Battin Introduces Legislation to Add Felony Child Pornographers to Megan’s Law Database
SACRAMENTO – Today, Senator Jim Battin (R- La Quinta) announced his bill which will close the Megan’s Law Database child pornography loophole. Currently, sexual predators convicted of felony child pornography are exempt from being listed on the Megan’s Law database. Battin’s legislation (SB 1182) would make sure those convicted of felony child pornography or the exploitation of a child for purposes of sex are listed.
“Child pornography and sexual exploitation of minors for pleasure is sadistic, cruel and has long lasting psychological effects on the victim. Adding perpetuators of such evil crimes to an online database is the least we can do to send a message that these crimes will not be tolerated in California. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill and ensure its swift passage,” Battin stated.
“It is important that we send a message that we will not tolerate child pornograpy and unspeakable abuse,” said Battin. “My bill does exactly that, as well as further notifying the community of dangerous individuals living around them.”
Distribution of child pornography and adult obscenity has expanded exponentially with advances in computer technology and increased availability and popular use of the Internet. It is no longer enough to depend on our law enforcement officers alone to combat this horrendous network of predators. Our community needs to play a greater role in awareness and intolerance of sex crimes.
This legislation is not the first by Battin to address the serious problem of sexual exploitation of minors. Battin introduced SB 43 last year which would have added child pornography offenses to Megan’s Law which passed the Senate unanimously, but failed in the Assembly Public Safety Committee on a straight party line vote (Republicans “aye” / Democrats “no’). Senator Battin also authored SB 33 the “Circle of Trust” bill, to increase penalties on parents who rape their own children and reform California’s 23-year old policy of decriminalizing sexual abuse within the family. SB 33 became law this year.
