Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. announced recently that the New York State Senate is set to act on the most comprehensive package of legislation in the country to combat child sex crimes. Included in the legislation would be an across-the-board increase in criminal penalties, measures making it easier for law enforcement to prosecute offenders who prey on children over the Internet, and the coordination of health and safety education efforts to increase public awareness and prevention of sexual child abuse.

According to Senator Fuschillo, the Senate's Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Act of 2003 is based on recommendations contained in a 48-page report entitled: Child Pornography, Prostitution and Predators: Has the Internet Placed Our Children at Risk? As a result of this research and extensive dialogue with law enforcement organizations, the Senate will amend more than 40 laws to protect children from sexual predators.

"This legislative package would make New York one of the toughest states in the nation for child predators and sexual abusers, going beyond simply criminalizing the use of the Internet for committing acts of abuse and exploitation against children," Fuschillo said. "We must make our laws strong to help law enforcement prosecute and properly punish sexual predators who prey on innocent, vulnerable children, especially predators who use the Internet to victimize children."

According to law enforcement authorities, child pornography has exploded since the advent of the Internet and has been difficult to contain because of the ease with which it can be produced and distributed. The US Department of Justice estimates that more than 1 million children have been abused by child pornographers in the country. In 2000, the FBI was managing nearly 3,000 cases of online child pornography, with about 25 percent of those cases dealing with online predators.

This legislation would elevate the penalties for sex crimes against children across the board, including crimes related to child pornography and prostitution.

Abused children are at much higher risk for a number of unhealthy consequences in later life, including health, emotional and learning difficulties. Under current law, school districts are required to establish councils comprised of parents, teachers and administrators to address a variety of issues such as school violence and HIV/AIDS education. According to Fuschillo, the legislative package would recommend merging some of the duties of these councils into one health and family life council at the school level that would cover all issues related to student health and safety, including how to prevent abuse and the dangers of unsupervised Internet use. The legislation would provide that the Division of State Police, the Division of Criminal Justice Services, and the Office of Children and Family Services, in conjunction with public, private, and nonprofit partners whose overall mission is child abuse prevention, would create an Interagency Council. This council would research and report findings to the legislature and governor concerning all types of crimes against children in New York State.

Pedophilia websites and bulletin boards are allowing child predators to reaffirm their views that adult-child sex is neither wrong nor immoral. In addition, these sites are allowing sexual predators to network, thus sharing child pornography and even information about specific children.

* About 24 million youths were regularly online in 1999, with millions more expected in the near future.

* One in five children who go online regularly are approached by a stranger for sex.

* More than 200,000 images of children, including babies being sexually abused, were collected by New York State investigators from the Internet in 1997. Included in the legislative package are measures co-sponsored by Senator Fuschillo that would:

* Expand the existing offenses of promoting and possessing obscene and sexual performances by a child. Currently, a person is prosecuted for the same charge whether they possess one image or 1,000. This legislation would increase the penalties for those who possess or promote numerous obscene and/or sexual performances by a child.

* Enhance penalties for those who exhibit pornographic images to a child.

* Permit prosecution for these offenders through use of undercover operations where police pose as minors online.

* Amend the Civil Rights Law to permit child victims of these offenses to have their identities remain confidential.

Another legislative measure the Senate will act on would increase penalties for patronizing child prostitutes and guarantee that people convicted of a child prostitution offense must server a longer, determinate sentence and have a lifetime listing on the sex offender registry. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 children are sexually exploited annually through prostitution and pornography in the United States. According to the New York State Police computer crime unit, the Internet is being used to advertise child prostitutes to potential customers.

These youths are often sexually exploited by adults who encourage or force them into prostitution. An alarming trend is that girls in prostitution are increasingly younger today, with the average age having dropped from 14 to 12 years old. This alone makes it more a child sexual abuse problem than simply a prostitution issue, since these children are not making these decisions alone and are often preyed upon by child pornographers and pedophiles.