[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                       CHILDREN ARE NOT FOR SALE:
     EXAMINING THE EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN THE U.S. AND ABROAD

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

       SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE

                                 OF THE

                       COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

                     U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                     WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

                               __________

                           Serial No. 118-42

                               __________

         Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary




               [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]




               Available via: http://judiciary.house.gov

                               ______
                                 

                 U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

53-506                    WASHINGTON : 2023







                       COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

                        JIM JORDAN, Ohio, Chair

DARRELL ISSA, California             JERROLD NADLER, New York, Ranking 
KEN BUCK, Colorado                       Member
MATT GAETZ, Florida                  ZOE LOFGREN, California
MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana              SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
ANDY BIGGS, Arizona                  STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
TOM McCLINTOCK, California           HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr., 
TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin                   Georgia
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky              ADAM SCHIFF, California
CHIP ROY, Texas                      ERIC SWALWELL, California
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina           TED LIEU, California
VICTORIA SPARTZ, Indiana             PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin          J. LUIS CORREA, California
CLIFF BENTZ, Oregon                  MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania
BEN CLINE, Virginia                  JOE NEGUSE, Colorado
LANCE GOODEN, Texas                  LUCY McBATH, Georgia
JEFF VAN DREW, New Jersey            MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
TROY NEHLS, Texas                    VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
BARRY MOORE, Alabama                 DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina
KEVIN KILEY, California              CORI BUSH, Missouri
HARRIET HAGEMAN, Wyoming             GLENN IVEY, Maryland
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas               BECCA BALINT, Vermont
LAUREL LEE, Florida
WESLEY HUNT, Texas
RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina

                                 ------                                

                   SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME AND FEDERAL
                        GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE

                       ANDY BIGGS, Arizona, Chair

MATT GAETZ, Florida                  SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas, Ranking 
TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin                   Member
TROY NEHLS, Texas                    LUCY McBATH, Georgia
BARRY MOORE, Alabama                 MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
KEVIN KILEY, California              CORI BUSH, Missouri
LAUREL LEE, Florida                  STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina          HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr., 
                                         Georgia

               CHRISTOPHER HIXON, Majority Staff Director
          AMY RUTKIN, Minority Staff Director & Chief of Staff








                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                     Wednesday, September 13, 2023

                                                                   Page

                           OPENING STATEMENTS

The Honorable Andy Biggs, Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime and 
  Federal Government Surveillance from the State of Arizona......     1
The Honorable Madeleine Dean, a Member of the Subcommittee on 
  Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from the State of 
  Pennsylvania...................................................     3

                               WITNESSES

John Pizzuro, CEO, Raven
  Oral Testimony.................................................     7
  Prepared Testimony.............................................     9
Vanessa Bautista, Founding Member, Global Survivor Network
  Oral Testimony.................................................    19
  Prepared Testimony.............................................    21
John Tanagho, Executive Director, Center to End Sexual 
  Exploitation of Children, International Justice Mission (IJM)
  Oral Testimony.................................................    24
  Prepared Testimony.............................................    26
Jose Alfaro, Board Member, Human Trafficking Legal Center
  Oral Testimony.................................................    44
  Prepared Testimony.............................................    46
Lori Cohen, CEO, Protect All Children from Trafficking (PACT)
  Oral Testimony.................................................    52
  Prepared Testimony.............................................    54
Frank Russo, Director, Center for Combating Human Trafficking, 
  Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC)
  Oral Testimony.................................................    62
  Prepared Testimony.............................................    65
Anne Basham, Founder & Chair, Interparliamentary Taskforce on 
  Human Trafficking
  Oral Testimony.................................................    69
  Prepared Testimony.............................................    71

          LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC. SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING

All materials submitted for the record by the Subcommittee on 
  Crime and Federal Government Surveillance are listed below.....    95

Materials submitted by the Honorable Madeleine Dean, a Member of 
  the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance 
  from the State of Pennsylvania, for the record
    Statement from Cristian Eduardo, Survivor of Sex and Labor 
        Trafficking, Member of PACT (Protect All Children from 
        Trafficking), Survivor Advisory Board
    Statement from Sean Wheeler, Survivor of Child Sexual 
        Exploitation & Trafficking, Member of PACT (Protect All 
        Children from Trafficking), Survivor Advisory Board & 
        Starfish Ministries Colorado Founder
    Statement from Faith Robles, Survivor of Child Sexual 
        Exploitation & Trafficking, Member of PACT (Protect All 
        Children from Trafficking), Survivor Advisory Board
A letter from The Ending Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of 
  Children Coalition, Sept. 13, 2023, to the Honorable Andy 
  Biggs, Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal 
  Government Surveillance from the State of Arizona, and the 
  Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, Ranking Member of the 
  Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from 
  the State of Texas, submitted by the Honorable Andy Biggs, 
  Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government 
  Surveillance from the State of Arizona, for the record
Materials submitted by the Honorable Matt Gaetz, a Member of the 
  Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from 
  the State of Florida, for the record
    An article entitled, ``How Porous Borders Fuel Human 
        Trafficking in the United States,'' Jan. 11, 2022, Texas 
        Public Policy Foundation
    An article entitled, ``Fighting Human Trafficking and 
        Battling Biden's Open Border,'' Mar. 14, 2023, The 
        Heritage Foundation
Statement from the Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, Ranking Member 
  of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government 
  Surveillance from the State of Texas, submitted by the 
  Honorable Henry C. ``Hank'' Johnson, Ranking Member of the 
  Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet 
  from the State of Georgia, for the record
Materials submitted by the Honorable Russell Fry, a Member of the 
  Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from 
  the State of South Carolina, for the record
    A letter from Alan Wilson, Attorney General of South 
        Carolina, Sept. 12, 2023
    A statement from the Hon. Ann Wagner from the State of 
        Missouri, Sept. 13, 2023


 
                       CHILDREN ARE NOT FOR SALE:
     EXAMINING THE EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN THE U.S. AND ABROAD

