Prepared Statement of The Honorable Cliff Stearns

Online Pornography: Closing the Doors on Pervasive Smut.

Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection
May 6, 2004

Good morning. I am pleased to welcome all of you to the Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee's hearing on on-line pornography.

Online pornography, both legal and illegal, is a growing problem for legitimate Internet users, and in particular, for the most vulnerable among us - our children. The explosive growth of online pornographic material, including the most revolting - child pornography, continues to be a major issue. According to a 2003 report done by the General Accounting Office, there were over 400,000 commercial pornography websites at that time. A subsequent private survey estimated that the number of commercial pornography websites grew from 88,000 in 2000 to over 1.6 million today. This rapid growth of online pornography on the web becomes even more disturbing when we learn that outright deception and fraud are frequently the means used to dupe legitimate Internet users into exposure, especially when those users are our children.

Web pornographers are increasingly using online deception and trickery to lure visitors to their websites. Domain names are being manipulated to appear benign and "mousetrap" their victims. Spam and fraudulent advertising are being employed to lure unsuspecting visitors, many of them children, to obscene material. And now, distributed computing technology like file-sharing software applications known as "Peer to Peer" or "P2P" software are quickly becoming a favorite medium, particularly to lure our children from the perceived safety of the family living room out into the dangers of the Internet wilderness.

Especially popular with the most tech-savvy - our kids, P2P networks are similar in concept to web browsers, but rather than enabling users to communicate and share information through a central server or website, P2P allows network users access to each other's computer hard drives to share files. While this is an ingenious and legitimate technology, the chilling fact is that pornographers are now using these P2P applications to target children and young adults with pornographic material by distributing files with deceptive names that disguise a pornographic file by labeling it with an entity popular with children or young adults, such as "Cinderella" or "Britney Spears." According to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who will be testifying before us today, from 2001-2002, there was a fourfold increase in pornographic material being distributed through P2P networks. This finding coupled with the fact that many P2P users are children and young adults makes the risk of inadvertent exposure of pornographic material to children a very significant issue.

As several of our panelists today will explain, it is very important to recognize that the distributing computing technology that enables P2P software is legitimate and a neutral technology with tremendous potential to do good. P2P has also spawned exciting new applications for legitimate activity. For example, it can enable the establishment of online communities, enhanced "grid" computing and, in short, make the market of ideas and information more accessible and affordable for all Americans. The power of P2P networks has already led to some astounding success in the sciences and mathematics.

In particular, I would like to commend Mr. Pitts for his leadership in helping cast some light on the very real problems P2P technology poses, including the ways in which it can facilitate the illegal and disgusting behavior of those that prey on our children.

I also would like to especially welcome Mr. Norb Dunkel and Mr. Rob Bird, who were kind enough to travel from the University of Florida to testify before us today. I am honored to represent the University, an institution that is innovative on many levels. In particular, UF has taken a novel approach to dealing with the misuse of Peer-to-Peer technology by instituting a system called Integrated Computer Application for Recognizing User Services or ICARUS.

ICARUS has successfully harnessed technology to restrict illegal file sharing while preserving P2P for legitimate academic and social activity over the University's networks.

Finally, I look forward to further exploring ways we can ensure the doors to the Internet wilderness remain locked for the sake of our children unless extreme care is exercised and proper safeguards are in place. There is clearly no open door policy in cyberspace. As we have seen, open doors can allow infestation by malicious computer viruses, secret spyware downloads, and now the distribution of online pornography, particularly child pornography. And as we will learn from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Trade Commission, apart from our parental responsibility to carefully supervise our children's Internet activities, there also needs to be vigilant and aggressive enforcement measures and prosecution of those who seek to victimize and exploit our kids.

I welcome the witnesses today and look forward to their testimony.

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