Monday, April 03, 2000
Proposal would mandate 'cybermolester' jail time
Ky. sponsors: Bill aims to make Internet safer
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT MITCHELL — Two members of Kentucky's congressional delegation have co-sponsored legislation that would establish mandatory jail time for anyone convicted of using the Internet to prey on children.
The Cybermolesters Enforcement Act also will close legal loopholes and make it safer for children to use the Internet, said U.S. Rep. Ken Lucas, a Richwood Democrat.
“The Internet can be a wonderful educational tool for kids,” Mr. Lucas said. “But it can also be fraught with dangers — deviants who use the Internet to prey upon our children. We have to ensure that we are enforcing laws that protect kids.”
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, also is backing the bill.
“We must watch out for our children's safety while they are at school and at play, but it now has become necessary to carefully moni tor their activities on the Internet,” Mr. McConnell said. “Yesterday's child molesters are today's cybermolesters, and they must be prosecuted in the same way.”
It is a federal crime to meet juveniles on the Internet for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts.
But Mr. McConnell and Mr. Lucas said the law lacks teeth and such criminals are receiving light sentences with little or no jail time.
“While a federal crime like child pornography carries a minimum sentence of five years, there is no minimum sentence for cyberstalking,” Mr. Lucas said.
Part of the problem is that so-called cybermolesters are often well-educated, middle-class citizens who have no previous criminal record, Mr. McConnell said.
So when they are caught they tend to receive “laughably light” sentences, he said.
The new law would impose a 5-year mandatory minimum sentence for cybermolesters and work to end the double standard that gives “cybercriminals” lighter sentences than traditional child molesters, Mr. McConnell said.
“The (law) will help protect our children by putting Internet criminals behind bars,” he said.
Both lawmakers have record in Congress of trying to protect children from sexual predators.
Mr. Lucas has co-sponsored bills that would require filters for computers in schools and libraries. He also has pushed to increase funding for law enforcement agencies that investigate child pornography and cyberstalking.
Mr. McConnell has been involved with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children since 1984. His Washington office provided a statement from the center's co-founder, John Walsh, host of the television show America's Most Wanted.
“Child pornographers and pedophiles know how to exploit children over the Internet and if they're caught, they usually just get a slap on the wrist,” Mr. Walsh said.
“The current hodgepodge of state laws just doesn't work. There has to be a federal statute. It's time to make the punishment fit the crime,” he said.
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