                              ----------                              


                     Wednesday, September 13, 2023

                        House of Representatives

       Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance

                       Committee on the Judiciary

                             Washington, DC

    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:20 p.m., in 
Room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, the Hon. Andy Biggs 
[Chair of the Subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Biggs, Gaetz, Tiffany, Moore, 
Kiley, Lee, Fry, Dean, Cohen, and Johnson.
    Mr. Biggs. The Subcommittee will come to order.
    Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a 
recess at any time.
    We'll begin this Subcommittee hearing with the gentleman 
from California, Mr. Kiley, leading us in the Pledge of 
Allegiance.
    Mr. Kiley. Please join me in submitting to the flag.
    All. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States 
of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one 
Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for 
all.
    Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
    We welcome everyone to today's hearing on the exploitation 
of children of the United States and abroad.
    I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
    I'm grateful that all of you are here today, both the 
witnesses, the Members of the Committee, and then also the 
audience. We appreciate you being here.
    I wish we didn't have to hold a hearing on this topic 
because that would mean children in our country and abroad are 
safe from exploitation. Unfortunately, that is not the case. It 
is a fact that our children are not safe online, and it is 
utterly 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, your voice matters, and we 
appreciate you, and we want to be supportive.
    Reports of CSAM continue to grow exponentially, from 3,000 
reports in 1998 to more than one million in 2014, 18.4 million 
in 2019, and more than 30 million last year. We cannot stand by 
and let this number grow continually.
    While it seems like CSAM is something that happens in 
foreign countries or even in different neighborhoods from our 
own, it is much closer than anyone would think. This is a 
homegrown issue. We know the defenders prey on the most 
vulnerable populations, such as children in foster care. 
Groomers use techniques to normalize inappropriate conduct and 
encourage secrecy, especially using social media platforms.
    There's no question these criminals must be prosecuted. 
While there are many solutions to combating this issue, we must 
ensure prosecutors are doing their jobs to put these criminals 
behind bars. We cannot accept lenient 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 consumers to information and content, 
including CSAM content, traffickers, predators, and drug 
dealers. It is well documented that traffickers and pedophiles 
use social media to target children and to share and engage 
with CSAM content.
    The Wall Street Journal, along with top researchers across 
the country, ran a detailed account of Instagrams, quote, 
``vast pedo-phile network.'' The research found that Instagram 
enabled people to search explicit hashtags and connect users to 
accounts to advertise CSAM. One researcher gravely noted, 
quote, ``Instagram is an onramp to places on the internet where 
there's more explicit child sexual abuse.''
    You would think social media companies would bend over 
backward to work with law enforcement and to remove this 
content from their platform and prevent it from happening at 
all. That is not the case. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok 
allow the proliferation of abuse images and human trafficking 
on its platforms. Images are allowed to roam on the internet. 
Humans are bought and sold. Apple even threatened to remove 
both Facebook and Instagram's access to the App Store because 
the problem was so bad, yet Big Tech 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 other 
things they consider disinformation, yet 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 our eyes to the 
horror that is occurring both in and outside our country. 
However, many do not know Hollywood attempted 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'' truly exposed 
the worst of humanity and showed us how we can all 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 express my gratitude to the special agents of 
HSI 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 
promoted by the Biden Administration are leading to vulnerable 
children being exploited by cartels and smugglers as they 
attempt to come to America. The journey today for them is 
incredibly dangerous, and the risk of being sex trafficked is 
incredibly high while being smuggled across our border. In 
fact, the United Nations this week alone said, ``the most 
dangerous immigration route is Mexico to the United States.''
    In 2014, then President Obama stated, quote, ``Don't 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 our 
children from the horrific crime of sex trafficking because 
children are not for sale.
    This topic is tough and, unfortunately, a necessary topic. 
I hope that we can each 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.
    With that, I thank you again for being here, and I yield 
back.
    Unfortunately, today, Ms. Jackson Lee, the Ranking Member, 
is unable to join us for health reasons. In her stead, I will 
recognize Ms. Dean for an opening statement.
    Ms. Dean. I thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Chair Biggs, thank you for convening this important hearing 
today. I thank 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 exploitation. I'm standing in for Ranking Member Sheila 
Jackson Lee, who regrettably cannot be with us today, and I'm 
honored to be in her stead. I know that this subject is deeply 
personal to her, as it is to me, because, although the United 
States is a Nation known for its foundational ideals of liberty 
and protection of its citizens, we continue to struggle with 
the existence and prevalence of child exploitation.
    It takes on various forms, ranging from child labor and sex 
trafficking to the production and distribution of child sexual 
abuse materials online, harassment, and sextortion. 
Perpetrators of these repulsive crimes hide within our society, 
preying on innocent and defenseless young people, their 
victims, who should be experiencing the joys of their formative 
years. I take this particularly personally 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 children's health, often 
deprives them of an education, denies them a normal childhood, 
and deprives them of their basic human rights.
    Another ghastly aspect of child exploitation is child sex 
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 percent of all human 
trafficking victims are children worldwide, and most of them 
being sex trafficked.
    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, and trafficked, 
whether for sex or labor, deserve victim-focused, culturally 
informed responses that direct them away from the criminal 
justice system and toward services and programming critical to 
the restoration of their health and their dignity.
    Some people would have us believe that the trafficking of 
minors is primarily an immigration problem, a result of poor 
control at our borders or a problem of urban impoverished 
children and youth. The reality is that the traffickers prey on 
stigmatized, forgotten, vulnerable American children and youths 
in suburban, rural, urban, in cities, in every corner of this 
country, only valuing them as commodities and not as the 
precious people that they are.
    While any child can become a victim of sex or labor 
trafficking, some children and youth are more vulnerable than 
others. If we truly want to extend an end to the trafficking of 
children and youth or child exploitation of any kind, we 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 smartphones and handhelds, social 
media, direct messages, and TikTok, 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 
behind cute screen names, catchy hashtags, fake profiles with 
the goal of eventually coercing, manipulating, or even 
blackmailing their young victims.
    Because child predators tend to prey on children even when 
they are in school, Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee 
introduced H.R. 30, The Stop Human Trafficking in School Zones 
Act, that would establish an enhanced penalty for child 
exploitation offenses that are committed within school zones or 
near school activities or other child center 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. Chair, 
since the internet enables their repeated victimization each 
time images of their suffering are viewed. Recognizing the 
breadth and scope of this issue, it is our collective 
responsibility as representatives, all of us, to protect all 
our children and eradicate every form of child exploitation.
    That's why I hope today's discussion will be not about 
blame, speculation, fearmongering, 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 that children and youth are protected, 
that perpetrators and facilitators of any manner of child 
exploitation are exposed and face severe consequences. That's 
why I introduced H.R. 3686, Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation 
and Limiting Distribution Act, the SHIELD Act. This is 
bipartisan legislation, and it will create new penalties. I'm 
also the original Cosponsor of H.R. 5082, The Revising Existing 
Procedures on Reporting via Technology Act, more we can talk 
about.
    Second, 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.
    Last, 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 directly 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. Today's conversations 
will lead to solutions.
    As I'm yielding back, Mr. Chair, I ask unanimous consent to 
render the testimony of survivors from advisory board members 
of PACT into the record.
    Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
    Ms. Dean. Thank you.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
    That's also--for the record, I want to include a document, 
a letter to myself and Ranking Member Jackson Lee from Ending 
Online Exploitation of Abuse and Abuse of Children Coalition. 
Without objection.
    Without objection, all the opening statements will be 
included in the record.
    I will now introduce today's witnesses. We have a very 
distinguished panel with tremendous insight and experience and 
wisdom on this subject. We appreciate all of you being here.
    Mr. John Pizzuro is the Chief Executive Officer of Raven, a 
nonprofit organization focused on preventing child 
exploitation. He previously served with New Jersey State 
Police, including as the commander of the New Jersey Internet 
Crimes Against Children. Welcome.
    We welcome Ms. Vanessa Bautista. Ms. Bautista is a founding 
member of the Leadership Council for the Global Survivor 
Network and is a survivor of sexual abuse. The 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. Ms. Cohen is the Chief Executive Officer of 
Protect All Children from Trafficking, or PACT. PACT works to 
protect children from sexual exploitation and trafficking 
through education, legislative advocacy, and partnerships. 
Thank you, Ms. Cohen, for being here.
    Mr. Jose Alfaro. Mr. Alfaro serves on the Board of 
Directors of the Human Trafficking Legal Center. He is a public 
speaker, author, advocate, and a survivor of child sex 
trafficking. The Human Trafficking Legal Center connects 
trafficking survivors with pro bono legal representation and 
advocates on their behalf. Mr. Alfaro, thank you for being 
here.
    Mr. John Tanagho--how's that? Is that close?
    Mr. Tanagho. That's fine.
    Mr. Biggs. Yes, thank you.
    Mr. Tanagho is the Executive Director of the Center to End 
Online Sexual Exploitation of Children. The center partners 
with governments, companies, nongovernmental organizations, and 
other stakeholders to expose, neutralize, and deter the online 
sexual exploitation of children. Thank you, Mr. Tanagho.
    Mr. Frank Russo. Mr. Russo is an Associate General Counsel 
and Director of the Center for Combating Human Trafficking at 
the American Conservative Union. The center 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. Anne Basham 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'll begin by swearing you in. If you would each rise 
and raise your right hand.
    Do each of you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury 
that the testimony you are about to give is true and correct, 
to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief, so help 
you God?
    Let the record reflect that 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 
that you summarize your testimony in five minutes. There should 
be a yellow light that appears when there's a minute left, and 
then, when it goes red, then we would ask you to end your 
testimony at that point.
    Mr. Pizzuro, you may begin.

                   STATEMENT OF JOHN PIZZURO

    Mr. Pizzuro. Chair Biggs, Ranking Member Jackson Lee, and 
distinguished Members of Congress. Thank you for the 
opportunity to testify today.
    Legislation is falling behind the technology that's putting 
our children at risk. Every day our inaction to pass 
legislation results in children being victimized at ever 
increasing rates. As someone who's 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. I'm 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's not been a decrease in online 
victimization. There's been a substantial increase. The tech 
industry's answer has been to reduce trust and safety teams, 
employ greater privacy measures, such as end-to-end encryption, 
and hide behind virtual private networks or VPNs. 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 
poor moderation, the absence of age or identity verification, 
and inadequate safety mechanisms. The truth is 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 risk for their harm has increased at 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, sextortion, and other 
exploitive crimes that we have yet to even identify. Those who 
would protect our youth are overburdened and underresourced, 
which makes children vulnerable. Our Nation's young people are 
unable to escape from the bombardment of post reels and online 
social interactions. AI and algorithms push 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 gaming platform. With AI, offenders can now 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 sextort children 
so they might financially benefit. The financial component of 
profiting off children has increased exponentially.
    The Cyber Tipline is challenging law enforcement not only 
with respect to quantity of leads, but also the quality of 
leads. Most of these leads provided by service providers are 
not actionable. The lack of uniformity of what is reported to 
service providers results in law enforcement being forced to 
sort through thousands and thousands of tips 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 peer-to-peer 
networks, yet 637, less than one percent, are being actually 
investigated.
    The dark net has become a haven for child exploitation. 
Some forums and boards contain the most abusive child 
exploitation, videos, and images law enforcement has 
encountered. Chat forums 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 
supported and sponsored legislation in the Senate and the House 
from the Protect Our Children Act to stop CSAM, Project Safe 
Childhood, SHIELD, REPORT, and Child Exploitation EARN IT, and 
The Child Online Safety Modernization Act, and the Kids Online 
Safety Act.
    Alas, some of these bills have passed their respective 
Committees, but there has been no vote on the floor. If there 
was ever a bipartisan call to action that everyone can agree on 
it's the protection of all our children.
    We are at a point where we need to identify what works and 
provide authorities with sufficient resources to increase their 
capabilities. One simply can look at the statistics to 
determine the real story, what is truly happening to our 
children. Based on what I experience, I can confidently tell 
you three things: At the moment, (1) the predators are winning, 
(2) our children are not safe, and (3) 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 prepared statement of Mr. Pizzuro follows:]

[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    
    
    Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Pizzuro.
    The Chair recognizes Ms. Bautista.

