Bipartisan bill goals to address rampant baby porn sharing on Pentagon computers

Congress is weighing up a bipartisan bill to crack down at the sharing of child porn on Defense Department computer systems after a watchdog group discovered the Pentagon’s community-ranked many of the pinnacles US ISPs for sharing the offensive content.

“The belief that the Department of Defense’s network and Pentagon-issued computers may be used to view, create, or circulate such horrifying images is a shameful disgrace, and one we have to fight head-on,” Abigail Spanberger (D-Virginia) said in a statement on Tuesday as she and co-sponsor Mark Meadows (R-N. Carolina) introduced the End National Defense Network Abuse (END Network Abuse) Act inside the House.

The Defense Criminal Investigative Services (DCIS) will get hold of schooling to root out and efficiently prosecute the ones the usage of Defense Department equipment to gain admission to and trade infant porn underneath the brand new regulation. The bill also integrates DCIS right into a “multi-jurisdictional project pressure” with “federal, nation, and local law enforcement,” social services, and toddler safety companies to help sufferers of toddler sexual exploitation and roll back the tide of grime engulfing Defense Department networks.
For at least a decade, Congress has recognized that toddler porn buying and selling on Defense Department computers turned into a problem. Immigration and Customs Enforcement diagnosed five,200 humans “subscribed to web sites that were known to contain toddler pornography” for 2008’s Project Flicker investigation, which includes masses of individuals “affiliated with” the Defense Department, some of whom even used their authorities email addresses and army publish boxes to sign up on the offending web sites. Worryingly, dozens possessed a few forms of security clearance.

While a handful of the offenders caught in Project Flicker obtained prison sentences, hundreds greater – as much as 80 percent of those identified inside the ICE report – did not, as “fighting infant pornography become now not one in all DCIS’ investigative priorities,” Spanberger and Meadows lament. This investigative blind spot leaves the Pentagon prone to “blackmail, bribery, and different threats,” should personnel with excessive safety clearances come to be compromised through their weak point for toddler porn or different illicit sports carried out over Defense Department computers.

According to the National Criminal Justice Training Center, the Defense Department’s network ranked 19th out of 2,891 internet carrier vendors for peer-to-peer trading of infant porn in 2018, suggesting the hassle has best gotten worse inside the ten years considering Project Flicker wrapped up. A Senate model of the END Network Abuse Act was introduced in May by Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). While neither chamber of Congress has set apart dates to discuss the measure, sponsors plan to pass it “each as man or woman bills and as amendments” to other bills, consistent with the Hill. Representatives TJ Cox (D-California) and Anna Eshoo (D-California) have additionally signed directly to the House bill as co-sponsors.