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“SUPPORTING INTERNET SAFETY AWARENESS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H9537-H9539 on Oct. 10, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SUPPORTING INTERNET SAFETY AWARENESS
Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 575) supporting Internet safety awareness, as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H. Res. 575
Whereas the Internet provides citizens of the United States with the technology for research, education, entertainment, and communication;
Whereas millions of Americans, many school libraries and classrooms, and many public libraries are connected to the Internet;
Whereas more than 1 out of 5 missing 15- to 17-year-old teenagers have disappeared because of someone they met while chatting on the Internet;
Whereas there are an estimated 10,000 Internet websites designed for or by individuals who have a sexual preference for children;
Whereas there are an estimated 200 million pages of pornography, hate, violence, and abuse on the Internet;
Whereas there are multitudes of strangers who use the Internet to enter homes, talk to and ``groom'' children, and will take indecent advantages of those children if given a chance;
Whereas children have been raped, assaulted, kidnapped, and deprived of their innocence by individuals they met on the Internet; and
Whereas September 2000 is Internet Safety Awareness Month: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) urges the citizens of the United States to recognize and support educational programs that make surfing on the Internet safe and fun;
(2) supports initiatives to educate parents, children, educators, and community leaders about the enormous possibilities and the potential dangers of the Internet;
(3) urges all Americans to become informed about the Internet and to support proactive efforts that will provide Internet safety for children and for future generations to come; and
(4) expresses the sincere appreciation of the House of Representatives for the thousands of law enforcement officials who are aggressively working to protect America's children while they are online.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis).
General Leave
Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material on the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode).
Mr. GOODE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 575, a resolution to promote Internet safety awareness. As more and more Americans are utilizing the Internet and many children in this country have access to the Internet, it is important that we raise awareness to the dangers that the Internet can pose, especially to children.
As this resolution reflects, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that one out of five missing 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds in America are due to Internet activity. There are many predators that use the Internet to make contact and gain information on unsuspecting children. Children have been raped, assaulted and kidnapped by individuals they met on the Internet.
In Bedford County, Virginia, a county that I represent along with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), we are proud of the diligent work that Sheriff Mike Brown and his office have done to combat Internet predators. Developing a nationally recognized program called Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, Sheriff Brown and his office have targeted pedophiles that use the Internet to reach children. While law enforcement officials in Bedford County, Virginia and elsewhere have been successful in apprehending on-line predators, there is no substitute for having parents and children that are aware and educated on the dangers that exist on the Internet and how to keep children safe from online predators. With the aid of grants from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Bedford County sheriff's office has also conducted Internet safety programs dubbed Safe Surfin' in the local schools. They hope to make children aware of the dangers and teach them how to surf the Internet safely.
I want to commend many of my colleagues who attended the demonstration here in the Capitol in September of 1999 on Operation Blue Ridge Thunder that was provided by the Bedford County sheriff's office. The demonstration showed the extensive presence of pedophiles and predators online and illustrated the importance and necessity of Internet safety awareness and education.
The Commonwealth of Virginia recognized September as Internet Child Safety Awareness Month and has run public service announcements on television and radio warning parents of the dangers that exist on the Internet. I commend the Commonwealth for its proactive role in promoting Internet safety, and I hope that my colleagues will join me in passing this resolution raising awareness to the dangers of the Internet and supporting efforts to educate parents and children on the safe use of the Internet.
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate the authors of this very well thought out House resolution. As we move deeper and deeper into the Internet era, we reach the Dickensian conclusion that it is the best of wires and it is the worst of wires simultaneously, that it has the ability to enable and to ennoble but it also has the ability to degrade and to debase. It is this duality of personality that we are talking about here today.
This resolution is one that basically urges all citizens of the country, parents and educators, librarians, law enforcement officials, everyone in our society to take a more active role in supporting educational programs that help to make Internet surfing safe for young people in our country and to generally support all of the programs in our country that promote Internet safety.
It is a straightforward, common sense resolution. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), a good Democratic Member, added language to this bill which also commends the law enforcement community for everything that they are doing to help to promote an environment in which children are not exploited online. We all know that we have a child online privacy act that protects children 12 and under in terms of their privacy as they use commercial online sites, but we do not have any laws protecting anyone over the age of 12. And we cannot really say honestly that a 13-
, a 14-, a 15-, a 16-year-old is not in need of legal protection as well. I think that the next Congress is going to be addressing those issues.
But generally speaking, I think that since these children are in a situation with a new technology, in many instances with more knowledge than their parents have, then it is critical for us to continue to reemphasize how important it is that we increase these educational programs so that the children of the country derive all of the positive benefits from the new technology while minimizing this unfortunate side effect which all too often is insinuating itself into the homes of families all across the country. I commend the authors of this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) be permitted to control the remainder of my time for the consideration of this legislation.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), the coauthor of the legislation.
Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time and I thank him and the other members of the Committee on Commerce for shepherding this legislation through the committee, but I most especially want to thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode), the author of this legislation, who, as a member of the Congressional Internet Caucus, has been working very hard to combat this serious problem on the Internet and for identifying the need for this resolution and working to get it through the House this year.
The Internet Caucus has been very involved in the issue of Internet safety, both from a law enforcement and a prevention perspective. With the help of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode), the Congress hosted a briefing last fall on online sexual predators to present to Members of Congress the nature of this problem. Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown and Commonwealth Attorney Randy Krantz demonstrated Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, which works to apprehend and prosecute sexual predators and traffickers of child pornography on the Internet.
