PROTECT Act of 2003
The
PROTECT Act of 2003 is a multipurpose United States law intended to prevent
child abuse. "PROTECT" stands for Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today.
The law has the following effects:
*Provides for mandatory life imprisonment of
sex offenses against a minor if the offender has had a prior conviction of abuse against a minor, with some exceptions.
*Establishes a program to obtain criminal history background checks for volunteer organizations.
*Authorizes wiretapping and monitoring of other communications in all cases related to child abuse or kidnapping.
*Eliminates statutes of limitations for child abduction or child abuse.
*Bars pretrial release of persons charged with specified offenses against or involving children.
*Assigns a national
AMBER Alert Coordinator.
*Prohibits computer-generated
child pornography.
*Authorizes fines and/or imprisonment for up to 30 years for U.S. citizens or residents who engage in illicit sexual conduct abroad.
For the purposes of this law, illicit sexual conduct includes commercial sex with anyone under 18, and all sex with anyone under 16. Previous US law was less strict, only punishing those having sex either in contravention of local laws OR in commerce (prostitution); but did not prohibit non-commercial sex with, for example, a 14 year-old if such sex was legal in the foreign territory.
The PROTECT Act mandated that the
United States Attorney General promulgate new regulations to enforce the 2257 recordkeeping regulation, colloquially known as the '
2257 Regulations'. The
Free Speech Coalition has filed a lawsuit against the
United States Department of Justice claiming the 2257 Regulations are
unconstitutional.
The prohibitions against illustrations depicting child pornography, including computer-generated illustrations, were previously ruled unconstitutional by the
U.S. Supreme Court when they were included in the
Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996.
The act was signed into law by
President George W. Bush on
April 30,
2003.
*
Text of the Act*
:Text of the Act at
THOMAS
