Combating Online Predators Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6719, the Combating Online Predators Act, and I echo my distinguished colleague in noting that sextortion is a serious and rising threat faced by countless unsuspecting teens all over America when they use the internet and social media.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC, operates a Cyber Tip Line to receive reports of suspected child exploitation. The Cyber Tip Line has received many more reports of sextortion of minors in recent years, amounting to tens of thousands of potential victims. These crimes have deadly consequences.

NCMEC has identified 36 teens who took their own lives after being subjected to harsh and incessant harassment from callous perpetrators of sextortion. The problem is everywhere.

Last May, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland announced the guilty plea of a man who had coerced at least 108 different girls to send him pictures and videos of themselves engaged in sexual conduct. The victims ranged in age from 5 to 17 years old and lived all over the U.S. and even around the world, from Tennessee and Massachusetts to Australia and the United Kingdom.

When the man asked for access to the social media account of an 11- year-old, he wrote: ``Add me back or I'll post all your vids online and in servers. I have everything saved.''

When some victims said they did not want to send him any more images, he threatened to post the images online, come to their house, or tell their parents. The man victimized a 12-year-old, her friend, and her 5- year-old sister through Snapchat.

Investigators obtained an IP address linked to the Snapchat account, which eventually led them to the perpetrator's house, where they recovered a laptop, two hard drives, and four iPhones containing evidence of the coercive treatment of more than 100 different girls. In this case, the man pled guilty to an existing crime of producing child sex abuse material.

Prosecutors have said the existing statutes do not always fully address the scope or severity of the conduct involved in these terrible cases. This bill would close that gap and ensure that more of these criminals are held accountable.

I hope we continue to work with our colleagues in a bipartisan way to strengthen and improve our laws to address these new and dangerous crimes and to keep our children safe online.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to support H.R.
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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, to close, I strongly support H.R. 6719, the Combating Online Predators Act. I encourage all of our colleagues to support it, and I praise the gentlewoman for her leadership on this legislation.

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