Lowey Pushes Measures to Stop Online Child Predators

HAWTHORNE, NY – Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-Westchester/Rockland) today pledged to work in Congress to make the internet a safer place for children and to make it easier to identify and punish those who would abuse or exploit children.

“The internet has resulted in access to new services, more and better information, and the ability to correspond with individuals around the world,” said Lowey. “But social networking sites and chat-rooms are also tools that online predators can use to target children easily and anonymously. We owe it to children and to parents to do everything in our power to make the internet safe and to identify and punish predators.”

Eighty-seven percent of teens use the internet on a regular basis and according to the Justice Department, one in five children between the ages of ten and seventeen has received a sexual solicitation or has been approached online in the last year. Just last week, a teenage girl in Florida was found one day after she snuck out of her house to meet a 24 year-old man she met on MySpace, who turned out to be a 46 year-old high-risk sex offender.

A mother and grandmother, Congresswoman Lowey is working to enact a number of policies that can help to reduce the risk that our children face from child predators, including:

· Increasing the number of FBI agents assigned to investigating child exploitation, paying particular attention to internet crimes;

· Making it a criminal offense for electronic communication service providers to fail to report child pornography; and

· Requiring sex offenders to include their email addresses when registering with state or local authorities so that they can be checked easily against public registries.

Joining Congresswoman Lowey in calling for policies that will make the internet safer for children and make it easier to identify and punish predators was Westchester County Public Safety Commissioner Thomas Belfiore and Parry Aftab, founder of WiredSafety.org, the largest online program devoted to internet safety and security, and leader of TeenAngels, a group of 13-18 year-old volunteers that have been specially trained by the local law enforcement, and many other leading safety experts in all aspects of online safety, privacy, and security.

“I applaud Congresswoman Lowey for bringing forth this legislation,” said Belfiore. “Whether it is patrolling our roads or the information highway, we must always be at the leading edge of protecting our citizens, especially our children.”

“Protecting children from online predators is an important job and requires coordination at all levels of law enforcement and within the community,” said Aftab. “We must be sure to devote resources to identifying and prosecuting those who would abuse or exploit children online, but we must also give parents and children the tools to protect themselves. I am pleased to be a part of that effort.”