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Witness Testimony
Ms. Penny Nance
Online Pornography: Closing the Doors on Pervasive Smut.
Hello, my name is Penny Nance and I am the President of Kids First Coalition, which is a non-profit educational and advocacy group I founded with the goal of protecting children and advancing pro-family legislation. I sit before you not only as a pro-family advocate but also a very concerned mother of two young children and a victim of an attempted rape that was connected to pornography. I am sincerely passionate about this issue. Most of you probably are unaware but May is "Victims of Pornography Month" and a sadly appropriate time to discuss Internet safety. Today is the wild west of the Internet with an estimate by Forbes of $1.5 billion in global sales per year. One must understand what exactly defines hard-core pornography or obscene material on the Internet. It's not Playboy! It encompasses the depiction of bestiality, bondage, domination, rape, gang rapes, urine and excrement, sexual murders, child sex and torture. It is vile and hurtful, not sexy and loving. And all of it is just one click away from our kids. We as parents know instinctively that simply viewing pornography of any kind can be damaging to children. The 1986 Meese Commission on Pornography, and countless law enforcement and behavioral scientists say there is a direct link between pornography and sexual violence. My experience of attempted rape by a strange man deeply involved in pornography confirms this belief. A topic for another day is the undeniable connection between pornography and violence against women and children. Today, I am here to represent the members of my organization, (mostly moms who have downgraded professional careers to raise kids) as well as the countless parents in this country who seek to protect their children from graphic sexual images on the Internet. Although this hearing today is centered on peer-to-peer pornography, Kids First Coalition is also concerned about all types of Internet pornography and the safety of children. We have worked to combat this pervasive problem in a number of areas including advocacy for Truth in Domain names, tighter laws on porn spam, a ban of virtual child porn and better enforcement of current law. Kids First Coalition has worked closely with the Bush administration and the Department of Justice to urge a reversal of the Clinton Administration's policy to ignore obscenity crimes on the internet. I am pleased to say that DoJ listened and is currently actively prosecuting cases that four years ago would have gone unnoticed. We urge each of you to support the President's Budget which contains about $33 million and about $13.8 million in new funds to specifically pay for law enforcement. The budget contains $14.5 million for the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) program, which helps state and local law enforcement agencies develop effective responses to Internet child enticement and child pornography cases. It also contains $3 million for the Innocent Images National Initiative, which will support existing Innocent Images undercover operations and investigations designed to ferret out child predators. Illegal obscenity is overwhelmingly available on the internet. And, along with these vile images await large numbers of disturbed individuals seeking to prey on our children. Predators lurk in chat rooms, instant messaging, websites and peer to peer sites. Today's parents must be more vigilant in protecting the safety and innocence of their children then ever before in our history. Most children are not looking for pornography, but far too often pornography is looking for them. Pornography will come uninvited and unannounced into your home and will prevail upon your unsuspecting children the moment you turn your back even for a second. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that 70 percent of online youth between the ages of 15-17 say they have stumbled across pornography online, and of those exposed to such content, 49 percent were upset by the experience. The study also found that young people agree: "[Stumbling upon pornography] is upsetting to many young people - especially young girls - and most think it is a serious problem." The most common ways kids stumble into porn is by innocent searches on computers without filter. Pornographers use misspelled search terms to lure young people into their sites. The pornography industry was way ahead of Joe Camel in working to addict customers at an early age. Fortunately, most internet service providers are actively working to provide both filters that shield kids from viewing explicit materials and closed systems that would disallow kids to even enter parts of the internet. Protectkids.com is a great resource for parents to educate themselves on safety resources. Unfortunately, most estimates show that about half of all family computers lack any safety precautions. And those parents that do utilize filters may still not be doing enough to protect their kids. Peer to peer computer sites do not use a central server so normal filtering will not keep kids out. They are a source of serious concern to American parents. I've spoken to hundreds of concerned parents around the country, and conducted over fifty radio interviews on this subject, I have discovered that peer-to-peer networks are a place where unsuspecting