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Senators Look to Fine Tune Bill Outlawing Child Porn Online

April 28, 2009 — With a little bit of tweaking, a bill to protect children from being sexually exploited on the Internet will put law enforcement officials in a better position to root out and prosecute cyber crimes, experts said Tuesday.
Currently, Justice Department and police officials are operating in "reactionary mode," meaning that they only become aware of child pornography incidents if they're reported, Attorney General Vincent Frazer said during Tuesday's Education, Youth and Culture Committee meeting. With most child pornography cases currently being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the territory is definitely in need of a law that would put more power in the hands of local officials, he said.
Dubbed the Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act, the bill sponsored by Sen. Louis P. Hill was held in committee Tuesday for additional amendments. The bill makes it illegal for anyone — including family members — to produce and distribute child pornography, and establishes a $100,000 fine and jail sentence for offenders of up to 20 years.
But Frazer said incarceration is not enough.
"People who are involved in this kind of activity are usually people that have some psychological problems," he said, adding that other child pornography laws throughout the mainland call for offenders to get treatment for their illness. "If we just take them and put them in prison, if we don't treat them, they're going to do it again. Incarceration and a fine by itself is not enough if there's no treatment taking place for these individuals."
Funding and equipment for a dedicated cyber crimes unit is also needed, along with access to federal databases that the department currently doesn't tap into, said Police Commissioner James McCall.
"The most immediate and biggest component would be training," Frazer said later. "We need to have staff dedicated to just this, and provide them with the training so they would be able to spend that time on the Internet, go in and out of the chat rooms and be able to assist minors and parents to find out what's going on when complaints come in."
The Justice Department currently has some open cyber crime cases, Frazer said.
Rounding out Tuesday's meeting, senators approved a bill creating a scholarship award for the valedictorians and salutatorians of every local school with more than 250 students. The four-year scholarships cover up to $25,000 in expenses each year for students pursuing a bachelor's degree at an accredited four-year college or university. A list of approved majors will be maintained by the V.I. Board of Education.
Scholarship recipients must maintain a 3.25 grade point average, said bill sponsor Sen. Terrence "Positive" Nelson, who said the bill would go "a long way in facilitating the cost of education for student who continue to make an effort."
While receiving support for the bill from testifiers from the Board of Education and Education Department, many suggested that senators look at putting money into expanding degree programs at the University of the Virgin Islands.
Present during Tuesday's meeting was Hill, along with Sens. Neville James, Wayne James, Nereida Rivera-O'Reilly and Michael Thurland. Sen. Craig W. Barshinger was absent.
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