                 STATEMENT OF VANESSA BAUTISTA

    Ms. Bautista. Chair Biggs; Ms. Dean, on behalf of Ranking 
Member Jackson Lee; and distinguished Members of the 
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify.
    My name is Vanessa. I am Asian American. I'm 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 when the abuse started. It 
finally stopped when I found the courage to pick up the phone, 
trembling, and my hands shaking, called my best friend at 
school, and she answered. Through the tears, my hands shaking 
still, I told her: ``I don't want to be here anymore. I need 
help.''
    I was put in a shelter home in the Philippines where 
there's so many children like me. I became a part of a survivor 
group, healing together and advocating for protection together. 
Today I don't speak just for myself, but I speak on behalf of 
all my brothers and sisters in our survivor network group.
    Joy 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 was livestreamed to 
pedophiles around the world. Perpetrators logged into the 
cameras, into the computers and forced her to do terrible 
things in front of a camera.
    I share this because the threat of child sexual 
exploitation is very real. I know as a country we can be 
divided along partisan lines, but the one thing we can all 
agree on is that children need to be safe.
    We are here because we agree 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 the Protect 
Act, so children were safe. However, crimes have continued to 
evolve since then, and our responses also have to evolve.
    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 like the Philippines.
    We need to create and enforce strong regulations so that 
children are protected. Today as we consider proposed 
legislation, I want to leave you with three key 
recommendations.
    (1) Survivor representation. I want to encourage us to keep 
survivor experiences at the forefront. I am pleased that there 
is a provision requiring survivors to serve on the National 
Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation, and I strongly 
recommend that this provision be included in the final version 
of the EARN IT Act and that people with lived experience of 
this crime be included on this commission.
    (2) 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. We must build systems where the money goes 
straight directly to survivors, so they can heal and be 
restored.
    (3) Removal of child sexual abuse materials. Remember that 
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 when their privacy is violated every day? In 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. 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.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Bautista follows:]

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    Mr. Biggs. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Tanagho.

                   STATEMENT OF JOHN TANAGHO

    Mr. Tanagho. Chair Biggs, Congresswoman Dean, thank you for 
the invitation to testify at this important hearing.
    My name is John Tanagho, and I serve as Executive Director 
for International Justice Mission's Center to End Online Sexual 
Exploitation of Children. IJM 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 IJM teams to combat the trafficking of 
children to produce new child sexual exploitation material, 
especially in livestreams. 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 Pay-Per-View CSAM live on demand.
    Based on IJM's experience supporting over 340 Philippine-
led police operations, the abuse usually includes rape, 
children forced to engage in sex acts with other children, and 
even children who are harmed in other degrading ways such as in 
bestiality. Victims are abused for two years on average, with 
the median age only 11 years old. IJM has even supported 
Philippine police in bringing infants 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 
livestream. Last week IJM released findings from our two-year 
research study, Scale of Harm, estimating that in 2022, nearly 
half a million Filipino children were sexually abused to create 
images, videos, and livestreams for sale to offenders around 
the world. That is one in 100 Filipino children.
    Global tech platforms remain fertile ground for this abuse, 
with Australia's e-Safety Commissioner reporting that companies 
are failing to address child sexual exploitation in livestreams 
or video calls. The United States is the No. 1 country of 
offenders paying for and directing this abuse, with 34 percent 
of Philippine cases involving U.S.-based offenders according to 
IJM's 2020 study. In April of this year, the Philippine Anti-
Money Laundering Council reported that the highest number of 
payments for child sexual exploitation flagged by financial 
institutions in suspicious transaction reports came from the 
U.S.
    Make no mistake, offenders who abuse children online also 
pose a threat to abuse kids right here. In fact, 58 percent of 
respondents reported feeling afraid that viewing CSAM might 
lead them to commit abuse in person according to a survey in 
the Stanford Internet Observatory's Journal of Online Trust and 
Safety.
    Laws are urgently needed to prevent child sexual abuse 
online. Companies must prioritize the safety and privacy of 
victims by expediting detection, reporting, and removal of 
CSAM. Early detection and reporting allow law enforcement to 
bring offenders to justice and victims to safety.
    IJM prevalent 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. Companies should deploy 
tools in video chat and messaging apps to disrupt the 
production of CSAM.
    Today's phones and apps are not safe by design precisely 
because they are built without any technology to prevent child 
abuse images and video from being taken, streamed, or shared. 
Without tech safeguards designed to prevent abuse, offenders 
operate with ease and impunity.
    Imagine cars without seat belts, airbags, or antilock 
brakes. Without laws, child exploitation online is a global 
crisis spiraling out of order. That's why IJM supports the EARN 
IT Act to change the incentives for tech companies to do 
everything in their power to prevent child exploitation on 
their platforms.
    In closing, some lobby against online safety legislation 
under the so-called banner of privacy or free speech. 
Australia, a well-respected democracy, passed an online safety 
bill in 2021 requiring tech transparency and safety by design. 
Free speech and privacy are alive and well in Australia. If 
Congress passes online safety legislation to protect kids, the 
sky won't fall here either.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Tanagho follows:]

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    Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
    The Chair recognizes Mr. Alfaro.

                    STATEMENT OF JOSE ALFARO

    Mr. Alfaro. Mr. Chair Biggs and Members of the 
Subcommittee, it 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 gay. 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 business where he locked me in a room 
with adult men who were allowed to rape 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 that if I ever shared with anyone what happened 
to me, then I would go to prison. I stayed silent for seven 
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 OK and 
that I needed support as a homeless and trafficked youth, 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, I 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 have reflected on the trafficking I experienced as a 
child, 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 for 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 don't 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 bad children. ``Runaway'' is a term 
associated with children who are marginalized and children who 
are poor. To often no one is looking for runaway children.
    Train 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 had 
forfeited Jason Gandy's assets. The Federal Treasury kept 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.
    In closing, human trafficking is a systemic issue. 
Marginalized and underserved communities are impacted 
disproportionately. If we want to help end human trafficking, 
we have to start with prevention.
    We need better systems to protect all children. Human 
trafficking is not a gender-based 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 perpetuate human 
trafficking. Harm to LGBTQ young people creates more 
vulnerabilities in almost vulnerable communities.
    Thank you for your time today.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Alfaro follows:]

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    Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Alfaro.
    The Chair recognizes now Ms. Cohen.

                    STATEMENT OF LORI COHEN

    Ms. Cohen. Dear Chair Biggs, Ranking Member--
    Mr. Biggs. Is your microphone on? Thank you.
    Ms. Cohen. Got it.
    Dear Chair Biggs, Ranking Member Jackson Lee, and 
distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for 
inviting me and my respected colleagues to discuss how we can 
better protect--
    Mr. Biggs. Ms. Cohen, I don't want to interrupt you, but 
could you pull the mic just a little bit closer to you, please. 
Yes, we all want to hear from you.
    Ms. Cohen. Thank you.
    Mr. Biggs. We know you have an important message.
    Ms. Cohen. Should I start over?
    Mr. Biggs. Yes, that would be fine.
    Let's go ahead and restart the five. There we go.
    Ms. Cohen. All right. Dear Chair Biggs, Ranking Member 
Jackson Lee, 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, previously known as 
ECPACT-USA. PACT remains a proud member of the global ECPACT 
network, active in over 100 countries. We are survivor 
informed. I'd like to recognize PACT board member and survivor 
counsel liaison Katrina Massey, who has joined us today for 
this testimony.
    Mr. Biggs. Welcome.
    Ms. Cohen. 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, gender-based 
persecution, and catastrophic climate events left them with an 
impossible choice. They face death, sexual abuse, or torture if 
they remain or risk their lives through a perilous journey to 
the United States in hope of securing freedom.
    COVID-19 exacerbated this migration, and we noticed an 
increase in migrant arrivals as early as April 2020. In 2022, 
PACT published a study with ECPACT-Mexico, ECPACT-Guatemala, 
and Yale University that explored the impact of the pandemic on 
child migration, trafficking, and sexual exploitation.
    Half the experts indicated that COVID-19 spurred an 
increase in trafficking. However, 44 percent lacked the 
information to answer this question, and 67 percent could not 
say whether the migrant children they served were directly 
affected by sexual exploitation.
    We called the report undetected because the people and 
institutions meant to prevent and stop trafficking don't even 
know how to identify it.
    Our report also explored the role of technology in youth 
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 Exploited Children found that of 32 million reports 
that a Cyber Tipline received in 2022, 89.9 percent 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 in Persons as 
mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
    Similarly, CSAM content creation abroad has a domestic 
nexus. Our existing 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 percent of the world's 
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 in child 
exploitation, the use of artificial intelligence to generate 
sexually explicit imagery of children. Last week, attorneys 
general from all 50 States wrote to 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 child protection bills that 
have been introduced, including the EARN IT Act, Project Safe 
Childhood Act, the No Trafficking in School Zones Act, and stop 
CSAM so that we can prevent human trafficking, online sexual 
exploitation, abuse of children, and help survivors access 
justice.
    Most importantly, PACT urges the Federal Government to 
target demand, which ultimately drives the profit fueling this 
criminal enterprise.
    Again, thank you for allowing me and my colleagues to speak 
on the realities of human trafficking.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Cohen follows:]

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    Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Ms. Cohen.
    The Chair recognizes Mr. Russo for your five minutes.

