Galizio and Merkley Crack Down on Internet Predators

Democrats to Introduce Legislation Making Online Solicitation of Minors a Crime

PORTLAND—Oregon House Democratic Leader Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) and Representative Larry Galizio (D-Tigard) announced today that they will introduce legislation to crack down on predators who solicit children for sex via the Internet. The two legislators appeared with Governor Ted Kulongoski at the Multnomah County Children’s Library, where the governor released his “Top Ten List” and website link to help parents protect children against online solicitation by sexual predators.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that one in five children surveyed had received an unwanted sexual solicitation in the past year. But Oregon law has not kept up with changing technology. So to bring Oregon’s criminal statutes into the 21st Century, Reps. Galizio and Merkley are drafting legislation making it a specific crime to use electronic communications to lure a child.

“It is unfortunate, but as times change, new dangers emerge,” Rep. Merkley said. “Even a decade ago, it would have been hard to imagine the new and creative ways that pedophiles have found to contact children and develop relationships with them, many times even posing as another child.”

While there is a lot of kid-friendly content on the Internet, many sites that children frequent are double edged swords. Web sites like Facebook and MySpace allow kids to communicate with one another and find new friends based on common interest, but they also leave children vulnerable to predators.

“We no longer live in a world where the biggest threat to a child is a stranger offering candy,” Rep. Galizio said. “Many of the criminals who used to troll neighborhoods luring children into their cars now troll the Internet looking for their next victim.”

The legislation offered by Reps. Merkley and Galizio will give prosecutors an explicit tool to go after online predators. It will also remove any doubt judges or juries might have that using the Internet to solicit minors is the legal equivalent of rolling down the car window and offering candy to a kid on the street.

“I applaud this effort,” Governor Kulongoski said of the House Democrats bill. “I look forward to working with the legislature on this bill and others to protect our kids.”

“The Internet is now the most widely used tool by predators who seek to harm Oregon’s kids,” Rep. Merkley said. “We have a moral responsibility to stand up for those kids and to do all we can to protect them.”

If the legislation is approved, Oregon will join 42 other states that have acted to add online communications to their solicitation statutes.