Supporting the Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2007

Dr. Frank Kardasz, May 17, 2008

The Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2007 will provide funding to fight Internet sex offenders in areas where support is desperately needed.  Historically, the success of the DOJ, OJP, ICAC Task Force program was due in part to the abilities of personnel at the local, state and federal levels to overcome egoism, empire-building, and jealousy in order to organize and cooperate towards the common goal of apprehending deviant offenders.  Since the programs' inception, some quietly dedicated and talented people who possess steadfast resolve to protect children have done some amazing work, mostly in the shadows of cyberspace and largely unnoticed by the community. Administrators at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention played an important role in these efforts.

My thoughts about the Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2007 are mixed.  It represents bright hope towards progress in our difficult endeavors against clandestine cyber-sex enemies, foreign and domestic.  If implemented, the Act will seek justice for those invisible child and teen victims who are marginalized; who have no political voice and who are unrecognized by traditional community based policing efforts.  The addition of more federal agents dedicated specifically to this battle is sorely needed.  Increased funding to the local ICAC Task Forces nationwide promises to permit more personnel, training and equipment to our understaffed, under trained and under equipped colleagues.

When the US Attorneys Office created Project Safe Childhood  a couple years ago, I was pleased to see that added attention was being given to the problem of Internet crimes against children. The predictable result of the increased attention included some inter agency jockeying, bruised feelings, and political maneuvering - that happens at every level of government. After the fallout, the law enforcement soldiers in this battle will regroup and press forward.

The fine work of local, state and federal law enforcement over the past ten years has resulted in enough attention being drawn to the subject that serious consideration is finally being given to horrible cybercrimes involving children. Although our numbers and resources are still far fewer that those of the criminals, the present initiative, the Combating Child Exploitation Act (S.1738), offers our best hope to date of progressing from the stone-age to the horse-drawn-carriage age of cybercrime enforcement.

Assuming that the bill passes the house and is approved, I hope that whoever is chosen as special counsel will be a non-partisan supporter of local, state and federal efforts. The position requires a person of high character and determined resolve.  The appointee should transcend political ladder-climbing ambitions and be someone deeply rooted in law enforcement.  The appointee should remember that although the power-base will be Washington DC, some of the most effective law enforcement efforts are still being made at the state and local levels nationwide.

It is important to remember that federal law does not grant enforcement responsibility for "hands-on" contact sex offenses to federal agents unless there is some interstate nexus.  Because many cyber criminals are also contact offenders the investigations must often be worked cooperatively between federal agents and local law enforcement.  The important local, state and federal partnerships established through the DOJ OJJDP ICAC Task Force Program must continue.

I support the initiative and hope that it passes.

see also : http://kardasz.org/blog/2008/04/investigating_internet_crimes_2.html

Information about the Child Exploitation Act of 2007: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?tab=main&bill=s110-1738