House Bill 401 ready for Senate approval

District 4 Texas State Representative Betty Brown announced last week the Texas Senate Committee on Criminal Justice on Tuesday, May 15, passed House Bill 401, authored by Brown, which would help protect children from online solicitation and exploitation by adding "text message" and "other electronic message service" as sources of electronic communications with a minor or student that are illegal.

The bill would also make sexual contact, sexual intercourse, or deviate sexual intercourse with a person enrolled in a public or private primary or secondary school at which the employee works and who is not the employee's spouse as an offense regardless of age of the person enrolled in school, Brown said.

Both the United States Code (federal criminal laws) and the Texas Penal Code (state criminal laws) contain laws against online solicitation of minors for a sexual purpose, but current statute does not clearly define what communi- cations are considered sexual offenses against minors or certain students.

"Because of the ever-changing technological communications, new means of contact between adults and minors or students are constantly being created," Brown said. "Dangerous predators are protected from prosecution for using text messages for devious actions. "

With so many children using the Internet on a daily basis, today's predators can easily find and exploit them. For predators, the Internet is a new, effective and more anonymous way to seek out and groom children for criminal purposes such as producing and distributing child pornography, contacting and stalking children for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts, and exploiting children for sexual tourism for personal and commercial purposes, Brown said.

According to the Crimes Against Children Research Center, one in seven youths received a sexual solicitation via the Internet during the past year.

HB 401 is sponsored in the Senate by Senator Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo and will now be heard on the Senate floor, where it is expected to pass and be signed by the Governor.

Similarly, the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Public Education passed on Tuesday, May 15, Senate Bill 120 by Senator Judith Zaffirini, which would help protect children from online solicitation and exploitation by establishing a clearing house of educational resources related to Internet safety at the Texas School Safety Center. The bill also would direct school districts to update their discipline management programs to prevent the use of the Internet for sexual solicitation and would increase the penalty for an adult convicted of online sexual solicitation of a minor, Brown said.

"Children are especially vulnerable to victimization over the Internet," Senator Zaffirini said. "More and more children are using the Internet on a daily basis, which provides offenders with easy and anonymous means to find and exploit them. SB 120 addresses this growing problem by increasing the educational resources regarding online solicitation that are available to families and schools and by providing school districts with programs designed to combat and prevent online solicitation of minors."

Brown said she is sponsoring SB 120 in the House, where it will now be heard on the House floor. It is expected to pass and be signed by the Governor.