Colorado Attorney General John Suthers on Wednesday proposed stronger laws to protect children from online sexual predators, including making it a crime to solicit a child for sex.
Suthers said he will suggest a three-part legislative package to help protect Colorado children from the dangers of the Internet.
The bills would: make it a crime to use the Internet to solicit a child for sexual activity; make possession of a large quantity of child pornography a felony; and grant law enforcement subpoena power to obtain identifying information from Internet service providers.
“Incredibly, Colorado’s Internet safety laws allow only for civil monetary damages against a person who solicits a child through the Internet,” Suthers said.
Suthers said he is joining with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Colorado Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs, and the Colorado Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in the initiative to protect children.
Suthers said that currently in Colorado, a crime is committed if a person suggests a meeting online at a certain location – and then actually shows up.
Criminalizing use of the Internet for soliciting sex from a child would help discourage predators, he said.
“One of the great deterrents is the knowledge of online predators that police officers are policing chat rooms. They’d (the predators) be a lot less bold if Colorado had such a law,” he said.
The attorney general said that although children tend to be savvy Internet users, many don’t realize that each time they access the Internet, they leave an “electronic footprint” that can be traced by the online predators.
Suthers said that only one-quarter of those who receive a sexual solicitation tell a parent, and less than 10 percent report it to law enforcement.
Two state legislators, Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver, and Rep. Bob McCluskey, R-Fort Collins, have pledged to sponsor the bills.
In addition to his legislative package, Suthers plans to travel across Colorado this summer to host educational conferences about the dangers children face on the Internet.
Esther Cookson, a representative from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, characterized Suthers’ initiative as “important” because it increases the awareness of teaching children the importance of Internet safety.
According to a survey released this week by the center, 30 percent of parents don’t know whether their children participate in chat rooms or instant messaging, and nearly half say they have never reviewed the content of what their kids type in these forums. Chat rooms and instant messaging are where most of the online victimization occurs.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