Child pornographers and sexual predators online are an enormous problem for law enforcement agencies. Pedophiles currently operate more than 10,000 Web sites and more than 300,000 children are now involved in the illegal sex trade. This event was held to assist Members of Congress in examining how law enforcement agencies are fighting child pornography and sexual predators and exploring ways to improve efforts to address this growing national problem.
Operation Blue Ridge Thunder is one of a handful of agencies nationwide to receive a Justice Department grant to surf online chat rooms for pedophiles. The success of these agencies has been significant, and, in response, over 125 Republican and Democratic Members joined together this year to request a significant increase to
$10 million in funding from House appropriators to help local law enforcement programs like Operation Blue Ridge Thunder and other similar programs to continue their vital work at ridding our Nation of people who prey on our most innocent citizens, our children.
We were very pleased to see Operation Blue Ridge Thunder profiled on the CBS-TV program ``48 Hours.'' In the 2 days after the broadcast, the Bedford sheriff's department logged more than 1,000 calls in support of what Operation Blue Ridge Thunder is doing. Only three calls criticized what is being done. This is vivid proof that the American public appreciates the work being done by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement programs like Operation Blue Ridge Thunder.
We cannot rest until each and every person who wishes to harm our children with deviant behavior is arrested and prosecuted. We intend on continuing to support the efforts of organizations like Operation Blue Ridge Thunder in this regard.
In addition to supporting law enforcement efforts, the Internet Caucus has also been very involved with prevention in the form of a program called GetNetWise. Last year, in response to a challenge from Congress, leading Internet companies, nonprofit organizations, and child safety experts created GetNetWise, an Internet resource to help parents and caregivers protect children online from unwanted contact and content.
GetNetWise, which can be found at www.getnetwise.org, is an innovative and easy-to-use resource that responds to the concerns of parents and caregivers. GetNetWise provides parents and caregivers with the online resources necessary to protect children. Thus, authority to control access to materials on the Internet remains with each family. In its first year, more than 1,800,000 unique Web users visited the GetNetWise user empowerment resources over 5 million times. Not only are we encouraging folks at home to check out GetNetWise, but Members of Congress are also being encouraged to link their websites to GetNetWise to help get the information to parents and children in their districts.
This legislation calling the importance of this problem to the attention of the American people is very valuable. I again commend the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode) for his leadership on this issue and urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
There is unanimous agreement on the Democratic side that this is a very good resolution. It is something that does, in fact, capture the sense of the Congress and the American people that more has to be done in order to ensure that these kinds of predatory practices do not endanger the children of the country. My hope is that in the next Congress, we can actually begin to pass concrete legislation that can ensure that we do more to protect the privacy of all children within our country, especially those that are still left unprotected because they are over the age of 12. I thank all who were involved, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), the gentleman from Virginia
(Mr. Goode), and all on our side as well.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin).
Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 575 is pretty straightforward. It is indeed a good resolution, introduced by the gentleman from Virginia
(Mr. Goode) and it is designed literally to improve Internet safety awareness.
As we have seen in the last few years, the Internet provides, of course, a great new array of opportunities for all of our citizens.
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From buying gifts online to witnessing the miracles of telemedicine, to helping to educate children across our country, I think Americans are coming to know and understand the important value of the Internet. The popularity of the Internet is increasing. People are using it on a daily basis across this great country, and they are beginning to understand that it holds new and exciting possibilities for their children.
Unfortunately, it is also a technology that can be used by the wrong people sometimes, and criminals indeed are looking at it as a new place to take advantage of some Americans. Some people are using it, in fact, in harmful ways to spread destructive material or to aid in criminal activity. There is a spread of obscene material, child pornography, child exploitation as the use of the Internet has increased. Every day crimes in the analogue world are being diverted now to the Internet where the reach of such crimes is, like other things, greatly multiplied.
Over the years, the law enforcement communities have been called upon to improve their enforcement of the current law. They have also been asked to tell Congress where current law needs to change in order to reflect these new technologies. We acknowledge, indeed, the hard work of these agencies; but we know that much work needs to be done.
H. Res. 575 will not stop criminal activity. It will not protect our citizens from sinister behavior, but it does take this important step: it brings to light the relevant issues facing Internet usage, and hopefully it will help educate the American people of the need to be watchful of Internet activity, especially as it affects our Nation's children.
We have an obligation, indeed, to educate the American people about existing problems of Internet use. This resolution will help. It is an extremely important one, and I urge all Members to support it.
Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I will just sum up briefly with our congratulations to the author of the legislation, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte). As the other speakers have said, the Internet provides a great upside opportunity for education, entertainment and the like, but it certainly has its dark side as well. Those of us who worked on the Child Online Protection Act understand how difficult some of these circumstances can be with children having access to some of this terrible material.
While the Child Online Protection Act, which passed virtually unanimously in the 105th Congress, is now undergoing judicial review, whether in fact we are successful or not ultimately in getting that legislation to be considered constitutional the real issue is how do we deal in the meantime with educating our children to the potential dangers of the Internet. That is why this legislation has such importance, has such broad-based support from both sides of the aisle.
So that is why it is important that we pass this legislation today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gibbons). The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) that the House suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 575, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor thereof) the rules were suspended and the resolution, as amended, was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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