Blumenthal, Cornyn, & Colleagues Introduce Bill to Combat Child Exploitation

[HARTFORD, CT] – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), John Cornyn (R-TX), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Representatives Jeff Van Drew (NJ-02), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), Nathaniel Moran (TX-01), and Jared Moskowitz (FL-23) today introduced the PROTECT Our Children Act, which would reauthorize and modernize the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program.

“The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force leads the fight to keep kids safe from predators online,” said Blumenthal. “This bipartisan legislation gives the Task Force and its law enforcement partners the tools and resources they need in their collaborative effort to fight child exploitation and protect our nation’s kids from abhorrent abuse in an increasingly online society.”

“The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program has a long history of equipping our law enforcement officers with the tools needed to safeguard children and hold perpetrators accountable,” said Cornyn. “This legislation would reauthorize and update this critical program to address the evolving digital threat landscape and protect our children from these heinous crimes.”

The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program helps state and local law enforcement agencies develop an effective response to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and Internet crimes against children. This encompasses forensic and investigative components, training and technical assistance, victim services, and community education. This national network of 61 coordinated task forces represents more than 5,400 federal, state, and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies engaged in both proactive and reactive investigations, forensic investigations, and criminal prosecutions.

From 1998 to 2022, ICAC Task Forces trained more than 826,700 law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and other professionals on techniques to investigate and prosecute ICAC-related cases. They also reviewed more than 1.4 million reports of online child exploitation, which resulted in the arrest of more than 123,790 suspects.

Since 1999, the Connecticut ICAC Task Force has continued to work with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in responding to cyber enticement, child exploitation & child pornography cases. As part of the national Task Force, Connecticut is a recipient of ICAC Task Force funding from the United States Department of Justice. The Computer Crimes and Electronic Evidence Laboratory, one of the founding members of Connecticut’s ICAC program, has become a national leader in the fight against online child sexual exploitation. Over the course of a year, the Computer Crimes Laboratory investigates or assists in over 400 criminal complaints, take in on average 130 requests for computer forensic examinations, and performs in excess of 150 community recourse functions in Connecticut.  70% of the cases directed to the Computer Crimes Laboratory involve some level of child exploitation or child pornography.

The PROTECT Our Children Act would:

• Update and modernize the requirements for the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, including requiring the U.S. Department of Justice to provide detailed, useful information on efforts to protect children nationwide;
• Provide liability protection for ICAC Task Forces in the course of conducting criminal investigations of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and child abuse material;
• Make needed technical improvements and clarifications to the statutory text of the program to match it to current technology and needs;
• Focus the ICAC program on both proactive and reactive investigations;
• And reauthorize the ICAC Program through 2027 with an escalator authorization.

The PROTECT Our Children Act is endorsed by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), National Children's Alliance, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), Rights 4 Girls, National District Attorneys Association (NDAA), Raven, Fraternal Order of Police, Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies (ASCIA), and the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC). 

Blumenthal has long championed the ICAC Task Force Program and has joined its reauthorization efforts in the U.S. Senate since 2017.

-30-