Dear Representatives Gonzalez and Kuster,
I am writing on behalf of the members of the Fraternal Order of Police to advise you of our support for H.R. 1198, the “Eliminate Network Distribution of (END) Child Exploitation Act.” This legislation will improve the effectiveness of the CyberTipline, the nation’s centralized reporting system for the online exploitation of children, which is administered by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
There are certain crimes that strike at the core of who we are as a society. Online sexual exploitation of children is one of the most repulsive criminal trends that plague our country. A September 2019 New York Times article stated that 18.4 million images of child sex abuse were reported the previous year. The sheer volume of these cases means that law enforcement needs additional time to investigate the reports as they come in and this bill will do just that.
This legislation amends the existing statute to double the amount of time that the information sent to the CyberTipline must be preserved for investigatory purposes. The proposed 180-day preservation in your legislation allows law enforcement to have more time to conduct these time-consuming investigations and to help children who are victimized and exploited online. Additionally, the legislation allows for a provider to preserve the content of a report for longer than the designated 180 days.
On behalf of the more than 356,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police, I thank you for taking the initiative to provide more information to law enforcement to combat online child sex trafficking. If I can provide any additional assistance on this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me or my Executive Director Jim Pasco in our Washington office.
Sincerely,
Patrick Yoes
National President