a grant program and support for Justice Department-coordinated Internet Crimes Against Children task forces.
The legislation passed the House just before lawmakers left Washington and was approved by the Senate a short time earlier after months of negotiations and an on-air endorsement by talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Nick Lampson, D-Texas, introduced a pair of bills that served as the foundation for the final legislation while the Senate's original versions were sponsored by Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware and Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona, respectively.
In related news, Bush also signed legislation that requires sex offenders to provide Internet identifiers, including e-mail addresses, to state sex offender registries; and tasks the Justice Department to establish and maintain a system that allows social networking Web sites to compare Internet identifiers of its users with those provided to the national sex offender registry. The bill was introduced by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D.
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