Lamar Smith needs killing

[Eugen Leitl]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-lamarsmith_20edi.State.Edition1.26b3a16.html# 

Lamar Smith: A better way to catch child porn perps online

04:07 PM CST on Thursday, February 19, 2009

It's hard to turn on the television today without running across a crime
drama whose central theme is the pursuit of justice. Each night, cases are
solved and justice is served, all in the space of 60 minutes.

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But that's not how it happens off screen, where law and order is much harder
to attain and too often ends in justice delayed or never achieved. A big
reason is that officers are forced to rely on outdated tools when it comes to
crimes committed online. And the most affected victims are often too young to
tell their stories.

Law enforcement officials had a chokehold on child pornography before the
Internet exploded. Perpetrators relied on the postal service to traffic their
trade, and, by the end of the 1980s, postal investigators were winning the
battle.

But the Internet changed everything. Now criminals can view pictures,
download videos and watch the live molestation of a child. Pedophiles have,
in effect, found a safe haven online.

A 2006 federal case shows just how depraved and technologically savvy these
criminals are. Twenty-seven individuals from four countries were charged in
connection with an Internet chat room used to trade child porn and view
molestations. Of the seven victims identified, one was under 18 months in
age.

Law enforcement is doing everything in its power to save these children, but
we are losing the online battle. Congress must do more, starting with
requiring Internet service providers to retain subscriber information for a
specific period of time. This is no different than what Congress already has
mandated for telephone companies.

How many times have we seen TV detectives seek call logs of a suspect in
order to determine who he has been talking to? What if the telephone
companies simply said to the detectives, "Sorry, we get rid of that
information after 24 hours?"

That is exactly what has happened nationwide when it comes to obtaining that
information from ISPs. Anytime an individual goes online, the ISP assigns a
temporary IP address. When law enforcement officials find a child porn site,
the only information they have to identify the users are these addresses. To
match an address with an actual person, investigators must contact the
service provider. Too often, the response is that the provider has not
retained the information.

A real-life example involves a video showing the violent rape of a 2-year-old
girl that was found online and traced to a computer in Colorado. When
investigators approached the service provider in order to match the IP
address with the Internet subscriber, the provider had already purged the
records. The rapist remains at large; the child has never been found.

Sen. John Cornyn and I have introduced the Internet Safety Act, which directs
ISPs to retain specified data for up to two years. This can help law
enforcement officials identify who is uploading, viewing and distributing
explicit child pornography.

Opponents of the bill say it's an invasion of privacy, but that's not the
case. The government can only access subscriber information as part of a
criminal investigation. It simply allows us to match the IP address of a
suspect to an individual. If we require phone companies to retain this same
type of information, there is no reason why the law should not be updated to
include ISPs.

Law enforcement officials should have the tools they need to fight crime,
whether committed over the phone, through the mail or online.

Lamar Smith represents Texas' 21st Congressional District, which includes
parts of San Antonio and Austin, and is the ranking Republican on the House
Judiciary Committee. He can be reached through www.lamarsmith.house.gov.