Orrin Hatch: “joined by my friend from Kansas, Senator Brownback, I am today introducing the Protecting Children from Sexual…”

“joined by my friend from Kansas, Senator Brownback, I am today introducing the Protecting Children from Sexual Exploitation Act of 2005. This bill will strengthen an important tool for protecting children from the exploitation of child pornography. Pornography is devastating communities, families, and individual lives. On November 10, the Senator from Kansas chaired a hearing in the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution titled ``Why the Government Should Care About Pornography.'' Witnesses at that hearing included authors and researchers documenting the devastation wrought by pornography. Children are pornography's most vulnerable and most devastated victims. Abusing children through early exposure to pornography has lifelong effects. Even worse, however, is the actual use of children to make sexually explicit material. This is perhaps the worst form of sexual exploitation because the abuse only begins with its production. Children lack the maturity to choose participation in that activity and to accept its aftermath. Everyone who intentionally copies, distributes, advertises, purchases, or consumes sexually explicit material involving children should be held responsible as part of the ongoing chain of exploitation. For this compelling reason, Federal law prohibits using children to produce visual depictions of either actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct.…”