II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 539
To reauthorize the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY12, 2025
Mr. C
ORNYN(for himself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Ms. KLO-
BUCHAR, Mr. HAWLEY, and Mr. DURBIN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To reauthorize the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘PROTECT Our Chil-4
dren Reauthorization Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. REAUTHORIZATION. 6
(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF NATIONALSTRATEGY FOR 7
C
HILDEXPLOITATION PREVENTION AND INTERDIC-8
TION.—Section 101 of the PROTECT Our Children Act 9
of 2008 (34 U.S.C. 21111) is amended— 10
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(1) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘every second 1
year’’ and inserting ‘‘every fourth year’’; and 2
(2) by striking subsection (c) and inserting the 3
following: 4
‘‘(c) R
EQUIREDCONTENTS OF NATIONALSTRAT-5
EGY.—The National Strategy established under subsection 6
(a) shall include the following: 7
‘‘(1) An analysis of current trends, challenges, 8
and the overall magnitude of the threat of child ex-9
ploitation. 10
‘‘(2) An analysis of future trends and chal-11
lenges, including new technologies, that will impact 12
the efforts to combat child exploitation. 13
‘‘(3) Goals and strategic solutions to prevent 14
and interdict child exploitation, including— 15
‘‘(A) plans for interagency coordination; 16
‘‘(B) engagement with the judicial 17
branches of the Federal Government and State 18
governments; 19
‘‘(C) legislative recommendations for com-20
bating child exploitation; 21
‘‘(D) cooperation with international, State, 22
local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies; and 23
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‘‘(E) engagement with the private sector 1
and other entities involved in efforts to combat 2
child exploitation. 3
‘‘(4) An analysis of Federal efforts dedicated to 4
combating child exploitation, including— 5
‘‘(A) a review of the policies and work of 6
the Department of Justice and other Federal 7
programs relating to the prevention and inter-8
diction of child exploitation crimes, including 9
training programs, and investigative and pros-10
ecution activity; and 11
‘‘(B) a description of the efforts of the De-12
partment of Justice to cooperate and coordinate 13
with, and provide technical assistance and sup-14
port to, international, State, local, and Tribal 15
law enforcement agencies and private sector 16
and nonprofit entities with respect to child ex-17
ploitation prevention and interdiction efforts. 18
‘‘(5) An estimate of the resources required to 19
effectively respond to child exploitation crimes at 20
scale by— 21
‘‘(A) each ICAC task force; 22
‘‘(B) the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 23
including investigators, forensic interviewers, 24
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and analysts of victims, witnesses, and 1
forensics; 2
‘‘(C) Homeland Security Investigations, in-3
cluding forensic interviewers and analysts of 4
victims, witnesses, and forensics; 5
‘‘(D) the United States Marshals Service; 6
‘‘(E) the United States Secret Service; 7
‘‘(F) the United States Postal Service; 8
‘‘(G) the criminal investigative offices of 9
the Department of Defense; and 10
‘‘(H) any component of an agency de-11
scribed in this paragraph. 12
‘‘(6) A review of the Internet Crimes Against 13
Children Task Force Program, including— 14
‘‘(A) the number of ICAC task forces and 15
the location of each ICAC task force; 16
‘‘(B) the number of trained personnel at 17
each ICAC task force; 18
‘‘(C) the amount of Federal grants award-19
ed to each ICAC task force; and 20
‘‘(D) an assessment of the Federal, State, 21
and local cooperation with respect to each ICAC 22
task force, including— 23
‘‘(i) the number of arrests made by 24
each ICAC task force; 25
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‘‘(ii) the number of criminal referrals 1
to United States attorneys for prosecution; 2
‘‘(iii) the number of prosecutions and 3
convictions from the referrals described in 4
clause (ii); 5
‘‘(iv) the number, if available, of local 6
prosecutions and convictions based on 7
ICAC task force investigations; and 8
‘‘(v) any other information determined 9
by the Attorney General demonstrating the 10
level of Federal, State, Tribal, and local 11
coordination and cooperation. 12
‘‘(7) An assessment of training needs for each 13
ICAC task force and affiliated agencies. 14
‘‘(8) An assessment of Federal investigative and 15
prosecution activity relating to reported incidents of 16
child exploitation crimes that include a number of 17
factors, including— 18
‘‘(A) the number of investigations, arrests, 19
prosecutions and convictions for a crime of 20
