Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing 20240703

So committee will come to order. Without objection recess at any time. We will begin the subcommittee hearing with the gentleman from california. The pledge of allegiance. Thank you. We welcome everyone to todays hearing on the exploitation of children in United States and abroad. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. I am grateful all of you are here today both the witnesses the member of the committee and then also the audience. We appreciate you being here. I wish we did not have to hold a hearing on this topic. That would mean children in our country and abroad are safe from exploitation. Unfortunately that is not the case. It is a fact our children are not safe online. And it is unacceptable. Predators use the internet to trick and exploit innocent children. Children are trafficked. Through social media apps. This is the worst type of evil. To our strong survivor leaders in the room and watching from afar we see you, we hear you and your Voice Matters and we appreciate you. We want to be supportive. Reports of continue to grow exponentially. From 3000 reports in 1998 to more than 1 million in 2014. An 18. 4 million in 2019. And more than 30 million last year. We cannot stand by and let this number grow continually. It seems like is something that happens in Foreign Countries or even different neighborhoods from our own. It is much closer that anyone would think. This is a homegrown issue. We know that offenders pray of the most vulnerable populations such as children in foster care. Groomers use techniques that normalize Inappropriate Conduct and encourage secrecy. Especially using social media platforms. There is no question that these criminals must be prosecuted. Many solutions combating this issue we must assure prosecutors are doing their jobs to put these criminals behind bars. We cannot accept lenience sentences or sweetheart plea deals for those who wish to bring harm to innocent children. Today between school and home children have unfettered access to technology. And big tech is taking that opportunity to choose profits over people. Over our children. Targeted algorithms connect consumerist information and content including csam content. Traffickers predators and drug dealers. It is well documented the chapters and pedophiles use social media to talk to children and to share and engage with csam content. Wall street journal along with top researchers across the country are in a detailed account of instagrams vast datafile network. The Research Found that instagram enable people to search explicit hashtags and connect users to accounts to advertise csam. One research noted instagram is an onramp to places on the internet where there is more explicit child sexual abuse. You would think social Media Companies would bend over backwards to work with Law Enforcement and to remove this content from their platform. And prevent it from happening at all. But that is not the case. Facebook instagram ticktock all allow the proliferation of abuse images and Human Trafficking on his platforms. Images are allowed to roam on the internet. Humans are bought and sold. Apple even threatens remove facebook and instagrams access to the app store because the problem was so bad. And yet big text continues to allow these problems to occur. Targeted algorithms seem to be more profitable than investing and protecting children. Big tech seems to have no problem censoring speech or new things they consider disinformation. They allow these predators to access children on the internet, and allow images to remain on the internet for years that is unacceptable. Big tech must be held accountable and i look forward to hearing from our witnesses on how that can occur. We know trafficking is an issue that occurs within the United States and abroad. Many of us have heard and seen the movie sound of freedom and how it opened their eyes to the horror occurring in an outside our country. However many do not know how he would attempt to shut the film down not wanting the American People to see the film and learn about these terrible crimes. Yet the film became one of the most successful independent films in history. It has grossed 191 million and counting. Sound of freedom expose the worst of humanity and shows us how we can play a part to keep children safe. Our committee is collaborating with Homeland Security investigations to enhance our knowledge and understanding of investigations related to Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation. I expressed my gratitude to the special agents of hh i for their unwavering commitment to safeguarding children and liberating victims from the atrocities of Human Trafficking. Many children especially those crossing the border as unaccompanied minors are not safe. Lax border policies are leading to Vulnerable Children being exported by cartels and smugglers as they attempt to come to america. Incredibly dangerous and the risk of being sex traffic is incredibly high while being smuggled across our border. In fact the United Nations this week alone said the most dangerous migration is mexico to you the United States. In 2014 than president obama stated dont send your children unaccompanied. They might not make it. I have heard nothing like that from this administration. We need to be louder stronger and bolder. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses. On how we can enforce the law. Hold big tech accountable and protect children from six trafficking. Gus children are not for sale. This topic is tough. And unfortunately unnecessary topic. I hope that we each can learn together. I think there will be broad aspects of support across this entire committee. Both sides of the aisle. And i look forward to working together with my colleagues across the aisle. And with that i thank you again for being here. And i yield back. Unfortunately today ms. Jackson leave the Ranking Member is unable to join us for health reasons. In her stead i will recognize ms. Dean for an opening statement. I thank you mr. Chairman. Chairman nikki for convening this important hearing today. I think all of you for being here both those in the audience and those who have come to testify before us. It is an important hearing to discuss the deeply disturbing and pervasive issue that is plaguing our country and our world. Child expectation. Im standing in for Ranking Member Sheila Jackson lee who regrettably cannot be with us today. And im honored to be in her stead. I know that the subject is deeply personal to her as it is to me. Because although the United States is a nation known for its foundational ideas of liberty and protection of citizens we continue to struggle with the existence and prevalence of Child Exploitation. It takes on various forms ranging from child labor and six trafficking to the production and distribution of child sexual abuse materials Online Harassment and sex distortion. Perpetrators of these repulsive crimes hide within our society preying upon innocent and defenseless young people. There victims who should be expressing the joys of their formative years. I take this particularly personal as a mother and as a grandmother of four. Last congress Ranking Member jackson lee convened a hearing on the federal response to Human Trafficking that provided a wealth of information that i was able to apply in my own efforts to tackle the scourge of trafficking. Child labor trafficking a sad reality in Many Industries around the globe and even in the United States harms Childrens Health often deprives them of an education, denies them a normal childhood and deprives them of their basic human rights. Another ghastly act of Child Exploitation is child six trafficking. Where children are lured away from the safety of their homes. Their loved ones their schools their communities. Stripped of their humanity and exploited for various nefarious purposes. Roughly 25 of all Human Trafficking victims are children. Worldwide and most of them being sex traffic. At this very moment there are children as young as 11 years old in the United States and abroad who are forced to commit commercial sex acts and other unspeakable acts. Let me be clear, there is no such thing as a child prostitute. These young victims who have been exploited abused traffic weather for sex or labor deserve victim focused culturally informed responses that the rectum away from the criminal Justice System and towards services and programming critical to the restoration of their health and their dignity. Some people would have us believe that trafficking of minors is primarily an immigration problem. A result of pork control at our borders. Problem of urban impoverished children and youth. But the reality is that the trafficker traffickers pray on stigmatized forgotten vulnerable American Children and youth. In suburban rural urban and cities in every corner of this country. Only valuing them as commodities and not as precious people that they are. While any child can become a victim of sex or labor trafficking some children are more vulnerable than others. If we truly want to extend an end to the trafficking of children and youth where child expectation of any kind will make certain that all children and youth are located. Treated as victims not criminals and connected to the services and programs they need. In this digital age of smart phones and handhelds social media direct messages and tick tock predators can victimize children and youth without having to move from one location to another. Online Child Exploitation has reached epidemic status globally. These individuals exploit children throughout the United States from anywhere in the world. And their criminal activity is often cloaked behind encryption. They also hide between behind cute screen names catchy hashtags and fake profiles with the goal of manipulating or even blackmailing their young victims. Because child predators prey upon children even when they are in school Ranking Members Sheila Jackson lee introduced hr 30 the stop Human Trafficking in school zones act. That would establish and enhance penalty for child expectation offenses that are committed within school zones or near School Activities or other child centered locations. This would apply to those individuals who dare contact children while they are attempting to gain an education or participating in School Related activities. Child sexual abuse material inflicts untold emotional damage on victims. Especially as you point out mr. Chairman since the internet enables their repeated victimization. Each time images of their suffering are viewed. Recognizing the breath and scope of this issue it is our collective responsibility as representatives all of us to protect all of our children. And eradicate every form of Child Exploitation. That is why i hope todays discussion will be not about blame speculation here mongering but about ideas and solutions. I have a few of my own. First we must adapt and strengthen our Legal Framework that exist to ensure children and youth are protected that perpetrators and facilitators of any manner of Child Exploitation are exposed and faced severe consequences. That is why i introduced hr 3686 stopping harmful image exploitation and limiting distribution act. The shield act. This is Bipartisan Legislation and it will create a new penalties. Im also the original cosponsor of hr 508 two the revising existing procedures on reporting technology act. We can talk about. And secondly we must also continue to support organizations