From the Office of Utah Congressman Jim Matheson

MATHESON NEWS
Second Congressional District

For Further Information
Alyson Heyrend: (801) 455-5593 (cell)
www.house.gov/matheson

April 05, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Matheson's Porn Tax Would Fund Fight against On-line Predators

One Boy's Plight Highlighted in Hill Testimony

Washington DC-Congressman Jim Matheson said his legislation to levy a 25% tax on Internet pornography transactions would help law enforcement in the fight against child predators who exploit vulnerable teens like one testifying on Capitol Hill this week.

A House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee heard testimony Tuesday from Justin Berry.  As a 13-year-old teen in California, the boy hooked up a Web camera to his computer, hoping to use it to meet other teens online.  Instead, sexual predators lured him into selling images of his body on the Internet over the course of five years.

"The dark side of our technological advances is the way criminals-in horrifying numbers-- are able to use them to prey on children," said Matheson.  "My legislation-HR 3479-is all about giving law enforcement the tools it needs to combat this terrible assault on innocence."

Another hearing into the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet is scheduled for Thursday, at 10 AM before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

Matheson said parents are the first line of defense with respect to keeping their children safe on line.  But he noted that the pornography industry is actively marketing objectionable content to children and it has refused to implement on-the-shelf technology, such as age-verification software, to prevent kids from accessing adult material.

Matheson's legislation creates a new Internet Safety and Child Protection Trust fund, financed by a 25 percent excise tax on internet pornography transactions.  It is estimated the tax would as much as $3 billion annually to finance tougher law enforcement, better blocking and filtering technologies and greater educational efforts to keep children safe online.

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Alyson Heyrend
Communications Director
240 East Morris Ave. #235
South Salt Lake, UT 84115
(801) 486-1236 (phone)
(801) 455-5593 (cell)
(801) 486-1417 (fax)