Dear Representatives McBath, Moore, Ivey, Van Drew, Garcia, and Wagner,
I am writing on behalf of the members of the Fraternal Order of Police to advise you of our support for H.R. 6246, the “Eliminate Network Distribution (END) of 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).
This legislation amends the existing statute to increase the amount of time that the information sent to the CyberTipline must be preserved for investigatory purposes to one year. This allows law enforcement 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 one year.
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. In 2019, the New York Times released an article highlighting the disturbing increase in online child pornography and found that 69 million images of child sex abuse were reported that 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.
On behalf of the more than 373,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police, I thank you all for your leadership on this critical issue. If I can provide any additional assistance in this effort, please do not hesitate to contact me or Executive Director Jim Pasco in our Washington, D.C. office.
Sincerely,
Patrick Yoes
National President