that work tirelessly to identify rescue restore young victims. Providing them with culturally specific Care Counseling and support. That they need to heal. These organizations like the ones represented here today do lifesaving work. And lastly we must continue to provide Public Education and awareness both of which play a pivotal role in preventing Child Exploitation. Child exploitation is an unconscionable reality that we must confront on a bipartisan basis. Every child deserves to be free from exploitation. I thank you the witnesses who are here today. I thank you in the audience for your kind consideration of what we are talking about and your life experience. Todays conversations will lead to solutions. As im yielding back mr. Chairman i ask unanimous consent to render into the testimony of survivors from Advisory Board members into the record. Without objection. I yield back. Also, for the record i want to include a document a letter to myself and Ranking Member lee from exploitation of abuse and abuse of children coalition. Without objection. Without objection all of the Opening Statements will be included in the record. I would now introduce todays witnesses. We have distinguished panel tremendous insight and expense and wisdom on the subject. We appreciate all of you being here. Mr. John is the chief executive officer of raven a Nonprofit Organization focused on preventing Child Exploitation. He previously served with the new Jersey State Police including as the commander of new jersey internet crimes against Children Task force. Welcome. We welcome ms. Vanessa a Founding Member of the Leadership Council for the Global Survivor Network and is a survivor of sexual abuse. Global Survivor Network works with survivors of various forms of abuse and exploitation and advocates before local and national governments. Thank you for being here. Ms. Lori cohen, is the chief executive officer of protect all children from trafficking. Works to protect children from Sexual Exploitation and trafficking through education legislative advocacy and partnerships. Thank you for being here. Mr. Josi search of the board of directors of the Human Trafficking legal center. He is a public Speaker Author advocate and survivor of child sexual trafficking. Human trafficking legal center connects trafficking survivors with Pro Bono Legal representation and advocates on their behalf. You for being here. Mr. John , is that close . Thank you. The executive director of the center to end online sexual explication of children. The Center Apartments with governments companies nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders to expose neutralize and deter the online Sexual Exploitation of children. Thank you. Mr. Frank russo mr. Russo and associate general counsel combating Human Trafficking at the american conservative union. Advocates for policies that address the needs of victims and provide Law Enforcement with the tools necessary to hold traffickers accountable. Thank you for being here mr. Russo. Ms. Is the founder and chair of the Interparliamentary Task force on Human Trafficking. The task force is a consortium of members of parliament and Congress Government leaders and survivors from more than 25 countries who work to stop Human Trafficking. We welcome each of you and thank you for appearing today. Now we will begin by swearing you in. If you would each rise and raise your right hand. Do you each affirm under penalty of perjury the testimony were about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge information and believes so help you god . The witnesses have all answered in the affirmative. Thank you. You may be seated. I want you to know that your written testimony will be entered into the record in its entirety. Accordingly we ask you summarize your testimony in five minutes. There should be a yellow light that appears when there is a minute left. And then when it goes red we would ask you to end your testimony at that point. Mr. You may begin. Chairman Ranking Members Sheila Jackson lee and distinguish members of congress. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Legislation is falling behind the technology that is putting our children at risk. Every day are an action to pass legislation results in children being victimized. At ever increasing rates. As someone who has dedicated their life to protecting children i can assure you we need better awareness support policy and legislation to protect our children. The sad reality is that protecting our children has not been a priority. Im here to ask you to change that making protecting our children a priority that they deserve to be. The Tech Industry has provided limited solutions to protect our children. There is not been a decrease in online victimization. There has been a substantial increase. The Tech Industry answer has to produce trust and safety teams and played greater privacy measures, such as endtoend encryption and hide behind virtual private networks. Everything they do to protect children is voluntary. Which includes the information that they share with the National Center for missing and exploited children. And Law Enforcement. The truth is they do the bare minimum of what is required. Children remain vulnerable on these platforms as a result of poorer moderation the absence of age identity verification, and inadequate safety mechanisms. The truth is that we have not protected our children sufficiently due to the ever increasing use of social media apps and the growth of their online lives. The risks for their harm has increased as such a significant pace that shielding them from abuse and exploitation has become untenable. Today there are countless victims of csam child trafficking hands on offenders sex distortion and other explitive crimes that we have yet to even identify. Those who would protect our youth are overburdened and under resourced. Which makes children vulnerable. On the issues young people arent able to escape from the bombardment of postreels and online social interactions ai and algorithms pushed children to those viewers who crave content and are interested in children. These same algorithms push harmful content to children. A major disadvantage of a Global Society is that any offender can reach any victim anywhere in the world through any app or platform. With ai of interest can out machine learn and mimic the behavior of children to infiltrate their lives allowing them to groom children at scale. Criminal organizations have used grooming techniques to children so they might financially benefit. The financial component of profiting off children has increased exponentially. The Cyber Tipline is a challenging Law Enforcement but only with respect of quantity of leads but also the quality of leads. Most of these leads provided by Service Providers are not actionable. The lack of uniformity is what is reported to Service Providers results in Law Enforcement being forced to sort through thousands and thousands of tips in order to find actionable cases. As an example, in the last 90 days there have been over 99,000 ip addresses throughout the u. S. That have distributed known child sexual abuse images. And videos through peertopeer networks. Yet 637 less than 1 are being actually investigated. The darknet has become a haven for Child Exploitation. Some forms and boards contain the most abusive Child Exploitation. Videos and images Law Enforcement has encountered. Chat forms allow offenders to create best practices on how to groom and abuse children. A post named the art of seduction has been viewed over 54,000 times on how to groom children. We need the help of our lawmakers. Raven has currently sponsored legislation in the senate and house from the protect our children act to stop csam project safe childhood shield report and Child Exploitation. And the Child Online Safety modernization act and the kids Online Safety act. Alas some of these bills have passed the respective committees. But yet there has been no vote on the floor. If there was ever a bipartisan call to action that everyone can agree on it is the protection of all our children. We are at a point that we need to identify what works and provide authorities with sufficient resources to increase their capabilities. One simply can look at statistics to determine the real story. What is truly happening to our children. Taste upon what i experienced i can confidently tell you three things. At the moment the predators are winning. Our children are not safe. And those who are fiercely committed to protect them are drowning and will continue to. Unless we can get the legislation and resources they need to protect our children. Thank you. The chair recognizes ms. Chairman bigs behalf of Ranking Member jackson lee and testing which members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is vanessa. I am asian american. I am a survivor of child sexual abuse in the philippines. And today i am a Founding Member of the Global Survivor Network an International Group of survivors and a human rights advocate i was only eight years old and when the abuse started. It finally stopped when i found the courage to pick up the phone trembling my hands shaking. Called my best friend at school and she answered my hands shaking still. Told her i dont want to be here anymore. I need help. I was put in a shelter home in the philippines where there were so many children like me. I became a part of a Survivor Group healing together and advocating for protection together. Today i dont speak just for myself. But i speak on behalf of all of my brothers and sisters in our Survivor Network group. Julie is one of my survivor sisters. She was seven years old. She should have been going to school playing with friends. Instead she was taken into a room and abused in front of a camera every day for 10 years. Her abuse live streamed to pedophiles around the world. Perpetrators log into the cameras into the gear computers and forced her to do terrible things in front of the camera. I share this because the threats of child Sexual Exploitation is very real. And i know as a country we can be divided along partisan lines. But the one thing we can all agree is that children need to be safe. We are here because we agreed that children should not be bought and sold. We are here because the congress has the power to act. In 2008 congress came together to pass a protect act so children were safe. However, crimes have continued to evolve since then and our response also has devolved. Offenders in the u. S. Should not be able to log online in the privacy in their own homes and with a simple click of their mouse violate the privacy and dignity of little children as far as the philippines. We need to create and enforce strong regulation so that children are protected. And today as we consider proposed legislation i want to leave you with key recommendations. First survivor representation. I want to encourage us to keep survivor experiences at the forefront. I am pleased there is a Provision Requiring survivors to serve on the National Commission and online Sexual Exploitation. And i strongly recommend that this provision be included in the final version of the earn it act. And that people that lived experience of this crime be included on this commission. Second, financial restitution. Survivors have been exploited for profit. And so it only makes sense that offenders must be held financially accountable. These offenders have taken years from survivors. They took 10 years from joy. So she must be compensated and we must build systems