Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 2426, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to create new offenses against children involving use of electronic devices to entice minors under age 18 with the intent to commit a felony or using electronic means to create or distribute child pornography.

Your Committee finds that the use of the Internet to entice children into meetings has become widespread and current laws do not specifically address using computers to communicate with minors for purposes of committing crimes. Your Committee further finds that to prove the crime of child pornography under the current law, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a pornographic image is of a child who is less than sixteen years of age. Unfortunately, it is often impossible to prove the age of a child in a pornographic image, even when the child appears to be a minor, due to the technology that is used to alter images of individuals used for this purpose. Thus, this measure adopts the federal definition of child pornography and related terminology that was designed to address electronic creation and distribution of such materials.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2426, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.