child exploitation; and 21
‘‘(B) the average sentence imposed and the 22
statutory maximum sentence that could be im-23
posed for each crime of child exploitation. 24
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‘‘(9) A review of all available statistical data in-1
dicating the overall magnitude of child pornography 2
trafficking in the United States and internationally, 3
including— 4
‘‘(A) the number of foreign and domestic 5
suspects observed engaging in accessing and 6
sharing child pornography; 7
‘‘(B) the number of tips or other statistical 8
data from the CyberTipline of the National 9
Center for Missing and Exploited Children and 10
other data indicating the magnitude of child 11
pornography trafficking; and 12
‘‘(C) any other statistical data indicating 13
the type, nature, and extent of child exploi-14
tation crime in the United States and abroad.’’. 15
(b) E
STABLISHMENT OF NATIONALICAC TASK 16
F
ORCEPROGRAM.—Section 102 of the PROTECT Our 17
Children Act of 2008 (34 U.S.C. 21112) is amended— 18
(1) in subsection (a)(1)— 19
(A) by inserting ‘‘, Tribal, military,’’ after 20
‘‘State’’; and 21
(B) by striking ‘‘and child obscenity and 22
pornography cases’’ and inserting ‘‘child ob-23
scenity and pornography cases, and the identi-24
fication of child victims’’; 25
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(2) in subsection (b)— 1
(A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘consult 2
with and consider’’ and all that follows through 3
‘‘track record of success.’’ and inserting ‘‘, 4
evaluate the task forces funded under the ICAC 5
Task Force Program to determine if those task 6
forces are operating in an effective manner.’’; 7
(B) in paragraph (3)(B)— 8
(i) by striking ‘‘establish a new task 9
force’’ and inserting ‘‘establish a new or 10
continue an existing task force’’; and 11
(ii) by striking ‘‘state’’ and inserting 12
‘‘State’’; and 13
(C) in paragraph (4)— 14
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 15
‘‘may’’ and inserting ‘‘shall’’; 16
(ii) by striking subparagraph (B); and 17
(iii) by redesignating subparagraph 18
(C) as subparagraph (B); and 19
(3) by adding at the end the following: 20
‘‘(c) L
IMITEDLIABILITY FORICAC TASKFORCES.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-22
graph (2), a civil claim or criminal charge against an 23
ICAC task force established pursuant to this section 24
and sections 103 and 104, including any law en-25
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forcement agency that participates on such a task 1
force or a director, officer, employee, or agent of 2
such a law enforcement agency, arising from the 3
prioritization decisions with respect to leads related 4
to Internet crimes against children described in sec-5
tion 104(8), may not be brought in any Federal or 6
State court. 7
‘‘(2) I
NTENTIONAL, RECKLESS, OR OTHER MIS-8
CONDUCT.—Paragraph (1) shall not apply to a claim 9
if the ICAC task force or law enforcement agency, 10
or a director, officer, employee, or agent of that law 11
enforcement agency— 12
‘‘(A) engaged in intentional misconduct; or 13
‘‘(B) acted, or failed to act— 14
‘‘(i) with actual malice; 15
‘‘(ii) with reckless disregard to a sub-16
stantial risk of causing physical injury 17
without legal justification; or 18
‘‘(iii) for a purpose unrelated to the 19
performance of any responsibility or func-20
tion under section 104(8).’’. 21
(c) P
URPOSE OFICAC TASKFORCES.—Section 103 22
of the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008 (34 U.S.C. 23
21113) is amended— 24
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(1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘, and the 1
identification of child victims of those crimes’’ before 2
the semicolon at the end; 3
(2) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘and 4
prioritizing investigations that task force personnel, 5
through the background, training and experience of 6
those personnel and the consideration of all relevant 7
circumstances, determine to be most likely to result 8
in positive case outcomes and in the rescue of chil-9
dren’’ before the semicolon at the end; 10
(3) in paragraph (3)— 11
(A) by striking ‘‘and local law enforce-12
ment’’ and inserting ‘‘Tribal, military, and local 13
law enforcement’’; and 14
(B) by inserting ‘‘, including probation and 15
parole agencies, child advocacy centers, and 16
child protective services,’’ after ‘‘enforcement 17
agencies’’; 18
(4) in paragraph (8), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 19
end; 20
(5) in paragraph (9), by striking the period at 21
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 22
(6) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(10) educating the judiciary on— 24
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‘‘(A) the link between intrafamilial contact 1