where the money goes straight directly to survivors. So they can heal and be restored. Finally, removal of child sexual abuse materials. Remember the act of abuse is recorded online. And imagine that the most vulnerable painful memories of your life are just one Online Search away. How can we expect survivors to carry on with their lives and their privacy is violated every day . And 2021 apple promised child Safety Measures and two years later our Survivor Groups we are still petitioning for them to remove these images of abuse. And all child sexual abuse should not be distributed online and existing material has to be removed. Please hold Tech Companies and social media platforms accountable when they fail to keep children safe and incentivize them to do better in the future. Thank you. S thank you very much. Chairman bigs congresswoman dean thank you for the invitation to testify at this important hearing. My name is john and i serve as executive director there for International Justice mission send it to and online Sexual Exploitation of children. I jm is a global Nongovernment Organization that protects people in poverty from violence. We are at a crisis point when it comes to child sexual abuse and exploitation online. I spent seven years living in the philippines. Leading i jm teams to combat the trafficking of children to produce new child Sexual Exploitation material especially in live streams. This is the in person sexual abuse of children. By adults in the philippines. While foreign offenders watch and direct the abuse live online for a fee. This is payperview csam live on demand. Based on i jms experience supporting over 340 philippine led police operations. The abuse usually includes, children forced to engage in sexual acts with other children. And even children who are harmed and other degrading ways such as beast reality. Victims are abused for 2 years on average with the median age only 11 years old. I jm has even supported Philippine Police and bringing and fence to safety. Offenders including in the u. S. Can pay as little as 33 to watch and direct a child being sexually abused in a live stream. Last week i jm released findings from our twoyear Research Study scale of harm. Estimating that in 2022 nearly half 1 million filipino children were sexually abused to create images videos and live streams for sale to offenders around the world. That is one in 100 filipino children. Global tech platforms remain Fertile Ground for this abuse. With australias e safety commissioner reporting that companies are failing to address child sexual exportation in live streams or video calls. In the United States is the number one country of offenders paying for and directing this abuse. With 34 of philippine cases involving usbased offenders according to i jms 2020 study. And in april of this year, the philippine Antimoney Laundering Council reported that the highest number of payments for child Sexual Exploitation flagged by Financial Institutions and suspicious transaction reports came from the u. S. Make no mistake, offenders who abuse Children Online also pose a threat to abused kids right here. In fact 58 of respondents reported feeling afraid that viewing csam might leave them to commit abuse in person. According to a survey in the stanford internet observatories journal of online trust and safety. Laws are urgently needed to prevent child sexual abuse online. Companies must prioritize the safety and privacy of the victims. By expediting detection reporting and removal of csam. Early detection and reporting allowed Law Enforcement to bring offenders to justice. And victims to safety. I jm prevalence studies across crime types show that replacing offender impunity with accountability can also serve to prevent future harm by deterring offenders. At the same time the sheer scale of child sexual abuse material necessitates technological prevention. Company should deploy tools and video chat and messaging apps to disrupt the production of csam. Todays phones and apps are not saved by design. Precisely because they are built without any technology to prevent child abuse images and video from being taken, streamed or shared. Without text safeguards designed to prevent abuse, offenders operate with ease and impunity. Imagine cars without seatbelts. Airbags or antilock brakes. Without laws Child Exploitation online is a Global Crisis spiraling out of control. That is why i jm supports the earn it act to change incentives for Tech Companies to do everything in their power to prevent Child Exploitation on their platforms. Enclosing some lobby against Online Safety legislation. Under the socalled banner of privacy or free speech. But australia well respected democracy pass and Online Safety bill in 2021 requiring tech transparency and safety by design. Free speech and privacy are alive and well in australia. And if Congress Passes Online Safety legislation to protect kids the sky wont fall here either. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Alfaro. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee is an honor to testify before you today. I was born and raised right here in the United States in a small rural town in texas. And i was kicked out of my home at the age of 16 for being. There were no resources for the Lgbtq Community within my hometown. And i was terrified of sharing with anyone what i was going through since i had already been rejected by my own family. I had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. I was on my own and was quickly in the hands of my trafficker. I went online to look for resources. It took my trafficker Jason Daniel Gandy less than two hours to proposition me online. Jason trafficked me through his massage building where he locked me in a room with adult men who were allowed to and abuse me. I believe that i was silenced by society long before i was silenced by my trafficker. But he also added to that silencing by telling me if i ever shared with anyone what happened to me than i would go to prison. I stayed silent for 7 years after my escape. Because of the harm that was done to me i self medicated, abusing drugs and alcohol as a way to cope. I had several suicide attempts. I dropped out of school and i was homeless. I needed for one person to recognize that i was not okay. And that i needed support as a homeless and traffic used for but no one saw me. Not the Homeless Program that i was enrolled in. Not the School System not my doctors. And certainly not Law Enforcement. I was invisible. In 2014 a friend told me that jason gandy had been arrested. I was put in contact with the federal prosecutors working on the case. This was the first time i put a name to what happened to me Human Trafficking. In 2018 myself and three other male survivors testified in the federal trial. Jason gandy was sentenced to 30 years in prison with no chance of parole and he was also ordered to pay restitution. I reflected on the trafficking i experienced at the trials and i have six recommendations to share with you today. The u. S. Government should strengthen and add resources for the Lgbtq Community. Currently in certain states lgbtq resources and education are banned from minors. This will continue to perpetuate trafficking. The lack of resources for lgbtq youth will cause more vulnerabilities and more trafficking of these young people. We need more resources for homeless youth. I dont think i have to elaborate further on that one. Stop using language that stigmatizes young people. Language matters. The label runaway stigmatizes children. There is just one difference between a missing child and a runaway child. The term. People search for missing children. But runaway children are often stigmatized as bat children. Runaway is a term associated with children who are marginalized and children who are pour. Too often no one is looking for runaway children. Trained Law Enforcement to identify male victims of trafficking and educate the public that trafficking can happen to males. Improve Victims Compensation and restitution. Criminal restitution is mandatory. In my case the government has forfeited jason gandys access at the treasury took the money. It took me two years and a team of pro bono attorneys to receive the restitution ordered by the court. There is a need for Bipartisan Legislation to prevent trafficking and hold traffickers accountable because Technology Gives predators access to children almost everywhere. And it is critical that we provide safe spaces for all children. Enclosing Human Trafficking is a systemic issue. Marginalized and underserved communities are impacted disproportionately. If we want to help and Human Trafficking we have to start with prevention. We need better systems to protect all children. Human trafficking is not a genderbased issue but a human issue. We have to identify vulnerabilities and intervene to support all children no matter their gender their race or their sexuality. The current Politics Around the Lgbtq Community are hateful and horrifying after hearing my story today i hope you can see how certain legislation and hatred can be can perpetuate Human Trafficking. Harms lgbtq young people creates more vulnerabilities and already vulnerable communities. Thank you for your time today. The chair recognizes now miss . Dear chairman biggs, is your microphone on . Dear chairman biggs, jackson lee and distinguished members of the subcommittee. You for inviting me and my colleagues. Ms. Cohen, could you pull the mic a little closer to you, please . We all want to hear you. Thank you. We know you have an important message. Should i start over . Yes, there we go. See my dear chairman biggs, Ranking Member jacksonlee and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me and my respected colleagues to discuss how we can better protect children from trafficking and online exploitation. I am lori cohen, the chief executive officer at pact, protect all children from trafficking pier previously known as eck pat usa. Pact remains a proud member of the Global Network active in over 100 countries. We are survivor informed and id like to recognize pact board member and Survivor Council liaison catrina massey who has joined us today for this testimony. Welcome. We met pact is deeply concerned about the welfare of unaccompanied minor children traveling to the United States. Many of them did not wish to leave their homes, but gang violence, war, repressive governments, genderbased persecution and catastrophic climate events left them with an impossible choice. Faced death, sexual abuse or torture if they remain, or risk their lives on a perilous journey to the United States in the hope of securing freedom. Covid19 exacerbated this migration and we noticed an increase in migrant arrivals as early as april of 2020. And 2022, pact published a study with mexico, guatemala and Yale University that explore the impact of the pandemic on child migration, trafficking and Sexual Exploitation. Half the experts indicated that covid19 spurred an increase in trafficking, however, 44 lacked the information to answer this question. And 67 could not say whether the Migrant Children they served were directly affected by Sexual Exploitation. We call the report undetected because the people and institutions meant to prevent and stop trafficking dont even know how to identify it. Our report also explored the role of technology in migration. As with trafficking, half the experts could not tell us whether these children had been affected by online grooming. This figure is alarming as Current Research indicates that nearly all csam is created abroad. The National Center for missing and exported children have found that of 32 million reports that its cyber tip line received in 2022, 89. 