U.S. Senators Take On Child Pornography With $1 Billion Warchest: Dominic Rivera has an interesting post out on a bill currently making it’s way through Congress. The bill is called the “Combating Child Exploitation Act of 2007” and reportedly would designate a $1 billion (with a “b”) warchest to help fight child pornography.
I like this bill and applaud the government for trying to do something serious about the child porn problem.
Personally I’d like to see one other component added to this bill. I’ve long believed that those who abuse children ought to be the ones who fund even more dollars towards fighting abuse.
I think that when people are caught with child porn or caught in child abuse situations, that in addition to their criminal penalty, if convicted, they should also face severe civil penalties.
While some criminals who prey on children have no money or assets, many who prey on children do in fact have money and assets. I see no reason why a convicted child molester (for instance) shouldn’t lose their home to go along with their conviction. If the government can seize assets from drug dealers, why not child abusers. In my mind they are the worse scum.
If the government began seizing assets of convicted child abusers they could then use the money raised from these assets to put together more sting operations and further fund police activity to fight child pornography.
Personally I’d rather see those who are abusing children and/or participating in child porn foot more of the cost of fighting child porn and abuse than the general US population.
When watching shows like NBC’s “Catch a Predator” I’m consistently amazed at how many men these people catch. Why not let these men who are caught cover the cost of even more sting operations and help get more and more of these people who would abuse children off the streets?