Legislators, advocates rally for child safety online
Catherine MacDonald
Managing Editor
Legislators and child safety advocates rallied at the Capitol Wednesday seeking funding for programs that protect children from online predators.
Signed into law in 2008, Alicia’s Law provides $1.5 million for Virginia’s two Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, which fight child pornography trafficking and locate child victims in the commonwealth. House Bill 736 and Senate Bill 284 would provide a dedicated stream of funding for Virginia’s two ICAC task forces.
The bills also would expand the Virginia Child Protection System to include data from courts, a process the National Association to Protect Children, known as PROTECT, says will increase transparency and accountability in the court system.
Representatives from PROTECT were joined by Alicia Kozakiewicz, an abduction survivor and Alicia’s Law’s namesake, Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, and Virginia House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, in support of the bills.
The bills’ chief sponsors, Sen. Frederick Quayle, R-Suffolk, and Delegate Dave Albo, R-Springfield, also were in attendance to advocate the bills’ passage through their respective legislative bodies.
Camille Cooper, PROTECT’s director of legislative affairs, compared the funds for other programs to what she says her cause needs.
“The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts gets ($)22 million a year. Virginia’s abused children need ($)1.8 million,” PROTECT’s Web site states. “It’s all about priorities.”
Both bills are currently in committee.
At this time last year, supporters of Alicia’s Law held a press conference the morning news broke that Willie B. Fuller, VCU police chief at the time, had been charged with using a computer to solicit sex from a minor and attempted indecent liberties with a juvenile. Prosecutors eventually withdrew the charges after learning Fuller suffered a brain injury and developed dementia after he experienced a diabetes-related seizure in June.
