ICYMI: Grassley Joins Dr. Phil to Discuss His Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Kids Online

ICYMI: Grassley Joins Dr. Phil to Discuss His Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Kids Online

The legislative package targeting lax sentencing laws, sextortion and violent online networks is set for a committee vote this Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined The Dr. Phil Podcast to discuss his three bipartisan bills to combat the rise in online child abuse and hold violent criminals accountable. The legislative package will be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, February 12, at 10:15 a.m. ET.

The Sentencing Accountability for Exploitation Act (SAFE Act), Stop Sextortion Act and Ending Coercion of Children and Harm Online Act (ECCHO Act) would revamp outdated federal sentencing laws, crack down on offenders who use child sex abuse material (CSAM) to extort and coerce children and target notorious online criminal networks, like Network 764.

"God bless you for doing this. If there's anything we can do to help get this word out and rally support behind this, please know that we will beat the drum as loud as we possibly can." - Dr. Phil.

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Excerpts of the interview follow.

On the ECCHO Act and Network 764:

"[Network 764] is set up specifically to use the internet to encourage people to abuse themselves. The fact we don't have a criminal penalty on the [books] is one of the reasons that one of these three bills that you want to visit with me about has been introduced in a bipartisan way. We have to protect our children online, and anything that anybody does to encourage people to abuse themselves is entirely wrong...

"One of the penalties is up to life in prison. [That] seems to be appropriate if somebody's life is taken."

On the Stop Sextortion Act:

"We had a woman testify before our committee, before Christmas, on [sextortion]. Her son had been encouraged to expose himself on the internet and then was more or less bribed and coerced by threats that [the photos] would be made public. The mother testified that hundreds of messages came to him in a very short period of time, and within 18 hours after that happened to him, he committed suicide.

…

"[Past laws] never took in mind [sextortion] that can happen as a result of social networking, and the impact that it has on people… So, this brings our criminal code up to date to make sure that what we call now, sextortion, is [illegal].

"In this case, where a person lost his life because he was being blackmailed because he indecently put himself on the internet and was encouraged to do it - the people that encouraged it need to be punished to send a strong signal that this sort of abuse of young people is not going to be tolerated."

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