FBI sting highlights need for child-porn bill

By CHRIS YAGELO
Capital News Service
LANSING — The recent success of the FBI’s “Operation Candyman” has brought heightened public awareness to a disturbing problem in America: child pornography.
A bill being considered in the House would bring Michigan’s laws against child pornography into line with the federal statute, but with a higher intent requirement.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Gene DeRossett, R-Manchester, would:
* Increase the penalty for possessing child pornography from a misdemeanor to a felony;
* Redefine the definition of a child;
* Expand the current coverage of the law to include computer pictures or videos showing real or computer-generated children.
“When you see that 36 states make possessing child pornography a felony and Michigan is one of the 12 that doesn’t, Michigan is behind in regards to other states,” DeRossett said.
Computer-generated covers pictures that are made by combining different features of many children digitally or where the pictures are completely created with a computer program.
Attorney General Jennifer Granholm, speaking before the House Criminal Justice Committee, voiced strong support for the bill.
“Michigan’s children are both our most vulnerable citizens and our most valuable assets,” Granholm said. “(This bill) will do much to protect them and I urge its swift passage.”
U.P. officials also supported the bill.
“I’ll support any bill that prohibits possessing and viewing of child pornography,” said Douglas Edwards, prosecuting attorney for Houghton County.
Joseph O’Leary, prosecuting attorney for Baraga County, agrees. “It’s hard to say you’re not against child pornography,” O’Leary said.”Before the Internet, you had these isolated pockets of perverts.”
“Now they have a way of contacting each other.”
The FBI operation broke up an Internet-based child pornography ring with reportedly more than 7,000 members, including some who have contact with children every day.
Among the people arrested were a school bus driver, law enforcement officials, members of the clergy, a nurse and a teacher’s aide, according to FBI officials.
DeRossett said such recent events like this only make the bill more relevant.
“(This bill) is about protecting the children,” DeRossett said. “It’s about making sure they are influenced by the things children should be influenced by and not by why what sexual predators or other adults want them to see.”
The results of the FBI sting are disturbing, considering research that suggests a correlation between possessing child pornography and actual child sexual abuse.
A study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons showed that sex offenders who were convicted of possessing or soliciting child pornography later admitted to a number of molestations 25 times higher than the one they originally disclosed.
However, the offenders actually convicted of molestation only admitted a number four times higher than that which they originally confessed.
“This remarkable result shows that the child-pornography offenders actually were more actively engaging in real-world sex offenses than were those who had been caught and convicted of such offenses,” Granholm said.
“It is clear that the law must treat child pornography as among the most serious of crimes.”
© 2002, Capital News Service, Michigan State University School of Journalism