President George Bush signed two bills into law on Monday that would protect children from online predators, but one group said the bills were rushed to the White House for signature without careful consideration.
While Congress considered the nation’s financial bailout plan, other significant bills protecting children were being debated, including the Protect Our Children Act of 2008 (POCA) and Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act (KIDSPA).
The POCA law will increase funding for fighting child pornography by providing law enforcement with $320 million over the next five years, force the Department of Justice to develop a way to fight child pornography, and provide forensic and other resources to help state law enforcement protect children.
PROTECT, the National Association to Protect Children, a children’s advocacy group, fought hard for the bill by testifying before Congress, as did talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who encouraged her viewers to send letters to their state’s senators supporting the bill.
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), which promotes democratic values and liberties, believes there are some problems with POCA and some holes in KIDSPA.
John Morris, general counsel and director of CDT’s Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project, said Congress insisted on adding parts of another bill the SAFE Act before the bill would pass. He disagrees with a provision outsourcing investigative responsibilities to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). He believes the trend in Congress to outsource law-enforcement functions to private groups leads down a dangerous path.
Morris echoed the thoughts of Greir Weeks, PROTECT director, who testified before Congress on the same issue. “It would be inappropriate at best to house a database containing records on hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens and millions of crimes in private or corporate hands, or to outsource such a core law-enforcement function,”…