                    STATEMENT OF FRANK RUSSO

    Mr. Russo. Thank you, Chair Biggs, Congresswoman Dean, and 
the distinguished Members of this Committee. Thank you for the 
opportunity to testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee 
on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance on the need to end 
child exploitation.
    I'm Frank Russo, CPAC's Director of our Center for 
Combating Human Trafficking. Most importantly, I'm a husband 
and father who understands the importance of protecting the 
most vulnerable among us.
    CPAC has long recognized the needs to improve efforts to 
combat the scourge of human trafficking that faces communities, 
as Ms. Dean said, ``both urban and rural across this country.'' 
CPAC was excited to announce the new Center for Combating Human 
Trafficking at our screening of the film ``Sound of Freedom'' 
earlier this year, and we then partnered with our friends in 
Mexico to hold an international summit here on Capitol Hill to 
focus on these very issues.
    Our new initiative will focus on advancing policies that 
support victims in reintegrating into society and removing 
collateral consequences resulting from their abuses you've 
heard about earlier. We also want to strengthen accountability 
for traffickers and improve the cross-collaboration between 
domestic and international entities.
    As you've heard throughout the day, human trafficking and 
child exploitation are 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 percent of these trafficking 
victims are immigrants, meaning that cartels are taking 
advantage of our lax border policies to enrich themselves in 
this horrific trade and practice.
    This trafficking of children often involves multiple layers 
of abuse with some victims being used for both sex and labor 
trafficking across the United States. Coercion is at the heart 
of these crimes as transnational gangs such as MS-13 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 convictions across the country are 
dropping, both here and internationally.
    To confront what has become a $150 billion criminal 
enterprise, Congress must work in tandem with, yes, their 
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 that 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, sex, and financial trafficking, often children. We must 
expose and replace these misguided policies that provide 
victims a safe pathway back to society while proportionately 
punishing their traffickers.
    For example, Congress has the opportunity to provide 
pathways to ensure providers--or survivors are given mental 
health and drug treatment services in lieu of harsh criminal 
penalties. We've heard earlier that often these children are 
caught and forced into crimes that then we prosecute those 
children for. We can't allow that to happen. They need to be 
given services first and then focus on their reintegration into 
society.
    By ensuring open resources to children who are coerced into 
these crimes, lawmakers make sure that we do not exacerbate the 
cycle of abuse for these survivors. Existing legislation, such 
as the bipartisan Trafficking Survivors Relief Act and Sara's 
law provide avenues for these young victims of trafficking to 
be survivors--or to be able to beat their cycle of abuse, and 
they rescue these survivors and also hold their traffickers 
accountable.
    Accountability does not begin or end when the offender 
traffics within 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 at the U.S.-Mexican border in the 
prior administration revealed that around 30 percent of minors 
were actually related to those they were coming across the 
border with. Unfortunately, that testing has ended which allows 
cartels even greater comfort to recycle these children across 
the border to move more adults into the country.
    Most concernedly our partners at the Department of Homeland 
Security, HSI, are unable to keep up with these children once 
that cycle and repetition of abuse ends, and they're brought to 
this country likely to be trafficked either into sex or labor.
    Criminal traffickers have exploited the explosion of social 
media and digital platforms among children of all ages to 
manipulate victims and connect with their offenders. The data, 
as you've heard earlier, bears this out. Our partners at the 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified 
roughly 16.9 million tips in 2019. That number has ballooned to 
29.4 million tips in the last calendar year.
    Congress must do more to not only hold these offenders 
accountable, but require technology platforms to take child 
sexual exploitation seriously. For example, the EARN IT Act 
would address this exponential growth in child sexual abuse 
material by removing blanket civil immunity for technology 
companies that refuse to remove these abhorrent images. Let's 
be clear, 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 
Tim Ballard's story in 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.
    It's now on all of us in this space to deliver real results 
that will first protect the victims, break the cycle of abuse, 
and, of course, hold offenders accountable.
    Chair Biggs and Congresswoman Dean, thank you for sending a 
clear message today: God's children are not for sale.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Russo follows:]

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    Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Russo.
    The Chair recognizes now Ms. Basham for five minutes.

                    STATEMENT OF ANNE BASHAM

    Ms. Basham. Thank you, Chair Biggs and Representative Dean. 
It is an honor to testify before you today on child 
exploitation 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 images facing our world: The 
exploitation of children for profit by human traffickers, human 
smugglers, and advanced criminal networks.
    Child exploitation and sex trafficking is big business. 
Unlike any other human rights abuse, it is a transnational 
organized crime. This is the Subcommittee on Crime, and human 
trafficking specifically generates $150 billion for traffickers 
annually, and it is the second largest criminal enterprise in 
the world.
    The average age sex trafficking victims are targeted is 
just 11-14 years old. China, Russia, North Korea, the Taliban, 
and terrorist groups all use child trafficking to fund their 
operations because, unlike drugs or weapons, a person can be 
sold over and over again.
    Child sex trafficking also funds organized criminal 
networks, including MS-13, one of the most notorious gangs 
operating in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. These three 
countries make up 87 percent of unaccompanied children 
apprehended at the Southern border. A U.S. Treasury 
investigation found that money generated by local MS-13 cliques 
engaged in sex trafficking--and this is a quote, ``sex 
trafficking, drug trafficking, murder for hire, extortion, and 
money laundering.'' It was consolidated and funneled to the 
group's central leadership in Central America.
    The reality is that children are a 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 is child 
sexual exploitation or labor exploitation.
    From March-May of this year, more than 33,000 unaccompanied 
children crossed the U.S. border. 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 that 
this is something that most people don't recognize. For 
example, nearly half of those who cross the U.S. border are 
from Guatemala, and within this one nation they have 24 
different dialects, which means it is difficult to speak with 
parents regarding the incredible risks that their children face 
if they send them to the U.S. Because of this, coyotes often 
trick or coerce mothers into paying children's 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 enter the U.S. foster care system. We know that the 
foster care system is already incredibly overburdened, and 60 
percent of child trafficking victims are current or former 
foster youth. In fact, just a few days ago it was reported that 
human trafficking rings have been targeting children in 
temporary foster care settings specifically in Texas. Child 
Protective Services has paid $30 million to off-duty police 
officers to watch children who are 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 firmly 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 at the Southern border is real, and at 
the same time in our modern world, human trafficking is a 
borderless crime, and so is sexual exploitation. 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.'' Another study concluded that 75 percent of 
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. The UNODC 
actually reported that most victims identified in cases--and 
this is a recent report--were, quote, ``self-rescued.'' That 
means that they had to self-report or escape exploitation on 
their own. This is why that's one of the most important fixes 
that we have.
    I also encourage you to prioritize many of the bills which 
have been spoken here today, whether it be the EARN IT Act, 
REPORT Act, SHIELD Act, and more.
    Thank you so much for your time.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Basham follows:]

