SRC-JEC H.C.R. 14 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS Senate Research Center H.C.R. 14 78R1478 CME-DBy: West, George "Buddy," et al. (Shapiro) State Affairs 4/15/2003 Committee Report (Unamended) DIGEST According to a sample survey of the nearly 24 million school-aged children that were on-line regularly in 1999, roughly one in five received a sexual solicitation; remarkably, fewer than 10 percent of these sexual solicitations were ever reported to authorities. Unfortunately, as the Internet has revolutionized access to information, sharing of ideas, and global communication, it also has provided a vast landscape for the machinations of sexual predators; the United States Customs Service reports there are an estimated 100,000 websites involved in some way with child pornography, and arrests, indictments, and convictions for possession of child pornography transported across borders have climbed steadily since 1992, doubling several times during the last 10 years. Among the websites charging users to view images of children in suggestive poses are those that have become known as exploitive child modeling sites; where legitimate child modeling websites market the talent of the model, exploitive child modeling features compromising visual depictions of children without a direct or even indirect purpose of marketing an actual product other than the images of the minor. The anonymous nature of communicating through the Internet allows pedophiles to deceitfully contact and personally interact with these child models, providing opportunity to develop on-line relationships and thereby increasing the chances of aggressive solicitations for meeting in person. More than 70 percent of convicted pedophiles have accessed child pornography or exploitive child modeling websites as a means of sexual gratification, and the very operators of these sites, while defending their legitimacy, admit that pedophiles are likely frequent visitors. Legislation is now before the 107th Congress that would protect children's opportunities to develop legitimate modeling careers and at the same time protect them from exploitation at the hands of website operators. PURPOSE H.C.R. 14 submits the following resolutions: Resolves that the 78th Legislature of the State of Texas hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to enact the Child Modeling Exploitation Prevention Act of 2002. Resolves that the Texas secretary of state forward official copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.