9 resolved to locations outside the United States. Information about trafficking and grooming is lacking on both sides of the border. When visiting shelter facilities for Migrant Children and their families in southern california, we learned that trafficking screening was not incorporated into safety protocols. Likewise, limited training of customs and Border Patrol raises concerns of missed opportunities to identify at risk children. In fiscal year 2022, cbp processed over 120,000 unaccompanied minors, but reported only a handful of instances of child trafficking to the office on trafficking and persons as mandated by the trafficking persons protection act. Similarly, csam content abroad has an axis. Our regulatory structure and unchecked demand for pedophilic content have enabled u. S. Based exploiters to access csam with ease. The Internet Watch Foundation recently noted that our nation accounts for 30 of the worlds csam urls, displacing the netherlands , after that country cracked down on illicit websites. If we want to shut down csam, we need legislation that stops it from being hosted on u. S. Based platforms and enforce penalties against u. S. Citizens who are fueling the demand for this despicable content. We also need to look ahead to the next development and Child Exploitation. The use of Artificial Intelligence to generate sexually explicit imagery of children. Last week, attorneys general from all 50 states broke Congress Asking you to expand existing laws against csam that explicitly cover ai generated materials. A request that we support fully. Pact urges congress to pass the bills that have introduced including project safe act and no trafficking in school zones act and stop csam act so we can prevent Human Trafficking , on my Sexual Exploitation and abuse of children and help survivors access justice. Most importantly, pact urges the federal government to target demand which ultimately drives the professor feeling this criminal enterprise. Again, thank you for allowing me and my colleagues to speak on the realities of Human Trafficking. Thank you, ms. Cohen. The chair recognizes mr. Russo in your five minutes. Thank you chairman biggs and establish members of this can committee. Thank you for allowing me to testify on crime and federal government surveillance on the two and Child Exploitation. Im frank russo, director of trafficking and was important, husband and father who understands the importance of protecting the most vulnerable amongst us. It faces this communities as ms. Dean said, both urban and rural across this country. See pat was excited to announce a new center at a screening of the film sound of reading earlier this year and then partner with our friends in mexico here on capitol hill to focus on these various issues. Our new initiative will focus on advancing policies the support victims and the reintegrating into society and the collateral consequences resulting from their abuse as you heard about earlier. We want to strengthen accountability for traffickers and approve that cross collaboration between domestic and international entities. As you for throughout the day, Human Trafficking and child expectation for the Fastest Growing Illicit Industries both in the United States and abroad. The state department estimates that annually over 17,000 individuals are trafficked into the United States with mexico being the largest seller and unfortunately the United States being the largest provider and buyer. We also know that nearly 72 of these Trafficking Victims are immigrants meaning that cartels are taking advantage of lax border policies to enrich themselves in this horrific trade and practice. This trafficking of children often involves multiple layers of abuse as some victims being used for both sex and labor trafficking across the United States. Coercion is at the heart of these crimes is transnational gams such as ms13 infiltrate communities and take advantage of young men and women who come from broken homes or broken communities. At the same time, the amount of Human Trafficking across the country is dropping both here and internationally. To confront whats become a 150 billion terminal enterprise, Congress Must work in tandem with the federal state and local partners but also their International Partners to assist in ending this trafficking and these crimes. Meaningful and effective policy to combat Human Trafficking requires an approach the first identifies the needs of victims while creating swift and effective penalties for criminal traffickers. We know that victims are caught in the horrors of labor, six and financial trafficking, often children we must expose these and replace these misguided policies that provide victims a safe pathway back to society while proportionally punishing their traffickers. For example, congress has the opportunity to provide pathways to ensure survivors are given Mental Health and Drug Treatment Services and the lafarge criminal penalties which often these children are caught and forced into crimes and then we prosecute those children for we cant allow that to happen. They need to be Given Services first and then focus on their reintegration into society. By insuring an open resource to children who are coerced into these crimes, lawmakers make sure we dont exacerbate the cycle of abuse for the survivors. Legislation such as the bipartisan trafficking survivors relief law provide avenues for young victims of trafficking to be able to beat their cycle of abuse and rescue the survivors and also hold their traffickers accountable. Accountability do not again or and when the avenger traffics our borders. As we must do more to keep these criminals out of our country and off the very devices our children use on a daily basis. Familiar dna testing of the u. S. Mexico border in the pirate ministration revealed 30 of miners were related to those that were they were coming across the border with. That testing has ended which allows cartels greater comfort to recycle these children across the border, to move more adults into the country. Most concerned, our partners in Homeland Security arent able to keep up with these children once the cycle and repetition of abuse ends and they are brought to this country likely to be trafficked into six or labor. Criminal traffickers has exploded social media additional platforms amongst children of all ages to manipulate victims and connect with their offenders the data as you heard earlier bears this out. Our partners at the National Center for missing and asked what he children identified roughly 16. 9 million tips in 2019. That number has ballooned to 29. 4 million tips the last calendar year. Congress must do more not only will these founders accountable but require Technology Platforms to take child sexual expectation seriously. The act would address this exponential growth in child sexual material by removing the blankets of immunity for Technology Companies that refuse to remove these abhorrent images. They were refusing under this law to remove those images from their sites. Cpac stands ready to work with our partners in congress to bring an end to all forms of trafficking. We are grateful that the sound of freedom has reignited a conversation in america on the importance of protecting the most important asset this country has, our next generation. Is now on all of us in the space to deliver real results that will first protect victims, break the cycle of abuse and of course hold offenders accountable. Chairman biggs, and congresswoman dean, thank you for sending a clear message today. Gods children are not for sale. Thank you, mr. Russo. The chair now recognizes ms. Basham for five minutes. Summa thank you chairman biggs and representative dean, its an honor to testify before you today on child expectation both here in the United States and internationally. Today we have an opportunity to address one of the most important human rights issues, but also one of the most critical Global Security issues facing our world. The exfiltration of children for profit by human traffickers, smugglers and advanced criminal networks. Child exploitation and six trafficking is big business and unlike any other human rights abuse, its a transnational organized crime. This is the subcommittee on crime and Human Trafficking specifically generates 150 billion in profits for traffickers annually and it is the second largest criminal enterprise in the world. The average age of sex victims targeted is just 11 to 14 years old. China, russia, north korea, the taliban and terrorist groups all used child trafficking to fund their operations because unlike drugs or weapons, a person can be sold over and over again. Child china trafficking funds organized Networks Like ms13, one of the most notorious gangs operating in guatemala, honduras and el salvador and these three countries make up 87 of unaccompanied children apprehended of the southern border. The u. S. Treasury investigation found that money generated by local ms13 lips engaged in sex trafficking and this is a quote. Drug trafficking, murder for hire, extortion and Money Laundering and it was consolidated and funneled to the Group Central leadership in Central America. The reality is the children are the primary component of this illicit finance network. Many of the latin American Children sent across the border have been taken by organized criminals such as this and what frequently follows as child Sexual Exploitation or labor exploitation. From march through may of this year, more than 33,000 unaccompanied children crossed the u. S. Border and the physical and sexual violence, hunger and thirst that these children often experience traveling to the United States is appalling. Many children and parents who arrive in the United States are from remote regions of Central America which are often impoverished and isolated, specifically by language barriers. I think this is something most people dont recognize. For example, nearly half of those who crossed the u. S. Border are from guatemala and within this one nation, they have 24 different dialects which means its difficult to speak with parents regarding the incredible risks that their children face if they send them to the u. S. And because of this, they often coerce mothers into paying childrens hefty smuggling fees and the mothers do so because they believe a better life awaits their children in the United States. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Because of scenarios like this, many unaccompanied children eventually entered the u. S. Foster care system but we know that the foster care system is alls burden and child Trafficking Victims are current or former foster youth. Just a few days ago, it was reported that Human Trafficking rings have been targeting children in temporary foster care settings specifically in texas and Child Protective Services has paid 30 million to offduty Police Officers to watch children who were housed unsupervised in hotels and churches because there is no family for them within the foster care system. Increased burdens on the foster care system put already Vulnerable Children primly into the crosshairs of online Sexual Exploitation and abuse which has become one of the Fastest Growing threats against children globally as we know today. Child trafficking of the southern border israel and at the same time in our modern world, Human Trafficking is a borderless crime and so is sexual expectation that the most prevalent form of online sexual abuse is the advertisement of children actually through websites and social media. According to the organization for security and cooperation in europe, such advertisements, and this is a quote, such advertisements for Sexual Services are now central to the Human Trafficking Business Model ,. In another study concluded that 75 ofs sex Trafficking Victims are advertised online. There are many things that we can do, but to stop Human Trafficking at its core, we must prioritize widespread prevention curriculum here in the United States so that all children can recognize and report their own abuse. That you and odc actually reported that most victims identified in cases and this is a recent report were quote self rescue. That means they had to self report or escape exploitation on their own. This is why this is one of the most important fixes we have. I also encourage you to prioritize many of the bills which have been spoken here today, whether it be the report out, shield act and more. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you ms. Basham, and thank you all for your poignant and important testimony. We will now proceed to member questioning under the five minute rule and we will begin by recognizing the gentleman from florida, mr. Gates. See my thank you for holding this hearing and i enter into the record texas policy. Com, how it fuels Human Trafficking in the United States and also from heritage. Fighting Human Trafficking and bidens border. I think a number of us on the panel took great interest in your description of the screening that doesnt occur the border. I love to give you time to maybe lend your expertise to the type of screening that we ought to pursue. Thank you so much congressman gates. Packed has worked very closely with close schools, with shelters, with programs around the country to look at indicators of trafficking and red flags, and we are extremely eager to engage in working with people at the border, with customs and Border Patrol and also with shelters. We did find it somewhat concerning the shelters were indicated a reluctance to ask questions that might be indicators of trafficking. So i know what category that falls in, these are shelters that unaccompanied minors go to as they are being processed through hhs . We met we were visiting shelters that had children with family members and some of the testimony referred today as indicated that there is a concern of trafficking among those categories as well. And in those shelters, we were informed that there was not any screening done on children specifically for indicators of trafficking because there was a fear of asking questions that might be triggering, that might be problematic for those children and there are questions that can be asked in a trauma informed way that could easily whether or not the narrative thats being presented is in fact the true narrative. The true situation of the child in question. Chairman biggs has led delegations to the border and we have seen the chaotic enterprise that exists there. Could you give us a sense of how long and effective screening could take that was trauma informed him that was effective at determining if theres a way to uproot son of these networks . Soon i think the question can be done fairly quickly. There are certain indicators of might appear immediately that could lead to additional questioning. But i think that it can be ruled out and our survivors counsel is very happy to provide input. The members of the survivors counsel that were trafficked across the southern border who said that no one asked them anything and that for us is a true source of concern. That there should be more focused questioning and some basic questions about family dynamics, and the family relationship and to whether whats being presented in some cases by the adults speaking on behalf of the child actually matches up with the childs own testimony. I love to draw on your Law Enforcement experience. When you are able to get that type of Realtime Data from an effective screening, how can that be useful in disrupting these networks . Seam the more data you have, the better the investigation and the better the lead. So its really important on any information that you can really get in the challenges with most investigations is being in the dark. So the more information that Law Enforcement has to understand where things are going, the more likely we can remedy something. We have all different layers of Law Enforcement working on this problem. Where have you seen it be most effective . The most effective misses from a dose from the actual training and the actual, lets say, prioritizing of it. Its not really prioritized in my person because were doing so many Different Things and we are inundated. So i think thats part of the challenge. It completely is. I reflect back on when we had steve friend before us whod been at the fbi and he had been working some of these cases from a federal level. When he was reassigned to surveil appearance at school board meetings, then no one else picked up those files and they went by the wayside. So i think youre right that prioritization is probably pretty central. On the subject matter honestly is from a Law Enforcement perspective, even child sexual abuse material, we dont want to know. So Law Enforcement generally doesnt really spend that much time doing that. So is underfunded theres less resources and that comes from the agencies itself. Thank you for your testimony. I yield back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from tennessee, mr. Cohen. Thank you, mr. Chair. Is it mr. , mr. Pizzuro . Yes, sir. What branch of Law Enforcement does the most work on these cases . Is it fbi or local Law Enforcement . Whos the most active . The Childrens Task force which is comprised of 60 taskforces in the u. S. Does the bulk of it. Im not sure how a 61 member group does that. To protect our children and authorize the task force. It created 61 taskforces in the u. S. The challenges they are really underfunded and under resourced. So for example, from new jersey where i was from, the new Jersey State Police, we were in charge of that entire task force for that state. So what we would do is the task force probably has about 5000 affiliated agencies. So most of the cyber tips that were sent go to those local Law Enforcement and then to investigate. Those cases are prosecuted mostly in state court or federal court . State court. You will have different jurisdictions. For example, sometimes you will get a federal prosecution, but the majority are handled in state court. Does the fbi get involved at all in intrastate operations . They will do operations, but generally speaking is that some will be interstate and they will do some larger investigations as well. But for the most part, the task force along with hsi of the two predominant agencies to do most of the child exportation. Mostly state agencies. Yes. Anybody else appear from Law Enforcement . No, i didnt think so. Mr. Russo, you are here with goodlad. I was here with congressman good land. Is quite lost in my mind but im glad you asked the question. Same problem. Sir, i think its important. I represent prosecutors prior to this as you know and one of the pieces i mentioned was that prosecutions are down domestically and internationally. One of the problems weve had is getting survivor input and support in that space is extremely difficult to do because we dont do enough of those survivors to assist in those investigations. We are asking so much of them by providing so little in return. Swing that you are looking at legislation that would be helpful here . Is there any particulars law that is before us that you recommend that we take up and sponsor for support . Thank you, congressman. There are a couple to come to mind. The trafficking survivor relief act and sarahs law. Provide not just to children but adults who have faced criminal offenses as a part of their trafficking. Often they are coerced into the crimes youd expect prostitution but they are also coerced into other crimes you may not expect such as Drug Distribution are forced to commit robberies, assaults. Postings hangover those individuals and we then need them to prosecute the actual criminal offender. If you have a criminal record hanging over your head, how likely are you to comply with Law Enforcement knowing you may not be able to yourself come out of trouble . Thats presented a significant problem. The only other one is the barnett act which will focus on holding tech accountable. Tech platforms accountable so they are doing a better job and they are often nonresponsive to Law Enforcement and thats a significant problem as well. I know my stuff can do that but who are the proud sponsors of those bills in house . Seam on sarahs law, from arkansas and we are working to the process but the senator has been a big champion of that as well. Samina legislation involved to get more monies for nurses to be aware of the signs of trafficking. Is that still dividing funding for nurses to be trained and finding those . It is but ill say a couple of things. One like anything, theres a need for more funding and resources in that space specifically. Forensic services are strapped for both time and talent are so getting nurses into the profession having them trained appropriately takes both a broader Financial Investment but also a focus on pushing the medical profession in that direction which is a difficult challenge. Yes, the law has been successful but it needs, like anything, more resources and more attention. Thank you, mr. Russo. Its nice to see a goodlad person back. Payment chair recognizes the gentleman from alabama, mr. Moore. Thank you all, the witnesses for being here. Mr. Pizzuro, a couple of questions and i understand your testimony that you have experience in investigating crimes against children. I have a couple of questions here from a Law Enforcement perspective, what can congress do to help alleviate the red tape and allow officers to go out and get these criminals . Be met one of the biggest solutions is uniformity and the actual tips are being sent to Law Enforcement. For example, is that Different Companies send different points of data . Maybe snapchat my only give me, for example, screen name. Dropbox might give me a couple of other points of data. The challenge is that some of the Companies Either report nothing more than they report everything. So the challenge is Law Enforcement has to go and filter all through those tips and we are not getting to the most egregious cases. So the more information that we have and the more data we have from those companies to help identify that would be a solution. Gotcha. I also understand there are more juvenile offenders now victimizing other juveniles. How did this come to be and whats going on there . Its a disturbing trend if you talk to a lot of different taskforces throughout the u. S. They are now coming into contact with a lot more juveniles in the challenge is because everyone is online. So you will now have 16year olds looking at eightyear olds. So the challenge is that all that content when we are talking about the ai algorithms, everything is pushed that way. So now whats happening is you are going to have that content as a child and is pushed to their peers owned and no different than we look at something and then all of a sudden we are getting those same videos. So that content, those algorithms are pushed