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    Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Ms. Basham.
    I thank all of you for your poignant and important 
testimony.
    We'll now proceed to Member questioning under the five-
minute rule, and I will begin by recognizing the gentleman from 
Florida, Mr. Gaetz.
    Mr. Gaetz. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for holding this hearing. 
I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record 
TexasPolicy.com, ``How poorest borders fuel human trafficking 
in the United States,'' and also from Heritage, ``Fighting 
human trafficking and battling Biden's open border.''
    Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
    Mr. Gaetz. Ms. Cohen, I think a number of us on the panel 
took great interest in your description of the screening that 
doesn't occur at the border. I'd love to give you some time to 
maybe lend your expertise to the type of screening that we 
ought to really pursue.
    Ms. Cohen. Thank you so much, Congressman Gaetz.
    PACT has worked very closely with 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, Border 
Patrol, and with shelters. We did find it somewhat concerning 
that shelters were--indicated a reluctance to ask questions 
that might be indicators of trafficking.
    Mr. Gaetz. Just so I know what category that falls in, 
these are the shelters that unaccompanied minors go to as 
they're being processed through HSS?
    Ms. Cohen. We were visiting shelters that had children with 
family members. Some of the testimony we've heard today has 
indicated that there's a concern of trafficking among those 
categories as well. In those shelters, we were informed that 
there was not any screening done on children specifically for 
indicators for trafficking because there was a fear of asking 
questions that might be triggering, that might be problematic 
for those children. There are questions that can be asked in a 
trauma-informed way that could easily assess whether or not the 
narrative that's being presented is, in fact, the true 
narrative, the true situation of the child in question.
    Mr. Gaetz. Chair Biggs has led delegations down to the 
border, and we've seen the chaotic enterprise that exists 
there.
    Could you give us a sense of how long an effective 
screening could take that was trauma-informed and that was 
effective at determining if there's a way to uproot some of 
these networks?
    Ms. Cohen. I think the questioning can be done fairly 
quickly, if there's certain indicators that might appear 
immediately that could lead to additional questioning, but I 
think that it can be ruled out. We have our survivors' council 
is very happy actually to provide input. We have members of the 
survivors' council who were trafficked across the Southern 
border who said that no one asked them anything. That for us is 
a true source of concern, that there should be more focused 
questioning and just some basic questions about the family 
dynamics, the family relationship, and to really assess whether 
what's being presented in some cases by the adults speaking on 
behalf of the child actually matches up with the child's own 
testimony.
    Mr. Gaetz. I'd love to draw on your law enforcement 
experience, Mr. Pizzuro. When you're able to get that type of 
real-time data from an effective screening, how can that be 
useful in disrupting these networks?
    Mr. Pizzuro. The more data that you have, the better the 
investigation, the better the leads. So, it's really important 
on any information that you can really get, and the challenge 
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.
    Mr. Gaetz. We have all different layers of law enforcement 
working on this problem. Where have you seen it be most 
effective?
    Mr. Pizzuro. The most effective is--just from a trafficking 
standpoint is the actual training and the actual, let's say, 
prioritizing of it. I think the challenge is it's not really 
prioritized in law enforcement because we're doing so many 
different things, and I think we're inundated. So, I think 
that's part of the challenge.
    Mr. Gaetz. All right. It completely is.
    Mr. Chair, I reflect back on when we had Steve Friend 
before us who had been at the FBI, and he had been working some 
of these cases from a Federal level. When he was assigned to 
surveil parents at school board meetings, then no one else 
picked up those files, and they just went by the wayside. So, I 
think you're right that prioritization is probably pretty 
central to--
    Mr. Pizzuro. The subject matter, honestly, is that from a 
law enforcement perspective, it's--even child sexual abuse 
material, we don't want to know. So, law enforcement generally 
doesn't really spend that much time doing that. So, it's 
underfunded. There are less resources, and that comes from the 
agencies itself.
    Mr. Gaetz. Thank you for your testimony.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Biggs. The gentleman yields.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. 
Cohen.
    Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Is it Mr. Pizzuro?
    Mr. Pizzuro. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Cohen. Good. Thank you.
    What branch of law enforcement does the most work on these 
cases? Is it the FBI or is it local law enforcement? Who is the 
most active?
    Mr. Pizzuro. The Internet Crimes Against Children task 
force, which is comprised of 61 task forces throughout the 
U.S., does the bulk of all the child sexual abuse cases in the 
U.S.
    Mr. Cohen. How do they do that? I'm not sure how a 61-
member group does that. What do they do?
    Mr. Pizzuro. So, the Protect Our Children Act in 2008 
authorized a task force, and it created 61 tasks forces 
throughout the U.S. The challenge is that they're 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 5,000 affiliated agencies. So, most of 
the cyber tips that are sent go to those local law enforcement 
to investigate.
    Mr. Cohen. Then those cases are prosecuted mostly in State 
court or Federal court?
    Mr. Pizzuro. State court. You will have different 
jurisdictions. For example, sometimes you will get a Federal 
prosecution, but the majority of them are handled in State 
court.
    Mr. Cohen. Does the FBI get involved at all in interstate 
operations?
    Mr. Pizzuro. They will do operations, but generally 
speaking is that some will be interstate. Some they'll do some 
larger investigations as well. For the most part, the ICAC task 
force, along with HSI, are really the two predominant agencies 
that do most of the child exploitation.
    Mr. Cohen. They're mostly State agencies?
    Mr. Pizzuro. Yes.
    Mr. Cohen. All right? Anybody up here from law enforcement? 
No? I didn't think so.
    Mr. Russo, you were here--what years were you here with 
Goodlatte?
    Mr. Russo. So, I was here with Congressman Goodlatte back 
in 2016 and 2017, sir.
    Mr. Cohen. Do you remember anything DeSantis did when he 
was on this Committee?
    Mr. Russo. No, sir, I cannot speak to that. It's quite lost 
in my mind. I'm glad you asked the question because--
    Mr. Cohen. I have the same problem.
    Mr. Russo. Sir, I think it's really important. I 
represented prosecutors prior to this as well, as I think you 
know, and one of the pieces I mentioned was that prosecutions 
are down domestically and internationally. One of the problems 
we have that you speak to directly is getting survivor input 
and support in that space is extremely difficult to do because 
we don't do enough for those survivors to then assist in those 
investigations. So, we're asking so much of them, and we're 
providing so little in return.
    Mr. Cohen. Now, you're looking at legislation, are you not, 
that would be helpful here. Is there any particular law that is 
before us that you recommend that we take up and sponsor or 
support?
    Mr. Russo. Thank you, Congressman.
    I think there's a couple that comes to mind. First, as I 
mentioned, was the Trafficking Survivor Relief Act, as well as 
Sara's Law. Both of those are focused on providing those--not 
just to children, but also adults who have faced criminal 
offenses as a part of their trafficking. Often, they're coerced 
into the crimes you would expect; things like prostitution, but 
they're also coerced into other crimes that you may not 
suspect, such as drug distribution, forced to commit robberies 
or assaults. Well, those things hang over those individuals as 
we then need them to prosecute the actual criminal offender. 
Well, if you have a criminal record hanging over your head, how 
likely are you to comply with law enforcement knowing that you 
may not be able to yourself come out of trouble? I think that's 
presented a significant problem.
    Then the only other one I'll mention is the EARN IT Act, 
which I think will help focus on actually holding tech 
accountable--tech platforms accountable, so that they are doing 
a better job. Mr. Pizzuro can speak better to this, but they 
are often nonresponsive to law enforcement, and that's a 
significant problem as well.
    Mr. Cohen. I know my staff can do this for me, but who are 
the prime sponsors of those bills in the House?
    Mr. Russo. On Sara's Law, Congressman Westerman from 
Arkansas, and then, on TSRA, we're working through that 
process, but we know that Senator Gillibrand in the Senate has 
been a big champion of that as well.
    Mr. Cohen. Right. There was some legislation that I was 
involved in sometime in the past to get more money for nurses 
to be aware of the signs of trafficking. Is that still 
providing funding for nurses to be trained in finding those 
signs?
    Mr. Russo. It is, but I'll say a couple of things. One is 
that there's--like anything, there's a need for more funding 
and resources in that space. Specifically forensic nurses, like 
every profession right now, especially in the medical industry, 
are strapped for both time and talent. So, you're getting 
actually nurses into that profession, and having them trained 
appropriately takes both a larger financial investment, but 
also a focus on pushing the medical profession in that 
direction, which is a difficult challenge.
    So, yes, the law has been very successful, but it needs, 
like anything, more resources and more attention.
    Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Russo. It's nice to see a 
Goodlatte person back.
    Mr. Russo. Thank you, sir.
    Mr. Cohen. I yield back the balance of my time.
    Mr. Biggs. The gentleman yields.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Moore.
    Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to all the 
witnesses for being here today.
    Mr. Pizzuro, a couple of questions. I understand from your 
testimony that you have extensive experience in investigating 
crimes against children. I have a couple of questions I would 
like to ask.
    From a law enforcement perspective, what can Congress do to 
help alleviate the red tape to allow officers to go out and get 
these criminals?
    Mr. Pizzuro. Well, one of the biggest solutions is actual 
uniformity in the actual tips that are being sent to law 
enforcement. For example, is that different companies sent 
different points of data. So, maybe Snapchat might only give 
me, for example, a screen name. Dropbox might give me a couple 
other points of data. The challenge is that some of the 
companies either report nothing or then they report everything. 
So, the challenge is law enforcement must go and filter all 
through those tips, and we're not getting to the most egregious 
cases.
    So, the more information that we have and the more data 
that we have from those companies to help identify that would 
be a solution.
    Mr. Moore. Gotcha.
    I also understand there are more juvenile offenders now 
victimizing other juveniles. How did this come to be and what's 
going on there?
    Mr. Pizzuro. Well, it's a disturbing trend. If you talk to 
a lot of different task forces throughout the U.S., they are 
now coming in contact with a lot more juveniles. The challenge 
is because everyone is online. So, you now have 16-year-olds 
looking at eight-year-olds.
    So, the challenge is that all that content, when we were 
talking about the AI algorithms, everything is pushed that way. 
So, now what's happening is you're going to have that content 
as a child, and it's pushed there, so no different than we look 
at something, and then all of a sudden we're getting those same 
videos.
    So that content, those algorithms are pushed, and now we're 
getting more child offenders than ever before. You're talking 
16- and 17-year-olds as opposed to anytime.
    Mr. Moore. Thank you.
