UNKNOWN: Good morning, everybody. Today's hearing will examine what we call the emerging issues involving child online exploitation and the evolving offenders that seem to keep up to date on everything they
SPEAKER_06: can do to harm these young people.
UNKNOWN: As technology changes and evolves, so do bad actors who use it to commit all types of crime. This is especially true in child exploitation space.
SPEAKER_06: Gone are the days of ordering child exploitation material from overseas by mail. Now child exploitation material is readily available online to various file sharing platforms
UNKNOWN: through direct access to victims and domestic and international websites and groups such Not only has technology changed, but today's online child offenders have changed as well. Today's online offender is more violent, more cruel, and more shocking than offenders just 20 years ago. Offenders will manipulate, pressure, harass, and seek to control vulnerable children through extortion, blackmail, and shame.
SPEAKER_06: That conduct is commonly called sextortion.
UNKNOWN: Offenders extort children for money or other things of value or to manipulate them to commit
SPEAKER_06: harmful acts, to live stream or record for others to watch. Today's offenders target younger children, many between the ages of 12 and 15, but some
UNKNOWN: as young as 5 and 6, and maybe in some cases even younger. Offenders exploit multiple victims, causing more pain, causing humilitation and degradation
SPEAKER_06: to more people than ever before. They leave families of victims in insufferable pain and despair and cause lifetime of recovery
UNKNOWN: for many victims.
SPEAKER_06: Offenders feel emboldened to carry out their illegal conduct on our children because of
UNKNOWN: access to private, hidden online groups of like-minded people who share their sick desire to harm and exploit children. Sadly, offenders often operate under the cover of secrecy, making it even more difficult for law enforcement to identify them and bring them to justice. They often focus on vulnerable populations, such as those with mental health issues, lack of strong family or community ties, or other insecurities. Offenders will often disguise their true identity and pretend to be of similar age or background
SPEAKER_06: to their targeted victims in order to gain their trust.
UNKNOWN: Offenders seek an online relationship with a child to exploit them for money, for sexual images or to cause them to commit harm to themselves or to others. When offenders are eventually caught by law enforcement, prosecutors charge them with
SPEAKER_06: the most appropriate charges.
UNKNOWN: However, there are no specific laws to address the terrible and shocking acts conducted by
SPEAKER_06: gore groups such as 764 and those engaged in sex torture.
UNKNOWN: Two of the three bills that I introduce today will address these offenders. My first bill, called Ending Coercion of Children and Harm Online, ECHO for short, will address
SPEAKER_06: the horrific conduct that these gore groups do when they target children to commit violent acts like injuries to animals, self-harm, and suicide.
UNKNOWN: The second bill, called the Stop Sex Torture Act, will hold these people who engage in