U.S. Senator Brian Schatz co-introduced legislation that would help to prevent the distribution of child pornography within the Department of Defense’s own computer network.
The End National Defense Network Abuse Act, introduced by Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, would upgrade the training and capabilities of military criminal investigative organizations and require the Department of Defense to collaborate with law enforcement agencies and child protection organizations in the event of an investigation.
According to a statement from Schatz, child pornography activity was found in connection with 5,000 IP addresses within the Department of Defense’s network in 2017, many of which trafficked in a large number of images.
The National Criminal Justice Training Center also found that the Department of Defense’s network was ranked 19th out of nearly 3,000 networks nationwide in peer-to-peer trading of child pornography.
“The widespread abuse of the Department of Defense’s network to traffic child pornography must be stopped,” Schatz said.
“Our bill aims to do that by giving our military leaders the tools they need to get rid of child pornography on DoD’s network, go after offenders, and protect children.”