Combating Online Predators Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BIGGS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on this issue. I thank all the members of our Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, both Republicans and Democrats, for working together on these very important issues.

Mr. Speaker, sextortion has become a devastating crisis. Predators threaten to release explicit images of minors to extort money, more content, or compliance, preying on shame and fear.

Protecting children from online sexual exploitation remains a top priority for our Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance in this Congress.

Offenders, often overseas or even juveniles, groom victims and then weaponize images or AI-generated deepfakes pulled from public photos to demand payment or further abuse. This drives severe trauma, self-harm, and suicide.

More than three dozen teens have taken their lives in recent cases, with boys aged 14 to 17 hit hardest. Reports of these horrible crimes are surging. NCMEC, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, reports that financial sextortion cases jumped from over 13,800 in early 2024 to nearly 24,000 in early 2025. The FBI logged nearly 55,000 sextortion reports in 2024 alone, with $33 million in losses.

I commend the FBI for its investigations and public alerts. Current law, 18 U.S.C. 2252 and 2252A, does not explicitly cover threats to distribute child sexual abuse material or images believed to be of minors. That gap limits prosecution.

The Combating Online Predators Act closes that gap by criminalizing knowing threats to distribute these depictions with intent to coerce or extort. This is a targeted bipartisan fix that gives prosecutors the tools they need to stop these predators and protect our kids.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this bill. I hope that this bill passes out of the House today and swiftly passes out of the Senate to be signed by the President.

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