and now we are getting more child offenders than ever before are you are talking 16 and 17year olds as opposed to any time. Thank you. Mr. Russo, ive been down to the border a couple of times and one of the things we found out and i mentioned this in testimony is that the prices on peoples heads, just off the border, its 4000 to 5000 but in the triangle nation, 70,000 or 8000 across the u. S. Border. My understanding is that the cartel is getting the money. In some situations, the administration, policies on the border has created two things. Either willing the drugs across whether its 8000, heroin infant unable to pay the passage. The other thing is they can become servants and slaves. Are you seeing that in child trafficking . Are they making installed payments back to the cartel . See my thank you for the question. The answer is absolutely on something we havent talked much about his labor trafficking. Its a significant portion of this. When they put that on someones head, ill give you an example. And oklahoma theyve had Legal Marijuana dispensaries pop up. Some of the illegal grows around them have been produced and basically staffed by those individuals who have come across the border and odette. As Law Enforcement come across chinese nationals, mexican nationals, honduran nationals, you choose wherewith dialect challenges who have been put in a state they are unfamiliar with, oftentimes away from family or other known contacts. They owe that debt to pay through that labor trafficking for an undetermined amount of time. Another thing i found interesting is the sponsors that were supposed to be taking these children and we had sponsors assigning for maybe 30 children. They never see the children. We are trying to figure out now on our end legislatively, how do we put teeth into that so that if you sponsor those children, you dont know the children, never see those children, somehow you sponsored him to get into this country in a company, we will try to put teeth in the law as well. Hopefully we can get support from your groups and organizations for that as well. With that, i will yield back. Schema gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the man from georgia mr. Johnson. I want to begin by thanking the survivors and applicants and the survivors for your testimony today. This is a wideranging hearing covering numerous topics and id like to focus on a couple of points. Number one, the Ranking Member of the committee, Sheila Jackson lee, is absent today because she has the flu. But i did want to let you all know that had she been here, she would have talked about her bill , hr 30, which strengthens the Legal Framework that exists to ensure children and youth are protected, and that perpetrators and facilitators of any manner of Child Exploitation are exposed and faced severe consequences. She introduced that bill, hr 30 , to stop Human Trafficking and the school zones act, along with republican representative mike mccall, to ensure that schools will be safe havens for our children. She pointed out that a 2018 survey reports that 55 of young sex trafficking survivors in texas were trafficked while at school or in School Activities and that 50 of trafficked adults said they were first groomed or solicited for trafficking on school campuses. But i also want to point out that data from 2017 shows that 53 of arrests or socalled child prostitution, were of black children are 53 of arrests for child prostitution were of black children. This data reflects the reality that children who are survivors of six trafficking are more likely than their white counterparts to be surveilled and arrested by Law Enforcement for prostitution related offenses. Ms. Cohen, equity and inclusion are bad words today, but what can be done to advance Racial Equity for survivors and victims of child sex trafficking . See my thank you, congressman for this question and i do actually want to thank you for bringing attention to the issue of child sex trafficking in the United States , among trafficked youth. Our research had particularly been on this question of looking at screening along the border. Packed is well aware that the majority of child sex trafficking actually occurs in the United States with u. S. Citizen children and its important because i believe that Ranking Member jackson lees research cited there is looking at primarily u. S. Citizen children. It is absolutely essential that we bring equity, inclusion and an awareness of the existing vulnerabilities for black and brown children and specifically black and brown girls who are disproportionately arrested and criminalized. As we discussed and mr. Russo mentioned, sarahs law attempts to address some of that issue at the point of conviction. But packed has been advocating strongly against the arrest of these children in the first place. What we really need to be doing is when we are looking at this transaction of someone purchasing a child whose the buyer, why are we not arresting the buyers, when buyers actually classify, if an adult is purchasing a child, that adult is a trafficker under the existing language of the Trafficking Victim protection act. Let me stop you right there and ask you another question. Youve heard the majority sing the praises of the movie sound of freedom. In your experience, are the events depicted in that movie representative of how trafficking typically occurs in the United States, yes or no . No, that is not the case. Mr. Alfaro, you have publicly spoken about the sound of freedom and its failure to depict the most common forms of child trafficking. Can you please tell us how your critique of the film was received by the movies fans, and what have you had to endure as a result of you pointing out to the truths about that film . Thanks for your question. Anytime i speak publicly over theres always fear a backlash. One, because i am gay, latino and male. Anytime i come forward with any story or experience on my own publicly, theres always, every single time, backlash saying i deserve what happened to me. That would happen to me was my own fault. But when i spoke out against the sound of freedom, and i will cite i dont think that all movies that are not true stories are necessarily bad. But i think that when we are at a time where theres a lack of education and awareness around what Human Trafficking looks like, i think a lot of people get this idea of what is depicted in a film like the sound of freedom. And a lot of the messages that i got and responses that i got were that because i did not agree with what was depicted in the film, that i was a pedophile or a trafficker myself because i didnt agree with it. And that is extremely harmful. When you have people with lived experience you are sharing what has happened to them and what is truly happening right here within the United States, and people arent willing to listen and instead are listening to a film that is heavily publicized, it creates a lot of harm. I appreciate the gentlemans indulgence. Mr. Chairman, i like to submit for the record the statement of Sheila Jackson lee. Be met without objection. Thank you. The chair recognizes mr. Tiffany. Mr. Pizzuro, as child china material has become more prevalent, we become more aware of ai and images that are false or real. Will this become an issue as it relates to child sex abuse material and do you have any recommendations . Yes. When you talk specifically about ai and with generative ai, i can do two things. One, i can actually basically mimic a child in order to groom people and secondly, now with ai, i can technically create my own victim in my household. So we are a year away from being able to take a victim and a lot of child sexual abuse happens in that household. So now i can create an exact victim or replica of my child, the way ai is going. So we need to have some sort of regulation for that for how we are going to implement restrictions and how its used. As an example, chat gpt, if i went in there and searched how do i exploit a child, it doesnt give me an answer. But if i say im doing a Research Project on how children are exploited, it will give me that information. So technology is getting so quick. Those are the things we have to think about in some sort of way, in order to protect children. Using social Media Company should be held accountable for putting this information forward . Yes. They are pushing the content. As i was told by one member of one of the Tech Companies is that we cant have a conversation with you because you said there has to be accountability. There has to be accountability. Everyone is on the platform and what we are doing is pushing the data to them. I understand instagram is one of the biggest proliferators of pornography out there, is that correct . I wouldnt say instagram is because there are so many other different platforms. What instagram does do an meta does referencing that article, is they do push that algorithm and you get a lot of people, if i get on instagram, now once im on there, im also pushed content of other men. As we heard in committee before, the social Media Companies including the Vice President first facebook acknowledged they enabled legal illegal immigration, foster Human Trafficking and i think they should be held accountable. There has to be accountability brought to the social Media Companies. The protection save had under section 230 have become abusive and there something we need to do about it. Ms. Basham, are you familiar with the state of florida versus United States presented by judge whether all . And you remind me of that . We met the judge ruled that president bidens catch and release policy is unlawful and gave the administration seven days to comply with the federal immigration law. From your experience in dealing with Human Trafficking, do you believe that what is happening at our southwest border is making the environment right for increased Human Trafficking . Three met what i can tell you is this. There does need to be a solution right now but when we see 33 children crossing the u. S. Border unaccompanied within a three month period, that something is wrong and these children are largely unprotected. Once they get into other settings here, so thats what i can tell you. Mr. Alfaro, i appreciate your comments earlier. Welcome to the world of politics with people slamming you in whatever in the crowd. In regards to freedom, is in there good that theres an awareness being brought to child explication, Human Trafficking . It is good when it is accurate. Dont movies take license frequently . I see movies and i go thats not i read the book and read a few books and whatever thats not debating it accurately. And they are not true to the story, but they are delivering a message. They are definitely delivering the message and like i mentioned, i dont think all stories that are not based on a true story are bad. There are parts of the sound of freedom that i didnt fully agree with in the superhero idea that people need someone to come and save them out of their situation is actually very unlikely that no one came in and saved me out of my situation and the majority of my survivor colleagues have the same feelings. No one has ever stepped in. So as someone who consumes a little bit of hollywood, is that mel gibson in a few movies . Isnt that the beautiful actress that headlines a movie or whatever . Isnt that the same thing that we do . We caricature and is and is a caricature also . I yield back. Thank you. The chair recognizes ms. Dean. I want to start by thanking all of you for your