This week, I have been writing about Senate Bill 1738, also known as the Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2008, which Oprah profiled on her show on Monday. To me, it was such a no-brainer to pass this bill, so I have been taken aback by all of the controversy surrounding Senate Bill 1738 and the Oprah show.
Apparently, the Democrats and Republicans have decided to get into a p@$$ing match over whose version of the bill will be passed into law. People are pointing out that Oprah supports Senate Bill 1738, Barak Obama, and Joe Biden.
Let me be clear – I am a card-carrying Republican, so nobody can make those claims about me. However, that is going to change if the Republicans vote down Senate Bill 1738 as part of their political agenda. I cannot and will not support a party that sacrifices our children for their own political agenda.
According to Oprah Criticized for Senate Bill 1738, Unrelated to GOP Boycott, the Democrats are trying to bundle Senate Bill 1738 (which was submitted by Senator Joe Biden) with a bunch of unrelated legislation that the Republicans will not support. Meanwhile, Senator Tom Colburn M.D. worked with Senator John McCain to write a similar bill, Senate Bill 3344, called the Securing Adolescents from Exploitation-Online (SAFE) Act of 2007, which was also voted down. So, we have both parties sacrificing our country’s children for the sake of their own political agendas.
Abused children are not pawns in the big political game – they are children whose lives are a living hell, and it is apparently going to stay that way as the Democrats and Republicans are using abused children’s very deep pain to further their own political agendas. This makes me nauseous. Voters need to take a very strong stand that we will not sacrifice our children for their political posturing.
I did not need to watch the Oprah show to know how abused and exploited children are treated. I lived it.
++++ graphic sexual abuse and animal rape triggers ++++
I was eight years old. I was taken from my bed at night and driven to a remote location. I was stripped naked and laid down on a table under the stars in the woods. I was shivering, not only from the cold but from sheer terror. These people had already slaughtered my dog right in front of me and threatened to do the same to my sister if I ever told. I was not going to resist, especially with my sister present that night.
They brought out a dog – a tan boxer. They pulled my legs apart and invited the dog to rape me vaginally. It did. Cameras were clicking as the dog did this to me. I couldn’t see past the flashbulbs in the dark.
Who knows how many perverts saw those pictures? For all I know, they are still in circulation today. Nobody saved me from these people, and that was far from the only time I was photographed being sexually assaulted.
According to Oprah’s guest, he only has the manpower to follow up on 2% of the leads. He chooses the 2% by those that law enforcement is most likely to catch. My photographs were taken in the dark, not in a bedroom like the man discussed on Oprah’s show. My picture would have fallen in the 98% pile.
And, thanks to the Republicans and Democrats, that is where my picture would stay. While they pointed finger at each other and ultimately accomplished nothing, I would be pulled out of my bed at night again … and again … and again to be raped, tortured, and exploited on camera for perverts all over the world to view and use in their own sick fantasies.
The children who are being exploited daily cannot speak for themselves, but I can speak for them. Those children need to be saved. I don’t care if it costs $6.30 or $89.59 for a family of four, depending upon which version of the bill is voted into law. (See Oprah Criticized for Senate Bill 1738, Unrelated to GOP Boycott.) We need to save our children.
I was only eight years old when that dog raped me on camera. Isn’t saving an eight-year-old little girl from years of exploitation worth $100 a family? If it was your child being raped on camera, wouldn’t you pay $100 to save him or her?
Please write to your congressmen and tell them to pass a bill to enable law enforcement to stop child predators. I don’t care if they pass Senate Bill 1738 or Senate Bill 3344 – I just want one passed.
Hey, here’s a novel concept. How about working together for once and focusing on saving the children? I will be watching my Congressmen. If a child exploitation bill is not passed into law this year, I will be voting no to every single representative of mine who is running for reelection, regardless of party affiliation.
*** Updated 9/23/08 — See Update on the Protect Our Children Act for a way to help pressure the Senate into passing the legislation to protect children without having to get into party politics. We need to act fast. ***
Related Topics:
- Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2008
- Oprah’s Show on Senate Bill 1738: Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2008
Photo Credit: Lynda Bernhardt
Ive always been frightened of dogs and hated them, and i dont know why that is.
BTW i like the photos you use on your threads.
