Washington, Jan. 13 -- Congresswoman Laurel Lee issued the following press release:
The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed H.R. 6719, the Combating Online Predators Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by Congresswoman Laurel Lee to close a dangerous loophole in federal law and strengthen protections for children targeted by online sextortion.
The bill explicitly criminalizes intentional threats to distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM), a coercive tactic increasingly used by online predators to exploit and silence children. Under current law, sextortion has fallen outside existing CSAM statutes, forcing prosecutors to rely on patchwork charging theories that fail to reflect the gravity of these crimes.
Rep. Lee de...