testimony. Mr. Alfaro and miss bautista, if i could start with both of you. Thank you for your honest account, and i know is a very truncated account of what you have gone through. Very different stories. I guess ill start with you mr. Alfaro. How are you . Thats kind of hard to answer right now, but im okay. Okay. Ms. Bautista . Im okay too, but i just want to express how i am looking forward to how the congress would act and how the congress would move forward into proposed legislations today because i know its very important. Even as we speak today, there are children that are being exploited. So i am emotional because its my friends in the philippines. Its younger children and myself that doesnt have a kid right now. But in the future, i dont want to see another kid being exploited. I dont want to see another survivor like me going here to say like hey, we need to do something. Congress has to do something. A lot of people around here are here to come forward and say we have to do something and we have to do it right now. So thank you. I appreciate that and i think i speak for myself. I dont speak for anybody else. We want to come up with solutions. We want to come up with answers. On the prevention and protection side, and i guess also on the healing side, can you tell me, each of you briefly , what has been the most effective parts of healing . How can we learn as a society how to lift up those who are survivors and help them heal . Thank you for redirecting the conversation to important prevention and the post work for survivors. For me, it was a really long and tough journey living in silence as i mentioned earlier. I didnt know what was happening was Human Trafficking. How do you identify the tools and resources you need to heal from the trauma youve experienced . Thats why theres such a huge need for accurate awareness out there to really help survivors or those who are vulnerable to the crime, to understand what Human Trafficking is and if it has happened to them, that they know where to go and what resources they need to get to a place to where i am. I appreciate that and i agree with you. I dont think hollywood or anybody else ought to take creative license with the facts. Its one thing in fiction, not with the facts. Ms. Bautista, for your own healing, and i was thinking about your friend, joy. How is joy . I hope shes on the path to healing. She is. She is. She is a social worker now in the philippines, so one of the things really that really help us, for survivors like me honor healing journey and a restoration turning is to provide more resources on education, on awareness of the crying. Also Financial Assistance because all of us came from a really hard life of poverty. So a lot of us really need to move on. And through financing or through educational assistance, that help us. Because in reality, a lot of survivors are culturally, education is their primary source of hope. Source of moving on to our healing and to what bad thing happened to us. And achieving those dreams and hopes would really help survivors. Very well said. I appreciate that. Forgive me for moving because i want to get something in about tech. It seems to me there ought to be legislation that could force big Tech Companies to block and failed to distribute the images we are talking about. What is that solution . If you look at apple, apple had a devicebased scanning of the rolled back in 2021 and i think thats part of the challenge. Encryption and a lot of the other tech proposals, nothing is being scanned. So with nothing being scanned, we dont have any way to look at it. So even if you can use ai or other programs in order to do that and solutions, again hopefully it will identify victims. My challenges, like ms. Bautista , is there are hundreds of thousands of victims that Law Enforcement can get to and identify and get them the help they need. I think determine for his intelligence and i think the Ranking Member for asking me to sit in on her behalf, adequately support other legislative work shes doing in that area. I yield back. We recognize the general been in california, mr. Kiley. Spanked thank you to all our Witnesses Today to was a full understanding of this absolute horror going on and victimizing far too many people. Particularly young people. Listening to the testimony, it seems to me there are a few facets of the approach we can take to address this problem and it starts with increased public awareness. That all of us have a responsibility and a role we can play working with nonprofits and working with Law Enforcement and other stakeholders in our community in order to help people not become victims and also to raise awareness about the political dimensions of the problem. In my state of california, for example, for many years, we tried in the legislature to get the legislature to take this issue more seriously, classifying Human Trafficking as a serious felony. And unfortunately every year, the Public Safety committee has stopped it from passing and they did that this year as well. A bill to make trafficking of a minor a serious felony, but after a public outcry, they ended up doing something i think unprecedented in recent history is the committee reversed itself just a couple of days ago and that bill passed unanimously and is now going to the governors desk. I think thats a testament to the power of public awareness. Beyond that, there seems to be three main facets of the solutions that we need to be working on with great urgency and doing everything we can. The first being holding those who peddle this material and those who traffic young people accountable. The second being the social what do you think are the specific changes that would be most important . The idea of being supportive of victims is not incompatible with being harder and traffickers. We need to balance that appropriately. One approach we are focused on is looking at things that already exist like gaming enhancements to coerce miners into other criminal behavior. Often you cant connect the straight game connection but enhancement may not be available but if you force a 16yearold into prosecution or 15yearold into trafficking fentanyl and other drugs, penalty increases with the existing law should be eligible for you regardless whether youre in a an organization or not. That something i would ask the committee consider, focusing on enhancing folks using the coercive element, lets make the game harder for traffickers that are already playing. Thats a great insight. When it comes to the immigration aspect you testified march through may of this year 33,000 unaccompanied children across the us border. Hunger and thirst these children often experience throughout the United States is appalling, you go on to suggest the privilege of the violence many experience once they are in the us, why do you think it is weve had this increase in the number of unaccompanied minors and how do we stop it, what steps should we be taking right now . There are several things, im not going to dive into specific border policy what we can do now but i will say that there are several things for deterrence purposes, in guatemala, the country i brought up early on, i went there last year, spoke there, trafficking is on my task force and one of the things we are doing, we want this to stop, they have 47 unaccompanied minors from guatemala and the problem is a lot of these mothers are handing over their children to smugglers because they do not know. What they have actually done is developed mobile units so one thing i would suggest and this is a little bit out of the scope of some of this, it would be really helpful to do a code l down to guatemala to see some of this and talk to people in person because i do think if there was increased funding for them to get mobile education units, it would be extremely helpful to some of these children from a prevention standpoint. Outside of that, that gets to an Awareness Campaign which is central to a lot of this. Outside of that i think it comes down to the communication between children here and their parents back there. Thats one of the things that wasnt discussed much today but there needs to be a good communication loop so children who are unaccompanied here can communicate back with their parents there because if more parents knew of the dangers their kids would face they would not send them. With your indulgence i would like to ask, the laws you listed for holding social Media Companies accountable, what was the most important change to make them more proactive in making sure this material is disseminated on their platform. They need to be mandated and definitely from a standpoint of just if we can just get them to standardize, it would be more proactive. Looking for increment all changes, a lot of changes need to be done, but that is where we need to start. Thank you very much. The gentle lady from florida, miss lee. Thank you to all our witnesses for being here today, sharing your stories, expertise, and insight about this important issue. I spent a large part of my professional career working on ending the Sexual Exploitation of children, the mystic violence and Human Trafficking. It is very important to me as congress, we are doing everything we can to bring awareness to this issue to incarcerate perpetrators and support survivors. Each of you brought important perspective to us about how we might do those things and we appreciate that very much. Ive introduced the National Trafficking hotline enhancement act and the report act in the house which would modernize and strengthen existing procedures to disclose Crimes Involving child sex abuse, insure we are giving Law Enforcement the tools they need to help identify this type of behavior and bring im proud that in both cases those bills have bipartisan support in this committee and want to particularly acknowledge Ranking Member dean for cosponsoring the act, its an important part of legislation i hope to see us bring to the full house. With that, i would like to return to your testimony and talk about the concept of how minors are groomed on the internet and how abusers target and exploit them. One of the things the act seems to do is require electronic communication Service Providers to report incidents of enticement of minors on a line. Can you explain how this happens and how that requirement would help stop Human Trafficking. The report act is important so im grateful youve sponsored that. Enticement can happen in a variety of ways, the reason they target children is because they are especially vulnerable. They are more trusting and all of that. With the report act and in general with children being groomed online, someone, they develop a trusting relationship online and through that process, they learn, that is. It is not kidnapping, it is a form of learning a child into these things and dives into actual coercion so we have children who have been threatened or their families have been threatened and through that, if they were to do things other things happen to them. Reporter a study by rain, Law Enforcement, and i think john pizzuro touched on this, they are overwhelmed by the number of cases they are trying to investigate and another provision of the report act would increase the retention period for this type of information and tip line reports to allow Law Enforcement more time to go back and investigate these cases. Could you explain how this measure and approach was might help Law Enforcement manage the growing number of cases they are investigating . We will start from you and then hear from john pizzuro. The main point to all of this, can you state that again . My question was about retention of information. One of the other provisions would require these companies to retain when they have information that looks like it might be exploited of they keep it for longer to help Law Enforcement deal with the volume of potential cases that are coming in, the question was how might that be helpful and any other tools you can think of that we could be providing that would make the investigation of these cases something that is easier to tackle. First of all the number one thing is Law Enforcement needs every bit of help that they can get, thats the number one thing. They are understaffed and theres an increased burden, thats first of all, the second thing it takes the burden off the training, Law Enforcement has to be trained to recognize and report this so it is obviously called the report act so would alleviate some of the key burden that needs to come off of Law Enforcement. John pizzuro, what would you add . 