Politics & Government

State Passes Law Cracking Down On Child Porn

Niles police report no cases, however.

The Illinois legislature passed a bill that strengthens protections against Internet child porn predators Friday.

Senate Bill 1035, which passed unanimously, cuts through some red tape and speeds the amount of time in which law enforcement can track and arrest child predators who use the Internet, according to Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office. The bill also lengthens prison sentences for predators with multiple child porn offenses. 

“Trafficking and possessing child porn creates real victims – innocent infants and children are subjected to the most disturbing acts of violence,” said Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Chicago Heights, a sponsor of the bill.

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Investigators in Madigan's office track the trading of child pornography on the Internet using IP addresses, which identify individual computers when they access the Internet, according to the Attorney General's office. Law enforcement must present subpoenas to Internet service providers, which are required to turn over the offender's names and addresses. 

Sgt. Robert Tornabene of the Niles Police explained this part of the bill will affect rural counties more than Cook County. In rural counties, Madigan's office said, grand juries must be convened to issue the subpoenas. That results in a delay, making it more difficult to catch Internet predators.

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"Although any law that provides law enforcement with the ability to move quicker to identify an offender in a criminal prosecution involving children is an asset, this law only makes it easier in counties in which a sitting grand jury does not exist. Here in Cook County we have access to a sitting grand jury year round," Tornabene wrote in an email.

 Niles has not had any Internet predator cases of note or any prosecutions, Tornabene said. 

"We do have a very strong Internet Safety Program that is presented to all three school districts annually by both our Crime Prevention Unit and our School Resource Officer Unit," Tornabene continued. 

The other main portion of Senate Bill 1035 lengthens time behind bars for more serious Internet predators. Under current law, a predator who possesses thousands of child porn images can receive the same sentence as an offender who possesses one image; the new law lengthens prison time for offenders with larger amounts of child pornography. 

In a statement, Madigan's office noted there is a direct correlation between individuals who possess, download and trade graphic images of child pornography and those who molest children. Forty percent of arrested child porn possessors were “dual offenders,” who sexually victimized children and possessed child pornography, with both crimes discovered in the same investigation.

Last year, Madigan’s office determined that there were approximately 8,000 Internet protocol (IP) addresses downloading or trading child pornography in Illinois.  She created Operation Glass House to find the most serious child pornographers in the state.


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