On September 27, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee passed, by voice vote, a bill (S. 1965) to protect children from cybercrime and child pornography. The committee held a hearing on the issue on July 24 (see The Source, 7/27/07).
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), would authorize $5 million for FY2008 and FY2009 for the Federal Trade Commission to carry out a nationwide campaign to increase public awareness and educate Americans about ways to promote Internet safety for children, and establish at the Department of Commerce an Online Safety and Technology working group to review the status of industry efforts to promote online safety and develop technology to help parents shield their children from inappropriate Internet materials.
The bill also would amend the Crime Control Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-647) to increase the fines for failing to report child pornography from $50,000 to $150,000 for the first failure, and from $100,000 to $300,000 for subsequent failures to report, and to extend law enforcement information sharing to include foreign law enforcement agencies.