Thanks for the compliment on the photos. A talented photographer named Lynda Bernhardt has given me permission to use them. I have been encouraging her to launch her own website so people can purchase her photographs. If/when she does so, I will provide a link over to her site.
- Faith
Cool, thanks for that,
Simon
Faith I dont know how you made it through. You are a miracle and I am grateful to have the chance to write with you. I will be sending an email to our congressmen regarding bills 1738 and 3344 tonight.
I have been following your posts on this issue, and it really is a shame that political parties could mess this whole thing up. Unfortunately I missed the Oprah show. I live in the midwest and we were hit with hurricane force winds Sunday which knocked out power and caused a lot of destruction. Things are getting back to normal, slowly, but I did miss the Oprah show.
I am so very sorry for all that you went through. No child should ever have to experience that. I wish no child ever had to ever. I want you to know that I support you and all the rest of the children of the world.
Sending hugs, if that’s ok.
~Secret Shadows
Thank you all very much. :0)
- Faith
Wait a minute! Am I the only one who sees a red flag here. I have now read both bills in their entirety.
1738 (found a link to it here http://www.protect.org/childPornography/)
3344 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-3344
1738 looks great. I have no problem with it. 3344, however, doesn’t sit right with me.
First of all, I understand and agree with Coburn’s decision to not want to bundle all the other bills with 1738. I think Harry Reid is being unreasonable in his stance.
But what is very concerning to me is that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is backing 3344 so strongly. Why? Because section 301 of 3344 totally bypasses our 4th amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Read it yourself. Here’s the summary:
1. “Electronic Communication Service Providers” (ECSPs) must report to the National Center.
2. Then, in subsection (c)1, “The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shall forward each report made under subsection (a)(1) to any appropriate law enforcement agency designated by the Attorney General under subsection (d)(2).”
Uh, where is the requirement for a search warrant?
I want these molestors to be caught just as much as anyone else, but this is very dangerous and could open the doors to some serious abuse.
Also, last I knew, the National Center is a private, non-profit organization (see http://missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=1866). They are not government. Why are they going to get identification information and content? If a person, after a proper trial, is convicted of molestation, don’t we already have the sex offender registry systems? I fail to see why citizen information is going to a private company when the person reported may not even be guilty of anything.
Why does the bill not require that ECSPs report incidents directly to law enforcement through the “National Internet Crimes Against Children Data System” described in section 115? Law enforcement could then directly interact with the ECSP. The ECSP wouldn’t provide any detail to law enforcement until law enforcement got a search warrant. To me, this seems to protect the privacy of citizens while still enabling law enforcement to capture the freaks doing this stuff.
I see 3344 as one of three things:
1) The National Center is trying to become THE Big Brother. After all, they have strongly backed 3344. Even Coburn says so at http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=LatestNews.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=677267e2-802a-23ad-4698-dbe39b99ec24
2) The Senate wants unrestricted access to ECSP records. Think about it. What would prevent one of them from calling an ECSP and telling them to hand over the records claiming that it USED TO contain illegal material. 3344 doesn’t make any mention of the account needing to still have the alleged material at the time! Nor is there any requirement that it be proved that there was any illegal content at any point in time.
3) Combination of 1 and 2. Somebody needs to look into the National Center and see what is going on. How in the world could 3344 make it so far without anybody objecting to such a blatant disregard for the 4th amendment.
I say we all contact our senators and tell them we support 1738, but will not support 3344 unless 1) notification from ECSPs goes directly to law enforcement and 2) law enforcement cannot get the details without a search warrant.
I know the National Center has done some good things in the past, but this is going too far. I can’t help but wonder if they have been given too much power already through the laws they cite on their website which they list as 42 U.S.C. §§ 5771 et seq.; 42 U.S.C. § 11606; 22 C.F.R. § 94.6
Let’s stop these molestors without compromising our rights!
It sounds like you have really done your homework. I had trouble finding a copy of Senate Bill 3344. Perhaps that is why??
- Faith
I had a hard time finding a copy of 3344, too. That was actually the first red flag. After all, if it really is that good, why not put it out there for everyone to read?
Seems that people who don’t want 1738 to pass without it being wrapped with the SAFE Act into 3344 are more than eager to point out that it was backed by the National Center and how many votes it got. But it just seemed strange to me that a copy of such a “good” bill could not be found.
