Bob Franks: “Mr. Chairman, the Information Superhighway has dramatically changed the way that our society communicates. Today it is…”

“Mr. Chairman, the Information Superhighway has dramatically changed the way that our society communicates. Today it is hard too find a school, a library, or even a business that does not have access to the Internet. Today, fully 60 million Americans have access to this wonderful tool. For our children, the trip to the library to look up information for a homework assignment has been replaced by turning on the family computer and surfing the net. While the wealth of information that our kids can find on the Internet continues to amaze us, this extraordinary technology, when put in the wrong hands, has a dark and threatening side. In recent years, the Internet has become a major avenue of child exploitation as kiddie porn operators have begun peddling their smut in cyberspace. The challenge that we face is to make sure that law enforcement has the ability to fight this serious new threat to our children's safety. The amendment that I am offering would require the providers of Internet services, such as America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe, often called OSPs, to report evidence of child pornography to law enforcement authorities.”