Opinion ID: 164093
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Rationale for Enhanced Sentencing in Cases Involving Computers

Text: 20 The enhancement at issue here was added in response to the Child Protection and Sexual Predator Punishment Act of 1998, Pub.L. No. 105-314, 112 Stat. 2974, which addressed the problem that cyberspace provides an increasingly common and effective medium by which would-be sexual predators can contact minors, or persons in control of minors, to arrange for sexual encounters. See generally United States v. Reaves, 253 F.3d 1201, 1203-05 (10th Cir.2001) (discussing the dangers of the internet in the context of another computer-based enhancement). Children commonly make wide use of the internet, often with little parental supervision, and sometimes with a dangerous degree of naivete. Behind the anonymous veil of the internet, predators can locate young people in teen chat rooms or other child-friendly sites, assume false identities, establish relationships, deploy pornographic images and other sexual enticements, and arrange for meetings — all shielded from the eyes of parents, police, or other protectors. As Representative Hutchinson explained shortly before the passage of the 1998 act: 21 [B]y the year 2002, 45 million children will use the Internet to talk with friends, do homework assignments and explore the vast world around them. Computer technologies and Internet innovations have unveiled a world of information that is literally just a mouse click away. 22 Unfortunately, individuals who seek children to sexually exploit and victimize them are also a mouse click away. Sex offenders who prey on children no longer need to hang out in parks or malls or school yards. Instead, they can roam from web site to chat room seeking victims with little risk of detection. 23 The anonymous nature of the online relationship allows users to misrepresent their age, gender or interests. Children are rarely supervised while they are on the Internet. Unfortunately, this is exactly what cyber-predators look for. 24 144 Cong. Rec. H10,571 (daily ed. Oct. 12, 1998). See also 144 Cong. Rec. S10,522 (daily ed. Sept. 17, 1998) (statement of Senator Hatch) ([W]e must also be vigilant in seeking to ensure that the Internet is not perverted into a hunting ground for pedophiles and other sexual predators, and a drive-through library and post office for purveyors of child pornography.... One step that we can take is to ensure strong penalties for those who use the Internet for these horrible purposes.). 25 Besides facilitating direct seduction of children, the internet also allows panderers to advertise their wares anonymously in a national or even international market, making it much easier for them to find willing customers. Moreover, because these customers may come from afar and visit only briefly, it is more difficult for law enforcement to track them down than it is to track down those attracted by more traditional come-ons. Cf. H.R.Rep. No. 104-90, at 3-4 (1995), reprinted in 1995 U.S.C.C.A.N. 759, 760-61, quoted in Reaves, 253 F.3d at 1205 (Distributing child pornography through computers is particularly harmful because it can reach an almost limitless audience. Because of its wide dissemination and instantaneous transmission, computer-assisted trafficking is also more difficult for law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute.) 26 To counter these evils, the 1998 act (among other things) directed the Sentencing Commission to impose harsher penalties on sexual criminals who used computers. Pub.L. No. 105-314, § 503, 112 Stat. at 2980-81. That directive ultimately resulted in the addition of several similar enhancements, including the one at issue here. See U.S.S.G. app. C, amend. 592, at 31-48 (Supp.2002). In interpreting its instructions from Congress, the Sentencing Commission concluded that the new enhancements were to ensure that persons who misrepresent themselves to a minor, or use computers or Internet-access devices to locate and gain access to a minor, are severely punished. Id. at 48. 27 Law enforcement has responded to the new threat of cyber-predators by setting up sting operations and enforcing the increased penalties now available under the Guidelines. If a would-be predator cannot know whether the person with whom he communicates is an undercover agent rather than a susceptible minor or a pimp, and if the penalties for using the computer medium are especially severe, the hope is that pedophilic predators will cease to find cyberspace such a safe and attractive hunting ground.