Legislative Updates
The new Congress has introduced and re-introduced several pieces of legislation regarding child safety, and you can find summaries of the EARN IT, Kids Online Safety (KOSA), and MATURE Acts here.
The Preventing Child Sex Abuse Act, also reintroduced, strengthens the language in existing statues to help law enforcement. The Invest in Child Safety Act, which was introduced last session, also supports a criminal-justice driven response to online predation of kids. The PROTECT Act of 2008 laid the groundwork for prosecuting online child predators, but a recent GAO report found that due to resource constraints, the Department of Justice had fallen out of compliance.
We’re happy to see child safety at the forefront of conversations, but posit that ultimately any response to crimes against children should include the criminal justice system. By shifting focus to the civil system, lawmakers place the onus of justice onto the victim.
Last year, we served on a panel that specifically addressed EARN IT, but our concerns apply to other pieces of legislation that exclude law enforcement and the criminal justice system.
See what we had to say here.