Sam Brownback: “I applaud my colleague from Utah for helping lead the fight against child pornography. This is an issue upon which all…”

“I applaud my colleague from Utah for helping lead the fight against child pornography. This is an issue upon which all Senators can unite, and it is a battle we must not lose. Pornography is no longer isolated to a small segment of society. It has pervaded our culture. As we learned in a recent hearing I chaired in the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, pornography has infiltrated homes and families and is having devastating effects. According to recent reports, 1 in 5 children between the ages of 10 and 17 have received a sexual solicitation over the Internet, and 9 out of 10 children between the ages of 8 and 16 who have Internet access have viewed porn Web sites, usually in the course of looking up information for homework. Perhaps the ugliest aspect of the pornography epidemic is child pornography. Children as young as 5 years old are being used for profit in this fast-growing industry. We have a duty to protect the weakest members of our society from exploitation and abuse. I believe this bill is the first step in that fight. First, this bill will expand recordkeeping requirements to those who produce soft-core, or simulated, pornography. Current law only requires that records be kept by producers of hardcore, or actual, pornography.…”