The House passed a bill that U.S. Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) introduced to address gaps in federal laws that allow for offenders to victimize children by engaging in “global sex tourism” without punishment.
The Global Child Protection Act, H.R. 1862, drew bipartisan support and was approved in a 372-30 vote on Monday. It would address a legal loophole in which certain sexual activities with children are not covered under the definition of “illicit sexual conduct,” which is punishable by law.
The measure drew strong support from U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and is one of several Judiciary Committee bills aimed at combating child exploitation and human trafficking.
“To be clear, the current statute criminalizes the act of traveling abroad to do terrible things to children, but it does not criminalize the people who force children to perform sexual acts on them,” Roby, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said. “This bill very simply closes the loophole when it comes to sex tourism and soliciting sexual acts from a minor, to include not just what someone would do to a child, but what they would force a child to do to them.”
The measure would also broaden sentencing guidelines, Roby added, to “ensure that all types of contact offenses against children of all ages are treated with the same level of seriousness.”
Goodlatte said sexual predators are aware of the disconnect between the definitions of “illicit sexual contact” and “sexual contact” under federal law and intentionally exploit them.
“I’m sure my colleagues would agree that it should not matter whether the offender engages in sexual ‘conduct’ or ‘contact’ with a child,” Goodlatte said. “Either way, he is a child predator. This is the very definition of a loophole, and it is putting children at risk. That is because these predators are aware of this loophole — and they are able to share this information quickly in ‘chat groups’ on the internet. They plot their foreign sex tourism accordingly, to circumvent criminal liability.”
Roby’s bill would close the technical flaws in the law by expanding the definition of ‘illicit sexual conduct’ to include ‘sexual contact.’ It would also add provisions into the definition of ‘federal sex offense’ to include sexual contact with a minor under 12.
“Because this subject is so ugly and uncomfortable, most Americans probably have no idea the extent to which children around the globe are at risk of exploitation,” Roby said while speaking on the House floor in support of the bill. “That is what makes it so important that we do talk about it and address the problem head-on.”