    Mr. Russo, I've been down to the border with Mr. Biggs a 
couple of times, and one of the things that we found out--and I 
mentioned this in testimony or in a hearing here before on 
questioning--is that the prices on people's head now to come 
across the U.S. Southern border and just South of the border, 
it's $4,000-$5,000, further South in the triangle nations, 
$7,000-$8,000. I think Syrians were paying $20,000 to cross the 
U.S. border. My understanding is that the cartel is actually 
getting the money. In some situations, my understanding, the 
administration's policy on the border has created basically two 
things. They're either muling the drugs across to pay that 
passage, whether it's $4,000, $7,000, or $8,000, they can 
backpack heroin, cocaine, or fentanyl across the border to pay 
that passage, but the other thing is they can become indentured 
servants and slaves.
    Are you seeing that at the child trafficking? Are the 
making installment payments through child trafficking back to 
the cartel?
    Mr. Russo. Thank you, Congressman, for the question.
    Mr. Moore. Sure.
    Mr. Russo. The answer is absolutely. I think something we 
haven't talked as much about is labor trafficking. Labor 
trafficking is a significant portion of this. So, when they put 
that indentured servitude piece on someone's head--I'll give 
you an example. In Oklahoma, we know that they've 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 owed debt.
    So, law enforcement is coming across, Chinese Nationals, 
Mexican Nationals, and Honduran Nationals--you choose where--
with obvious dialect challenges who have then put in a State 
that they're unfamiliar with, oftentimes away from family or 
other known contacts, and in that process they owe that debt to 
pay through that labor trafficking for an undetermined amount 
of time.
    Mr. Moore. Another thing I found really interesting is 
these sponsors that are supposed to be taking these children, 
and we have sponsors that sign up for maybe 30 children, and 
they never see the children. We're trying to figure out now on 
our end legislatively, how do we put teeth into that so that if 
you sponsor those children--you don't know those children, you 
never see those children, but somehow or another, you were 
their sponsor to get them in this country unaccompanied, then 
we're going to try to put teeth in that law as well. Hopefully, 
we can get support from your groups and organizations for that 
as well.
    With that, Mr. Chair, I'll yield back. Thank you.
    Mr. Biggs. The gentleman yields back.
    The Chair recognizes now the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. 
Johnson.
    Mr. Johnson of Georgia. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to 
begin by thanking the survivors and advocates for your 
testimony today.
    This is a wide-ranging hearing covering numerous topics, 
and I'd like to focus on a couple of points. The Ranking Member 
of the Committee, Sheila Jackson Lee, is absent today because 
she has the flu. I did want to let you know that had she been 
here, she would have talked about her bill, H.R. 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 face severe 
consequences.
    She introduced that bill, H.R. 30, the Stop Human 
Trafficking in School Zones Act, along with Republican 
Representative Mike McCaul to ensure that schools will be safe 
havens for our children. She pointed out that a 2018 survey 
reports that 55 percent of young sex trafficking survivors in 
Texas were trafficked while at school or school activities and 
that 60 percent of trafficked adults said they were first 
groomed or solicited for trafficking on school campuses.
    I also want to point out that data from 2017 shows that 53 
percent of arrests for so-called child prostitution, in quote, 
``were of Black children; 53 percent of arrests for child 
prostitution were of Black children.'' This data reflects the 
reality that Black children who are survivors of sex 
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?
    Ms. Cohen. Thank you, Congressman, for this question.
    I do actually want to thank you for bringing attention to 
the issue of child sex trafficking in the United States among 
domestically trafficked youth. Our research had specifically 
been on this question of looking at screening along the border, 
but PACT is well aware that the majority of child sex 
trafficking actually occurs in the United States with U.S. 
citizen children. It's important because I believe that Ranking 
Member Jackson Lee's research that's 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, Sara's Law 
attempts to address some of that issue at the point of 
conviction, but PACT has been advocating very strongly against 
the arrest of these children in the first place. What we really 
need to be doing is when we're looking at this transaction of 
someone purchasing a child, who's 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 Victims Protection Act.
    Mr. Johnson of Georgia. OK. Let me stop you right there and 
ask you another question.
    You've 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?
    Ms. Cohen. No, that is not the case and--
    Mr. Johnson of Georgia. All right. 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 movie's fans and what have you had to endure as a result of 
you pointing out the truths about that film?
    Mr. Alfaro. Thanks for your question.
    Anytime I speak publicly, there's always fear of backlash. 
Because I am gay, Latino, and male. Anytime I come forward with 
any story or experience of my own publicly, there's always 
every single time backlash saying that I deserved what happened 
to me, that what happened to me was my own fault.
    When I spoke out about the ``Sound of Freedom''--and I will 
say I don't think that all movies that are not true stories are 
necessarily bad. I think that when we are at a time where 
there's 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.''
    A lot of messages 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 didn't agree 
with it. That is extremely harmful.
    When you have people with lived experience who are sharing 
what has happened to them and what is truly happening right 
here within the United States and people aren't willing to 
listen and instead are listening to a film that is heavily 
publicized, it creates a lot of harm.
    Mr. Biggs. I hate to interrupt.
    Mr. Johnson of Georgia. I appreciate the gentleman's 
indulgence.
    Mr. Chair, I'd like to submit for the record the statement 
of Sheila Jackson Lee.
    Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
    Mr. Johnson of Georgia. Thank you.
    Mr. Biggs. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin, Mr. Tiffany.
    Mr. Tiffany. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Mr. Pizzuro, as child sex abuse material has become more 
prevalent, we are now being faced with the proliferation of 
artificial intelligence and the ability to generate images that 
are indistinguishable as false or real.
    Do you think this will become an issue as it relates to 
child sex abuse material? Do you have any recommendations?
    Mr. Pizzuro. Yes. So, when you're talking specifically 
about AI, now with generative AI, I can do two things. First, I 
can actually now basically mimic a child to groom people. 
Second, now with AI I can technically create my own victim in 
my household. So, we're 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 of my--or 
replica of my child the way AI is going. So, we need to have 
some sort of regulation for that or how we're going to 
implement restrictions and how they're used.
    As an example, ChatGPT, if I went in there and I searched 
``How do I exploit a child?'' it doesn't give me an answer. If 
I say, ``I'm 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 
that we have to think about in some sort of way to protect 
children.
    Mr. Tiffany. Do you think social media companies should be 
held accountable for putting this information forward?
    Mr. Pizzuro. Yes. They're pushing the content. So, as I was 
told by one member of one of the tech companies, is that we 
can't have a conversation with you because you said there has 
to be accountability.
    There has to be accountability. Everyone is on their 
platform, and what we're doing is we're pushing that data to 
them over and over again.
    Mr. Tiffany. My understanding is that Instagram is one of 
the biggest proliferators of pornography out there. Is that 
correct?
    Mr. Pizzuro. I wouldn't say Instagram is, because there's 
so many different other platforms. What Instagram does do and 
Meta does, especially referencing that article, is they do push 
out algorithms, and you're getting a lot of people--tomorrow if 
I'm 10 and I get on Instagram, well, guess what? Now, once I'm 
on there, I'm also pushed content of other men.
    Mr. Tiffany. Mr. Chair, as we've heard in Committee before, 
the social media companies, including a Vice President for 
Facebook, acknowledged that they enable illegal immigration; 
they foster human trafficking. I think they should be held 
accountable. I think there has to be some accountability 
brought to the social media companies. The protections they've 
had under Section 230 have become abuse at this point, and I 
think there's really something we need to do about it.
    Ms. Basham, are you familiar with the State of Florida v. 
United States case presided by Judge Wetherell?
    Ms. Basham. Can you remind me of that?
    Mr. Tiffany. In that case, the judge ruled that President 
Biden's 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 ripe for increased human trafficking?
    Ms. Basham. Well, what I can tell you is this, is that 
there does need to be a solution right now, that when we see 
33--children crossing the U.S. border unaccompanied within a 
three-month period, that something is wrong. These children are 
largely unprotected once they get into other settings within 
here.
    So, that's what I can tell you.
    Mr. Tiffany. Mr. Alfaro, I appreciate your comments 
earlier. Welcome to the world of politics with people slamming 
you, whatever. Join the crowd.
    In regard to ``Sound of Freedom,'' isn't it good, though, 
that there's an awareness being brought to child exploitation, 
human trafficking?
    Mr. Alfaro. It is good when it is accurate.
    Mr. Tiffany. Don't movies take license frequently? I see 
movies, and I go, that's not--I've read the book. I've read a 
few books, whatever. That's not depicting it accurately. 
They're not true to the story, but they are delivering a 
message.
    Mr. Alfaro. They're definitely delivering a message. Like I 
mentioned, I don't think all stories that are not based on a 
true story are bad. There were parts of the ``Sound of 
Freedom'' that I didn't fully agree with, and this super hero 
idea that people need someone to come and save them out of 
their situation is actually very unlikely.
    No one came in and saved me out of my situation, and the 
majority of my survivor colleagues have the same feelings, that 
no one has ever stepped in and--
    Mr. Tiffany. So, as someone that consumes a little bit of 
Hollywood, isn't that Mel Gibson in a few movies? Isn't that 
the beautiful actress that is headlines in a movie or whatever? 
Isn't that the same thing that we do? We caricature with--
    Mr. Biggs. The gentleman's time has expired.
    Mr. Tiffany. I yield back, sir.
    Mr. Biggs. OK. Thank you.
    The Chair now recognizes the gentlelady from Pennsylvania, 
Ms. Dean.
    Ms. Dean. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Again, I want to start by thanking all of you for your 
testimony.
    Mr. Alfaro and Ms. Bautista, if I could start with both of 
you. Thank you for your honest account, and I know it's a very 
truncated account of what you have gone through, very different 
stories. I guess I just--I'll start with you, Mr. Alfaro. How 
are you?
    Mr. Alfaro. Um, that's kind of hard to answer right now, 
but I'm OK.
    Ms. Dean. OK. Ms. Bautista?
    Ms. Bautista. I am OK too. 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 to date, 
because I know it is very important. Even as we speak today, 
there are children that are being exploited.
    So, I am emotional because it's my friends in the 
Philippines. It's younger children. I, myself, don't have a kid 
right now, but in the future I don't want to see another kid 
being exploited. I don't 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.
    Ms. Dean. I appreciate that. I speak for myself. I don't 
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?
    Mr. Alfaro. 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. No one really understood--I 