kids can access pornography far too easily. As a way of background, peer-to-peer networks are programs that allow computer users to share electronic files with one another, usually in the form of downloading free music or images. KaZaA is the most popular site (with over 4 million users at any one time) but other sites include Grokster, Morpheus, and Gnutella. While many parents assume their children are downloading free, non-offensive music or images on these networks, in actuality these children can be in direct contact with child and adult pornography and sexual predators. A recent GAO study said that kids searching with innocent keywords like Britney Spears or Pokemon would find either graphic adult pornography or child pornography 56% of the time. (This report is available on gao.gov, report number GAO-03-351). The owners of peer to peer sites like to say that only a fraction of the child and adult porn available on the Internet exist on their sites. This doesn't absolve them of the problem nor does it take into account some factors that make peer to peer sites in some ways more dangerous than the Internet overall. As one dad told me, "On Google you have to ask to see something. On Kazaa, you ask for Elmo and they push porn at you." ... 1) According to a GAO study, normally Internet users must actually pay to view pornography (using a credit card), but peer-to-peer sites are generally free. 2) since peer-to-peer files do not go through a center server, most child-protection filters are ineffective and the filters on the peer-to peer sites are flimsy and can be easily dismantled by computer-savvy kids, and 3) Most importantly, these sites are considered hip and popular places for kids to go and are therefore more heavily visited by children. According to the GAO, 4 million people are on Kazaa alone at any one time and 40% of those are kids. Therefore about 1.6 million kids are on KaZaa at any one time and who knows about all the other sites. Pedophiles are not ignorant of this. What is more alarming is that instant messaging is also available on these networks, which gives easy access to child predators to communicate with unsuspecting children. Pedophiles can pose as kids in order to begin a dialogue with children on-line. Let me walk you through a scenario that will help you to understand what is happening in America numerous times every day. Jenny is a spunky ten-year-old who is sitting in her mom's bedroom, typing on her mother's lap-top computer with the intention of downloading the latest song that her friends are singing in school. She goes onto a peer to peer website and, in just a few seconds, several "hits" are received. She double-clicks on the first one, and in an instant, she downloads a virus that automatically downloads child pornography onto her computer that saves it as a permanent screensaver! This is a true story that was told to me by a caller on a radio show. Here's another true story. A very intelligent dad, who is a former judge with an M. Div and a Juris Doctorate shared with me that his computer is down. I asked him why and he sheepishly said his kids had been playing on a site called KaZaa and a virus ate his hard drive. I thought he would faint when I informed him that the site contains often mislabeled porn. He kept saying, "I had no idea." David Wilson, professor of criminology at the University of Central England in Birmingham, said: "Peer-to-peer facilitates the most extreme, aggressive and reprehensible types of behavior that the Internet will allow." (Tuesday November 4, 2003 --The Guardian) I would like to close my testimony by stating, we know from volumes of research that people who view child pornography often eventually act out their fantasies and molest or rape children. We also know that pedophiles usually share graphic porn with young children to break down their modesty and resistance. New technology is so valuable to us as a country, but with it comes new challenges and responsibilities. I always tell parents that they must be the first line of defense and remain vigilant against all threats including dangers on the Internet. The family computer should be kept in the family room where parents can intervene if a problem occurs. Computers in homes, schools and libraries need to utilize filters to block graphic images. Children should be kept from chat rooms and instant messaging without direct parental supervision. The companies profiting from the technology must also share in the responsibility. Just as the ISPs are working to tighten its content and shield kids so must the peer to peer systems take responsibility. The FTC should use its authority to force companies to give parental warnings and to screen viewers of pornography by requiring ID. We should also make illegal the free teasers that pornographers use to lure in viewers without ID Last July our country was sickened by an AP story on the indictment of twelve Suffolk, NY residents on charges of child pornography. Apparently the pedophiles had been using Kazaa, a peer to peer file sharing program, as a means to pass around vile images of their own or someone else's rape of toddlers. Congress needs to answer with passage of H.R. 2885, "The Protecting Children from Peer to Peer Pornography Act" or P4 bill by Joe Pitts (R-PA). Thank you for allowing me to testify before you today. Related Documents
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