The second red flag was the statement on Coburn’s site that it required ECSPs to report, but not specify who they report it to (naturally, I assumed they would have to report it to law enforcement – boy was I surprised to find out they report it to a private company):
“The SAFE Act would expand the requirements for electronic service providers (ESPs) to report online child pornography and help to root out people selling, trading, or displaying illegal pornographic images of children.”
The message is then followed with instructions to click on a link to see the National Center’s endorsement (the link actually doesn’t work, but there is a link at the bottom of Coburn’s site to the National Center’s endorsement. Scary part is that the endorsement is signed by the President and CEO of the National Center – Ernie Allen). See http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=LatestNews.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=677267e2-802a-23ad-4698-dbe39b99ec24
It’s almost as if Coburn knows people will not question a bill backed by the National Center, but would if it came directly from the government.
Also, another thing that really scares me about 3344, is all the language about “limited liability” to the National Center and the ECSPs for reporting! HOLY COW! So, let’s give very important, very private, information over to a private company and give them some legal protection if anything goes wrong?!
Does anybody know of any other laws we have that provide “limited liability” clauses? I’m not talking about contracts, but actual laws. I have never heard of something like this before (but, then again, I’m not a lawyer). I’m serious though, if anybody knows of any other laws like this, I would like to know. Especially if it protects a private company.
Sorry, forgot to specify which sections the “limited liability” language is in. It is Sec. 2258D pertaining to the National Center and Sec. 2258B pertaining to ECPSs.
There’s something suspicious about 3344 to me. I have a feeling the senate supporters of it aren’t being all that forward in its full intent. I suspect the National Center has something to do with that.
Looks like I might have been right about the 4th amendment issues. Read this http://www.protect.org/childPornography/CoburnReidExchange9-23-08.html
“THERE IS NO POINT IN RUSHING TO PASS A BILL THAT WILL BE STRUCK BY THE COURTS AS UNCONSTITUTIONALLY VAGUE.”
This is the first sentence in about the 5th paragraph.
Now I hope they deal with the language that gives a private company so much access to citizen records. I still think this type of information should only go to law enforcement and only with a search warrant. I would much rather the tips also go only to law enforcement. No private company should have that kind of information until a citizen has had the right to a trial AND that citizen has been proven guilty.
Wow!
I read the rest of the transcript mentioned in the previous post I made. It definitely appears Coburn is trying to bypass the 4th amendment. Here is a quote from Coburn in the transcript:
“THE RIGHTS OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY VERSUS THE CHILDREN ABUSED IS NOT A HARD THING TO FIGURE OUT.”
I also believe that the freaks committing these acts need to be caught and severely punished. But it needs to be proven in court by a jury. Coburn’s statement could easily be interpreted as, given the bypass-of-the-4th-amendment language in the SAFE Act, meaning people are guilty until proven innocent.
I always thought we were supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Guess Coburn has a different idea.
Very scary.
If I understood correctly from the Oprah show, it does not sound like violating the 4th amendment is even necessary to apprehend these perps, so there must be some sort of hidden agenda going on. According to the guy on Oprah who created the software to catch these perps, the software is doing its job. The issue is having the manpower to chase down the leads. His staff only has the time to chase down 2% of the leads.
I really, really hate it when politicians use abused children as pawns.
- Faith
Can we just all get together… and do more, come out of the shadows, where we were abused??? I will 100% to get rid of this. Can you dream of the impact we can have if we were like the Breast Cancer people??? 1 in 10 get breast cancer, 1 in 4 are molested. That is from the 80′s, what is it now that these people are “normalizing” there behavior?? AND please lets come together, we can be SO strong!! And really I want the death penalty. This is sicker then killing someone. Hi, rape, a baby, toddler, little kid…?? We can do this, it would be so easy, all we have to do is shine the light on the people who never thought we would…
Yes, I agree. This is why I started this blog. I want to help child abuse survivors heal, but I also want to educate the rest of the world about the epidemic of child abuse.
The most recently statistics I have seen is 1 in 3 to 4 girls and 1 in 6 to 7 boys are sexually abused by age 18. That is an EPIDEMIC, and yet society does not want to face this.
- Faith
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