SENATE JUDICIARY HEARS SUPPORT FOR ONLINE CHILD SAFETY ACT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                           Monday, March 10, 2008

Contact: Senator Joseph Foster

(603) 271-2111

SENATE JUDICIARY HEARS SUPPORT FOR ONLINE CHILD SAFETY ACT

CONCORD – The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony today in support of a bill to better protect children from online predators and child pornographers.

The Online Child Safety Act, or Senate Bill 495, is sponsored by Senator Joseph Foster (D-Nashua), who worked with Governor John Lynch and Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, to modernize and strengthen the state’s laws covering Internet solicitation of children, child pornography and indecent exposure via new technologies such as web cams.

“I think it is important to do all we can to protect children from sexual predators and to give law enforcement the tools it needs to get these predators out of our kids’ computer chat rooms,” Foster said.

The legislation builds on the Child Protection Act passed in 2006, which also was sponsored by Senator Foster. Numerous law enforcement officers, including police, county prosecutors and state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, spoke in support of the proposed legislation today.

Senate Bill 495 strengthens the penalties in existing law for enticing a child over the Internet, and provides enhanced penalties for repeat offenders; it overhauls and expands existing child pornography laws to better reflect the victimization that occurs when images of sexually abused children are created and distributed; and it closes a loophole so that sex offenders using web cams can be held accountable. It also requires convicted offenders to provide law enforcement with their Internet user names or web sites.

“It is nearly impossible to oversee every moment your child spends online and we know children are vulnerable to sexual predators.  That's why we need to give parents information on known offenders’ websites so they can filter them out, and give police the laws to put predators in jail,” said Senator Betsi DeVries (D-Manchester) a co-sponsor.

DeVries offered the committee an amendment today that would authorize police to check the addresses of known offenders by visiting the home. Her goal is to help police ensure child sex offenders comply with existing requirements to provide their addresses.