Major Legislation in CSAM Enforcement Imminent

With the help of celebrities, social media influences, and professional athletes, Representative Laurel M. Lee from Florida’s Fifteenth Congressional district has sponsored House H.R. 9523, entitled the Renewed Hope Act of 2024. It is currently co-sponsored by fifteen additional Congressmen and is expected to continue gaining traction within the House. In tandem, Senator John Cornyn from Texas also introduced Senate Bill S. 5015, also the Renewed Hope Act of 2024, for action in the Senate. The text of both the House and Senate Bills mirror each other.

The purpose of these bills is to exponentially multiply the available federal government resources dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse Materials (child pornography, child erotica, etc) (CSAM). Research and statistics supporting the Bills provide startling statistics indicating that within the United States, over 100,000 unique Internet Protocol Addresses (IP addresses) are discovered to have shared, transmitted, uploaded, or downloaded known files of child pornography featuring the sexual exploitation of children under 12 years old utilizing internet based peer-to-peer transfer programs. Known files of CSAM materials are tracked utilizing the file “hash values” which are digital fingerprints unique to certain identified electronic files. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) maintains a database of all known and previously identified CSAM files. The detection of over 100,000 unique IP addresses transmitting CSAM files featuring children under the age of 12 encompasses a period of only 30 days, and only within the United States.

The research promoting these bills also proclaims that within this group of 100,000 IP addresses, 50% to 80% are believed to be users who have committed hands on sexual offenses involving children. The research also claims that each offender is suspected to have an average of 13 child victims. These startling numbers support the Act’s requirement for the federal government to dedicate extensive financial and personnel resources towards combating these alleged crimes.

These Bills have considerable support from well-known celebrities, former athletes, and social media influences with large platforms. Several examples of those include the Tim Tebow foundation, with its leader Tim Tebow, former Heisman trophy winner and professional athlete. His foundation continues to offer significant support to the Act. See the foundation’s link: https://timtebowfoundation.org/advocacy. Other supporters of the Act include former Navy Seal Shawn Ryan, who runs a podcast and youtube channel which currently has over 4 million subscribers. Shawn Ryan’s podcast recently hosted Tim Tebow who discussed the Act in an episode that currently has over 440,000 views. Available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeVFs0dVcCc

The Act is expected to continue gaining traction and support.

The Renewed Hope Act specifically focuses on exponential increases to law enforcement resources dedicated to combatting CSAM. The Act seeks to begin by increasing staffing within the Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) Cyber Crimes Center (C3). HSI C3 is currently staffed by less than 10 investigators and the Act seeks to increase that number to 200. Exponential increases to local and regional Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces are also expected. Currently, 61 ICAC task forces exist nationwide which include 5,400 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, as well as prosecution authorities that are dedicated to investigating internet based crimes against children. ICAC task forces were also recently bolstered and reauthorized federally via the Protect Our Children Act of 2022 and the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction of 2024.

Overall, we expect a significant increase in the prevalence of detection, arrests, and prosecution for CSAM related cases. With this, we also expect a commensurate increase in the arrest and prosecution of individuals who may have committed an innocent or unknowing download, transmission, or possession of suspected CSAM materials.

Defending CSAM cases is a truly specialized field, requiring years of training and experience, as well as an understanding of the latest investigation and prosecution techniques—including the legal limitations of these. When one is suspected of involvement with a CSAM case, it is of critical importance that they do not retain a general practice attorney—or even a general criminal defense attorney with little to no prior experience with CSAM cases. The penalties in nearly all jurisdictions are extremely severe, even for those charged with a first offense.