didn't even understand what human trafficking was, and I didn't 
know that what happened to me was human trafficking. Right? So, 
if you don't really know what happened to you, how do you 
identify the tools and resources that you need to heal from the 
trauma that you've experienced? That's why there's 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 that they need to get to a 
place where I now am.
    Ms. Dean. I appreciate that, and I agree with you. I don't 
think Hollywood or anybody else ought to take creative license 
with the facts. That's one thing in fiction, but not with the 
facts.
    Ms. Bautista, for your own healing, and I was thinking 
about your friend Joy. How is Joy? I hope she's on the path to 
healing.
    Ms. Bautista. She is. Yes, she is. She is thriving. She is 
a social worker now in the Philippines.
    So, one of the things really that really help us for 
survivors like me in our healing journey and our restoration 
journey is to provide more resources on education and on 
awareness of the crime and financial assistance, because all of 
us came from a really hard life of poverty. So, a lot of us 
really need to move on. Through financing or through 
educational assistance, that helps us because, in reality, a 
lot of survivors are culturally--education is the primary 
source of hope, source of moving on to our healing to what bad 
thing happened to us. That's our--and achieving to those dreams 
and hopes would really help--would really help survivors. So, 
because I want to get something in about tech.
    Ms. Dean. Very well said. I appreciate that. Forgive me for 
moving just--
    Ms. Bautista. Yes.
    Ms. Dean. It seems to me there ought to be legislation that 
could force the Big Tech companies to block and fail to 
distribute the images we're talking about. What is that 
solution?
    Mr. Pizzuro. Well, if you look at Apple, Apple had that 
device-base scanning that they rolled back in 2021, and I think 
that's part of the challenge, with end-to-end encryption in a 
lot of the other tech proposals, nothing is being scanned. So, 
with nothing being scanned, we don't have any way to look at 
it.
    So, even if you can use AI or other programs to do that in 
solutions, again, hopefully it will identify victims. My 
challenge is, like Ms. Bautista, is there are hundreds of 
thousands of victims that law enforcement can't get to and 
identify and get them the help they need.
    Ms. Dean. I thank the Chair for his indulgence.
    I thank the Ranking Member for asking me to sit in on her 
behalf, and I fully support all the legislative work she is 
doing in that area.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Biggs. The gentlelady yields back.
    I recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Kiley.
    Mr. Kiley. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Thank you to all our witnesses today for helping us gain a 
fuller understanding of this absolute horror that is going on 
and victimizing far too many people, and particularly young 
people.
    Listening to the testimony it seems to me there are a few 
facets of the approach we can take to addressing this problem. 
That starts with just increased public awareness. That all of 
us have a responsibility and a role we can play working with 
nonprofits, working with law enforcement, working with other 
stakeholders in our community to help people not become 
victims. Also, to raise awareness about the political 
dimensions of the problem.
    In my State of California, for example, for many years, we 
have tried in the legislature to get the legislation to take 
this issue more seriously by classifying human trafficking as a 
serious felony. Unfortunately, every year, the Public Safety 
Committee has stopped it from passing. They did that this year 
as well, a bill to make trafficking of a minor a serious 
felony.
    After a public outcry, they ended up doing something 
unprecedented in recent history--is the Committee reversed 
itself. Just a couple days ago, that bill passed the State 
Assembly unanimously and is now going to the governor's desk. 
So, I think that is 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. First, being holding those who pedal 
this material and those who traffic young people accountable. 
Second, being the social media element. Third, being what's 
going on at the border.
    So, on the first, Mr. Russo, you mentioned in your 
testimony that we need to have stricter penalties for the 
abusers. What do you think would be the specific changes that 
would be most important?
    Mr. Russo. It's a great question. I'll note one in 
California. It's great that they have moved that legislation 
forward. The idea of being supportive of victims is not 
incompatible with the idea of being harder on traffickers, and 
we need to be balancing that appropriately.
    One approach that our organization is focused on is looking 
at things such that already exist in the law, like gang 
enhancements, and applying them for human traffickers who 
coerce minors into other criminal behavior. Oftentimes, you 
can't make that straight gang connection, so that enhancement 
may not be available.
    If you are an individual who forces a 16-year-old into 
prostitution or a 15-year-old into trafficking fentanyl or 
other drugs, that penalty increase, that gang enhancement that 
exists in the law, should be eligible for you regardless of 
whether you are in a criminal organization or not.
    So, that's something I would ask that the Committee 
consider, is that focusing on actually enhancing for folks who 
are using that coercive element. Let's make the game harder for 
the traffickers that they're already playing.
    Mr. Kiley. Thank you. That's a great insight.
    Ms. Basham, when it comes to the immigration facet, you 
testified that, from March-May of this year, more than 33,000 
unaccompanied children crossed the U.S. border. The physical 
and sexual violence, human degradation, hunger, and thirst that 
these children often experience en route to the United States 
is appalling. Sadly, you go on, this is just a prelude to the 
violence that many experience once they are in the U.S.
    So, why do you think it is that we have had this huge 
increase in the number of unaccompanied minors, and how do we 
stop it from happening? What are the steps that we should be 
taking right now?
    Ms. Basham. Well, there are several things I think that--
I'm not going to dive into specific border policy, what we can 
do now. I will say that there are several things for deterrence 
purposes.
    First, in Guatemala--that was the country that I brought up 
early on. I actually went there last year, spoke there. The 
secretary of sexual trafficking is on my task force. One of the 
things that they're doing--she said, we want this to stop. They 
have--47 percent of unaccompanied minors are coming from 
Guatemala.
    The problem is--she said that a lot of these mothers are 
handing over their children to smugglers because they do not 
know. So, what they've actually done there is they've developed 
mobile units.
    So, I think that one thing I would suggest--and this is a 
little bit out of sort of the scope of some of this--is a 
CODEL. I actually think it would be really, really helpful to 
do a CODEL down to Guatemala to actually see some of this and 
talk to some of these people in person because, I do think, if 
there was increased funding or things like that for them to get 
mobile education units into these places, that it would 
actually be extremely helpful to some of these children from a 
prevention standpoint alone. That's one country in Guatemala.
    Outside of that--and then, again, that gets to an awareness 
campaign, which is really central to a lot of this.
    Outside of that, I really think it comes down to, also, the 
communication between children here and their parents back 
there. That's one of the things that wasn't really discussed 
much today. There needs to be a really clear, good 
communication loop so that children who are unaccompanied here 
can communicate back with their parents there. Because if more 
parents knew of the dangers that their kids would face, they 
would not send them.
    Mr. Kiley. Thank you very much.
    With your indulgence, Mr. Chair, if I could just quickly 
ask Mr. Pizzuro.
    Of the laws that you listed for holding social media 
companies accountable, what do you think is the most important 
change to make them more proactive in making sure that this 
material isn't disseminated on their platforms?
    Mr. Biggs. The time is expired, but you may answer.
    Mr. Pizzuro. OK. They need to be mandated, and they 
definitely--from a standpoint of just--if we can just get them 
to standardize what they give and be a little bit more 
proactive. We're looking for incremental changes. There's a lot 
of changes that need to be done. That's where we need to at 
least start.
    Mr. Kiley. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Biggs. The Chair recognizes the gentlelady from 
Florida, Ms. Lee.
    Ms. Lee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Thank you to all our witnesses for being here today, for 
sharing your stories, your expertise, and your insight about 
this important issue.
    I spent a large part of my professional career working on 
ending the sexual exploitation of children, domestic violence, 
and human trafficking. It's very important to me that, as 
Congress, we are doing everything we can to bring awareness to 
this issue, to incarcerate perpetrators, and to support 
survivors. So, each of you has brought important perspective to 
us today about how we might do those things, and we appreciate 
that very much.
    This session, I have introduced the National Trafficking 
Hotline Enhancement Act and also the REPORT Act in the House, 
which would modernize and strengthen existing reporting 
procedures to disclose crimes involving child sex abuse to 
NCMEC and ensure we're giving law enforcement the tools that 
they need to help identify this type of behavior and intercept 
and bring it to a stop.
    I'm very proud that, in both cases, those bills have 
bipartisan support in this Committee, and I want to 
particularly acknowledge Ranking Member Dean for cosponsoring 
the REPORT Act. I believe it is a very important part of 
legislation that I hope to see us bring to the full House.
    Now, with that, Ms. Basham, I would like to return to your 
testimony and talk in some more depth about the concepts of how 
minors are enticed and groomed on the internet and how abusers 
target and exploit them. One of the things that the REPORT Act 
aims to do is to require electronic communication service 
providers to report incidents of enticement of minors online.
    Can you explain how this happens and how that type of 
requirement would help stop human trafficking?
    Ms. Basham. Yes. So, the REPORT Act, first, is very 
important. So, I'm really grateful that you have sponsored 
that.
    So, enticement can happen in a variety of ways. First, the 
reason they target children--and that's something I need to 
State up front--is because they are especially vulnerable. 
Children are, by nature, more trusting and all of that.
    With the REPORT Act, and just in general with children 
being groomed online, one of the ways is it's someone who 
usually--they develop a trusting relationship online, and 
through that process, they learn--that's why we call it 
grooming. It's not kidnapping. It's a form of really luring the 
child in to do things. Then it dives into actual coercion.
    So, we have children who have been threatened or their 
families have been threatened, and then through that, they are 
lured to do things or other things have happened to them 
through that.
    Ms. Lee. A study by Rain found that law enforcement--and I 
think Mr. Pizzuro also touched on this issue--is overburdened 
at times by the number of leads that they have, the sheer 
volume of cases and tips that they're trying to investigate.
    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 other tools might 
help law enforcement manage the growing number of tips and 
cases that they are investigating?
    Ms. Basham, we'll start with you, and then we'll hear from 
Mr. Pizzuro.
    Ms. Basham. OK. OK. So, I think one of the main things with 
all this is to--sorry. Can you State that again? I thought that 
you were stating it for him over there. Sorry.
    Ms. Lee. Yes. My question was about retention of 
information.
    So, one of the other provisions would require these 
companies to retain--when they have information that looks like 
it may be exploitative or is a tip for law enforcement, they 
would 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?