90 days was the standard for probable cause, the challenge is we cant get victims to identify, most of the times we are getting a case after six months so the ability to actually find and locate the victim, identify the victim is important from the retention standpoint and i will add that we need companies to be responsive to Legal Process immediately and we have difficulties with a lot of those companies there as well. Very helpful. I yelled back. The gentle lady yields back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina. Thank you to our witnesses for being here. I was a former member of the South Carolina General Assembly just last year and a few years ago i worked with chair Hope International and attorney general al wilson to craft a Human Trafficking bill so to mister russos point about how you have to balance the prosecution side while also being compassionate and taking care of victims, was the crux of the legislation we did. We were considered that your to be the most improved state in the country in addressing Human Trafficking but weve got a long way to go. Our attorney general has done a fantastic job. He recently spearheaded a letter with 54 attorneys general from all the states and territories about the threat of how Artificial Intelligence is being used to exploit children. I think unanimous consent to enter into the record attorney general wilsons letter and the letter from all the attorneys general. Without objection. Sadly our children are constantly exploited through child sexual abuse material daily in our country, the us is now the host, we host more child sexual abuse material than any other country in the world. I would also like unanimous consent to enter into the record a statement from congresswoman waggoner whos doing an incredible job in this space trying to update some of our laws. Without objection. I am on platforms i designed created, kids spent an inordinate amount of time, 7 or 8 hours a day online, they get addicted to the use apps, they are on their phones constantly. I think the mission here is to protect our kids from things they see, things that happen online, the grooming that takes place. Earlier this year i introduced the targeting child predators act to help in this effort. Would it surprise this body to know that if you are an Internet Service provider and you receive f ena, you let the know the individual know youre trying to subpoena, Law Enforcement is working at them. This is just one avenue weve talked about that would have a meaningful effect on this. Anne basham, South Carolina, that is my state but this is everywhere. In my district specifically, very rural but also a heavily tourist economy, we have the beach, what kinds of trends and Child Exploitation do you generally find in tourist areas . Tourist areas specifically are always hotspots but i will say i think Sexual Exploitation is something that happens everywhere so it is a borderless crime. Tourist spots leave children vulnerable because people are there to vacation, tend to be intoxicated and that actually can increase some of it too. Talk about how vulnerable populations like foster youth or unaccompanied minors are more susceptible to being victims . There are a number of populations that are susceptible because of vulnerabilities. When you are detached from your family and in unaccompanied minor you are vulnerable to several Different Things. One of those would be someone who poses as a family matter, trusted friend, adult, that leaves you vulnerable to participating or being trafficked yourself and exploited your self. John pizzuro, i want to turn to you, the National Center for missing and exploited children cyber tip line, 32 reports of suspected child exportation online. In your experience you testified social Media Companies are not properly censoring or regulating that material. If you go further, 32 million tips, 175 last year. 58 of the market share in the us are on phones so that, it is not just its the industry as a whole. You are heading where i wanted to go with this. Im looking at facebook and google and instagram. The gulf between the top and the bottom is so wide, facebook had 20 one million, apple had 234. Can you touch on that contrast, it is crazy to me, social Media Companies will censor their own speech but wont get the stuff off their platforms. Talk about the privacy concerns from what are they talking about, what are they alleging from a privacy perspective as to why they will not fight back against this . They move they cant see on the platform. If you end and encryption where you have basically both sides where the data is there, they are saying we cant see it so again they are not even scanning for that. The challenge becomes they are totally dark. The idea is if i dont know whats happening on the platform then technically i dont have to report it. Other companies do the direct opposite. If it is something that im going to report it. Thats the disparity between meta and apple for example. Thank you, with that i yield. Not recognize myself for 5 minutes of questioning. I have questions for each of you. I will limit myself to one and urge you to be as succinct as possible yet say what you think is pertinent. I will start with you. One thing you said that caught my attention, the restitution you were awarded wasnt awarded to you. It went to the federal government and you had to litigate to get restitution back as a victim. Did i understand that correctly . Sort of. It was a process. I hate that anyone has to go through a process after testifying in a federal criminal trial and has to explain why they are deserving of the money owed to them. But basically, i went a year questioning when will i be receiving the restitution, more time went on, i was told i would be receiving it by christmas time and another year went by, they said i would receive it by christmas time and then things just kept changing, so i had to seek out Legal Counsel just to help me figure out where this money wasnt eventually after that, shortly after that i did receive Legal Counsel and had to contact the other survivors and help them with Legal Counsel as we went through a second process called the remission process where they were supposed to be contacted and not one of them were contacted so i contacted them again, asked if they had been contacted, they said no. So i connected them with pro bono attorneys. Thank you for explaining that. That is something i think congress should look into as well. Vanessa bautista, you mentioned the difficulty of getting images removed even after the Tech Companies are aware, they are criminal images. Can you talk for a second, you implied you got some of those removed, how did you get that done . Thanks for the question. The petition was currently being petitioned against apple but not against apple, asking apple to remove the child sexual abuse materials online. My fellow survivors living and hoping to move forward from this abuse, from this horrific situation but in the situation where they have these materials still online and they cant move forward, so that is why i am asking, alongside the survivors to have these removed permanently because it keeps going back into her life and keeps going back into survivors lives. How can you move forward, how can we move forward with our lives when we still keep being reminded of all of these horrific situations . Appreciate that, thank you for sharing that and i agree with you that Congress Needs to act. John tanagho, the commute occasions decency act, a lot of these platforms hide behind children, do you have any opinion or do you want to comment on that . Theres two things i would say to that. First, i would say section 230 does not protect electronic Service Providers from their own design decisions. When they design and apps or a platform in such a way that encourages and facilitates child sexual abuse and exploitation they have no section 230 protection but it is important that other legislation address this gap because the reality is every industry is governed by regulation, every industry has industrywide standards and if they dont meet those standards they can be held to account and it is up to judges, courts to decide if a company has failed to meet its duty of care or its obligation. Right now, there are no obligations. There are no requirements on the tech sector to make platform safe by design, to detect and remove child sexual abuse material so what we see is uneven responses from the tech sector. It is not just about any one company but it is an industrywide problem which is why you need something that can really transform the entire industrys response. I will go quick to john pizzuro. Fusion centers. Are you familiar with Fusion Centers and how are they working on this problem . New jerseys Fusion Centers arent working on the social media problem. That is something again, additional resources, maybe they can start looking into that for more prioritization. I appreciate all of you being here. We are out of time. This is an incredibly important subject and we have all learned a lot and Congress Must act and i would anticipate some pieces of legislation, some passed out of the committee and the senate, but we dont have them across the mall yet and there are some that i know we will be taking up soon as well. So thank you to the audience, to the witnesses, and to miss dean, and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for being here today. We are adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] if you ever miss any of cspans coverage you can find it anytime online, cspan. Org, videos of key hearings, debates and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlights, these points of interest markers appear on the righthand side of your screen when you hit play on select video. This timeline will makes it easy to get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. Scroll through and spend a few minutes on cspans point of interest. Watch cspan this saturday at 8 p. M. Eastern for an exclusive interview with colleen shogun, the eleventh archivist of the United States. Stepped inside her historic Washington Dc Office as she talks about her stewardship of the National Archives and controversies over white house records during the donald trump your to the current debate surrounding president biden. Under the president ial records act, after the National Archives did a search and determines what records would be responsive to the specific request from for example chairman of the committee, then we