offenses and technology-facilitated crimes; and 2
‘‘(B) characteristics of internet offenders, 3
including the interest of online offenders in in-4
cest-themed material, sadism, and other related 5
paraphilias or illegal activity.’’. 6
(d) D
UTIES ANDFUNCTIONS OFTASKFORCES.— 7
Section 104 of the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008 8
(34 U.S.C. 21114) is amended— 9
(1) in paragraph (3)— 10
(A) by inserting ‘‘reactive and’’ before 11
‘‘proactive’’; 12
(B) by inserting ‘‘conduct digital’’ before 13
‘‘forensic examinations’’; and 14
(C) by inserting ‘‘engage in’’ before ‘‘effec-15
tive prosecutions’’; 16
(2) by striking paragraph (8) and inserting the 17
following: 18
‘‘(8) investigate, seek prosecution with respect 19
to, and identify child victims from leads relating to 20
Internet crimes against children, including 21
CyberTipline reports, with prioritization determined 22
according to circumstances and by each task force, 23
as described in section 102;’’; 24
(3) by striking paragraph (9); and 25
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(4) by redesignating paragraphs (10) and (11) 1
as paragraphs (9) and (10), respectively. 2
(e) N
ATIONALINTERNETCRIMESAGAINSTCHIL-3
DRENDATASYSTEM.—Section 105 of the PROTECT 4
Our Children Act of 2008 (34 U.S.C. 21115) is amend-5
ed— 6
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘shall estab-7
lish’’ and inserting ‘‘may establish’’; 8
(2) in subsection (b) by striking ‘‘continue and 9
build upon Operation Fairplay developed by the Wy-10
oming Attorney General’s office, which has estab-11
lished a secure, dynamic undercover infrastructure 12
that has facilitated’’ and inserting ‘‘facilitate’’; and 13
(3) in subsection (g)— 14
(A) by striking paragraph (3); 15
(B) by redesignating paragraphs (4) 16
through (8) as paragraphs (3) through (7), re-17
spectively; and 18
(C) in paragraph (7), as so redesignated, 19
by striking ‘‘1 representative’’ and inserting ‘‘2 20
representatives’’. 21
(f) ICAC G
RANTPROGRAM.—Section 106 of the 22
PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008 (34 U.S.C. 21116) 23
is amended— 24
(1) in subsection (a)— 25
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(A) in paragraph (2)(B)(ii)(II), by striking 1
‘‘Operation Fairplay,’’; and 2
(B) in paragraph (3)— 3
(i) by striking subparagraph (A) and 4
inserting the following: 5
‘‘(A) Not less than 20 percent of the total 6
funds appropriated to carry out this section 7
shall be distributed to support the ICAC Task 8
Force Program through grants to— 9
‘‘(i) provide training and technical as-10
sistance to members of the ICAC Task 11
Force Program; 12
‘‘(ii) maintain, enhance, research, and 13
develop tools and technology to assist 14
members of the ICAC Task Force Pro-15
gram; 16
‘‘(iii) provide other support to the 17
ICAC Task Force Program determined by 18
the Attorney General; 19
‘‘(iv) conduct research; 20
‘‘(v) support the annual National Law 21
Enforcement Training on Child Exploi-22
tation of the Office of Juvenile Justice and 23
Delinquency Prevention; and 24
‘‘(vi) provide wellness training.’’; and 25
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(2) in subsection (d)(1)— 1
(A) in subparagraph (B)— 2
(i) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 3
the end; 4
(ii) in clause (iii), by striking ‘‘, in-5
cluding’’ and all that follows through 6
‘‘such crime under State law.’’ and insert-7
ing ‘‘; and’’; and 8
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-9
lowing: 10
‘‘(iv) the number of child victims iden-11
tified.’’; 12
(B) by striking subparagraph (D); and 13
(C) by redesignating subparagraphs (E) 14
through (G) as subparagraphs (D) through (F), 15
respectively. 16
(g) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 17
107(a) of the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008 (34 18
U.S.C. 21117(a)) is amended— 19
(1) in paragraph (9), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 20
end; 21
(2) in paragraph (10), by striking the period at 22
the end and inserting a semicolon; and 23
(3) by adding at the end the following: 24
‘‘(11) $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 25
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‘‘(12) $80,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; and 1
‘‘(13) $90,000,000 for fiscal year 2028.’’. 2
(h) A
DDITIONALREGIONALCOMPUTERFORENSIC 3
L
ABS.—The PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008 (34 4
U.S.C. 21101 et seq.) is amended by striking title II. 5
(i) R
EPORTINGREQUIREMENTS OF PROVIDERS.— 6
Section 2258A(c) of title 18, United States Code, is 7
amended, in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by in-8
serting ‘‘and all supplemental data included in the report’’ 9
after ‘‘each report made under subsection (a)(1)’’. 10
Æ
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