Tracy Press

Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani touts a new bill that would arm investigators with another tool in the fight against child abuse.

California needs to be a leader in combating child sexual abuse. New technology has emboldened those who would hurt children, and as a result, we must constantly seek new ways to prevent abuse and bring criminals to justice.

Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Internet child pornography images have increased 1,500 percent since 1988, and more than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every day. As such, laws designed for the traditional "print" media are no longer adequate in today’s digital world.

Assembly Bill 1475 will add commercial computer technicians to the list of those who must report abuse when, within their professional capacity or employment, they know or reasonably suspect that a person appearing to be younger than 16 years old has been the victim of sexual abuse.

People who abuse children sexually have more resources than ever at their disposal. Every day, children are sexually exploited through the Internet, and with today’s digital technology, perpetrators are able to easily photograph children and then download and upload their collections.

Digital photography has practically replaced traditional photography, and the storage and printing of pictures can now be completed through the computer rather than in a photo printing shop. This new reality has just about eliminated the risk that child abusers will be caught attempting to print their material using conventional film processors.

Policymakers never anticipated the explosion of the Internet and how severe the child porn epidemic would become once the Internet could become a vehicle for networking, communicating and trading images and videos anonymously with other child molesters.

The Wyoming "Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force" has tracked child porn to specific computers, by serial number, since October 2005. When surveillance started, nearly 22,000 computers had been identified as trafficking in child porn. Two and a half years later, nearly 625,000 computers have traded child porn through Internet venues such as peer-to-peer file sharing.

As Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said, these sadistic images of bondage, torture and penetration are collected and traded like baseball cards, with many images available as a series in a particular child’s name — such as the "Amy Series," the "Susie Series" and the "Billy Series."

In one out of every three arrests made for child pornography possession, police find victims.

To the abusers, it’s become a game of "Can you top this?" As for the children, this game is life-altering, and most will never recover. Hundreds of thousands will never be found.

Assembly Bill 1475 gives computer technicians the ability and responsibility to report what is beyond our comprehension, without the fear of being sued or fired. But this bill is about much more than that — it’s about finding these kids.

• California Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Livingston, represents the 17th Assembly District, which includes Tracy.

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