    Ms. Basham. Well, absolutely. First, the No. 1 thing is 
that law enforcement needs every bit of help that they can get. 
So, that's the No. 1 thing. They are understaffed, and we know 
that there is an increased burden. So, that's first of all.
    The second thing is, just simply, it takes some of the 
burden off with some of the training. Like, law enforcement has 
to be trained to recognize and report this. So, it's obviously 
called the REPORT Act. So, I think it alleviates some of that 
key burden that really needs to come off law enforcement.
    Ms. Lee. Mr. Pizzuro, what would you add in response to 
that question?
    Mr. Pizzuro. So, 90 days was the standard going to one 
year, and that's the standard for probable cause. So, the 
challenge is that we can't get to the victims and identify them 
because, most likely--most of the time, we're getting a case 
after six months. So, the ability to actually find and locate 
that victim, identify that victim, is really important from 
that retention standpoint.
    One of the other things I'll add is that we need companies 
to actually be responsive to legal process immediately and send 
us that data, and we have difficulties with a lot of those 
companies now as well.
    Ms. Lee. Thank you. That's very helpful insight.
    With that, Mr. Chair, I yield back.
    Mr. Biggs. The gentlelady yields back.
    The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. 
Fry.
    Mr. Fry. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Thank you to our witnesses for being here.
    I was a former member of the South Carolina General 
Assembly just last year. A few years ago, I worked with Shared 
Hope International and our Attorney General Alan Wilson to 
craft a human trafficking bill.
    To Mr. Russo's point earlier about how you have to balance 
both the prosecution side while also being compassionate and 
taking care of victims, particularly minors--that was really 
the crux of the legislation that we did. We were considered 
that year to be the most improved State in the country in 
addressing human trafficking. We've got a long way to go.
    Our attorney general is doing a fantastic job. He actually 
recently spearheaded a letter with over 50--it was actually 54 
attorneys general from all the States and territories about the 
threat of how artificial intelligence is being used to exploit 
children.
    Mr. Chair, at this time, I seek unanimous consent to endear 
into the record Attorney General Wilson's letter and the letter 
from all the attorneys general.
    Sadly, our children are constantly exploited through child 
sexual abuse material daily in our country. The U.S. is now the 
host--it's not a proud moment, but we host more child sexual 
abuse material than any other country in the world.
    Mr. Chair, I'd also like unanimous consent to enter into 
the record a statement from our friend, Congresswoman Ann 
Wagner, who is doing an incredible job in this space, too, 
trying to update some of our laws.
    Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
    Mr. Fry. Look, online platforms--by design, maybe--are 
created, and kids spend an inordinate amount of time--7-8 hours 
a day--online. They get addicted to these apps. They are on 
their phones constantly. I think the mission here is to protect 
our kids from things that 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 a subpoena, that you actually let the individual 
know that you're trying to subpoena that law enforcement is 
looking at them? So, we're trying to put a stop to that. This 
is just one avenue that we have talked about that would have a 
meaningful effect on this.
    Ms. Basham, South Carolina--and I'm just going to use my 
State as an example, but this is really everywhere. We have a--
in my district specifically, it's very rural, but it's also a 
heavily tourist economy. We have the beach. What kinds of 
trends in child exploitation do you generally find in tourist 
areas?
    Ms. Basham. Well, tourist areas specifically are always hot 
spots. I will say this. I actually think sexual exploitation--
this is one of the unique things--it happens everywhere. So, it 
really is a borderless crime.
    Tourist hot spots, obviously, leave children more 
vulnerable because people are there to vacation. They tend to 
be intoxicated. So, that actually can increase some of it, too.
    Mr. Fry. Thank you. Can you talk a little bit more about 
how vulnerable populations, such as foster youth or 
unaccompanied minors, are more susceptible to being victims of 
these crimes?
    Ms. Basham. Well, I think there are a number of populations 
that are really susceptible because of any vulnerabilities. So, 
when you are detached from your family and you are an 
unaccompanied minor, you're vulnerable to several different 
things.
    One of those would be someone who poses as a family member, 
a trusted friend, an adult that leaves you vulnerable to 
actually participating in a gang or actually being trafficked 
yourself and exploited yourself.
    Mr. Fry. Thank you.
    Mr. Pizzuro, I want to turn to you really quick. Last year, 
the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's cyber 
tip line received 32 million reports of suspected child 
exploitation online.
    In your experience--I think you testified social media 
companies are not properly censoring that material or 
regulating that material, are they?
    Mr. Pizzuro. No. If you go further, like--and that's where 
the Apple--out of 32 million tips, Apple had 175 last year. So, 
what does Apple have? Fifty-eight percent of the market share 
in the U.S. for iPhones.
    So, I think that's--and it's not just calling out Apple. 
It's just the industry as a whole.
    Mr. Fry. I think you're actually heading exactly where I 
wanted to go here. Because, to me, when I'm looking at 
Facebooks, Googles, and Instagrams, the gulf between maybe the 
top reporter and the bottom is just so wide. Facebook had 21 
million, but Apple had 234. Can you touch on that contrast?
    How--it's kind of crazy to me. Social media companies will 
censor our own speech, but they won't get this stuff off their 
platforms.
    So, talk about the privacy concerns, I guess, what are they 
talking about? What are they alleging from a privacy 
perspective as to why they will not fight back against child 
sexual abuse material on their platforms?
    Mr. Pizzuro. Well, they move so that they can't see it on 
their platforms. So, if you go to end-to-end encryption where 
you have basically both sides where that data is there, they're 
saying that we can't see it. So, again, they're not even 
scanning for that.
    So, the challenge becomes--is that they're totally dark. 
So, the idea is that, if I don't know what's happening on my 
platform, then technically, I don't have to report it. So, what 
happens is then other companies do the direct opposite. If it's 
something, then I'm going to report it. So, that is really the 
disparity between Meta and Apple, as an example.
    Mr. Fry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. With that, I yield.
    Mr. Biggs. Thank you. I now recognize myself for five 
minutes of questioning.
    I'll tell you; I have questions for each one of you. I'm 
going to probably limit myself to one. I urge you to be as 
succinct as possible, yet say what you think is pertinent to 
it.
    So, I'll start with you, Mr. Alfaro, because one thing you 
said that really caught my attention is that the restitution 
that you were awarded wasn't awarded to you. It went to the 
Federal Government, and you actually had to litigate to get 
restitution back as a victim. Do I understand that correctly?
    Mr. Alfaro. Well, sort of.
    Mr. Biggs. OK.
    Mr. Alfaro. It was a process. It was a gruesome process. I 
hate that anyone has to go through a process after testifying 
in a criminal or Federal trial and has to explain why they are 
deserving of the money owed to them.
    Basically, I went about a year questioning, when will I be 
receiving the restitution? More time went on. I was told I 
would be receiving it by Christmastime. Then another year went 
by, and then they said I would receive it by Christmastime. 
Then things just kept changing.
    So, I had to seek out legal counsel just to help me figure 
out where this money was. Eventually, shortly after that, I did 
receive legal counsel. I 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. I asked them if they had been 
contacted. They said no. So, I connected them with pro bono 
attorneys as well.
    Mr. Biggs. Thank you for explaining that. That's something 
I think Congress should look into as well.
    Ms. Bautista, you mentioned something which I am aware of--
is the difficulty of getting images removed, even after the 
tech companies are aware that those--basically, the criminal 
images have been viralized.
    So, can you talk about that for a second? You implied that 
you got some of those removed. How did you get that done?
    Ms. Bautista. Thanks for that question.
    The petition--it was currently being petitioned against 
Apple--well, not against Apple, but asking Apple to remove the 
child sexual abuse materials online.
    My fellow survivors of OSEC have been living and hoping to 
move forward from this abuse, from this horrific situation they 
were in. Being into that situation where they have these 
materials still online, and they can't move forward.
    So, that's why I am asking, alongside with survivors of 
OSEC--is to have these removed permanently because it keeps 
going back into our lives. It keeps going back into OSEC 
survivors' lives. How can we move forward? How can we move 
forward with our lives if we still keep being reminded of all 
these horrific situations?
    Mr. Biggs. I appreciate that. Thank you for sharing that. I 
agree with you. Again, Congress needs to act.
    Mr. Tanagho, I am reminded as we're listening to this of 
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which a lot of 
these platforms hide behind and shelter. Do you have any 
opinion, or do you want to comment on that?
    Mr. Tanagho. Well, I think there's two things I would say 
to that. Thank you for that question.
    First, I would say that Section 230 does not protect 
electronic service providers from their own design decisions. 
So, when they design an app or a platform in such a way that 
actually encourages or facilitates child sexual abuse and 
exploitation, then they have no Section 230 protection.
    I do think that it is important that the EARN IT Act and 
other legislation address this gap because the reality is, 
every industry is governed by regulations. Every industry has 
industrywide standards. If they don't meet those standards, 
then they can be held to account. It's up to judges, and it's 
up to courts to decide if a company has failed to meet its duty 
of care or its obligations.
    Right now, there are no obligations. There are no 
requirements on the tech sector to build their platforms safe 
by design, to detect and remove child sexual abuse material. 
So, what we see is incredibly uneven responses from the tech 
sector.
    I think the reality is, it's not just about any one 
company, but it's an industrywide problem. That's why you need 
something like the EARN IT Act that can really transform the 
entire industry's response.
    Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
    I'm going to go really quick to Mr. Pizzuro.
    Fusion centers. Are you familiar with fusion centers, and 
how are they working on this problem?
    Mr. Pizzuro. Yes. Right now, well, I could speak to New 
Jersey. New Jersey's fusion centers aren't working on the ICAC 
problem or the social media problem. So, that's something--
again additional resources. Maybe they can start looking into 
that for more prior-
itization.
    Mr. Biggs. Thank you. 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. Congress must act.
    I would anticipate that some pieces of legislation--we know 
that some of them have passed out of the Committee in the 
Senate, but we don't have them across the Mall yet. Then there 
are some that we have that I know that we're going to be taking 
up soon as well.
    So, thank you to the audience.
    Thank you to the witnesses.
    Thank you to Ms. Dean and my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle for being here today.
    With that, we are adjourned.
    [Whereon, at 4:11 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

    The record for this hearing by the Members of the 
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance is 
available at: https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/
ByEvent.aspx?Event ID=116344.

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