A bill to toughen penalties against second-time child porn offenders and those who get children to participate in child porn passed the Alaska House of Representatives unanimously April 19.
Sponsored by Rep. Kevin Meyer (R-Anchorage), the bill changes second offenses for both from class B felonies (1-4 years in prison for the first offense) to class A felonies (minimum five years in prison).
"I am a firm believer that the production of explicit sexual material involving children is sexual abuse, and the distribution of such material perpetuates the abuse." Meyer said in a statement after the vote. "With a one-year sentence, the offender could be back in our communities, abusing children and recording the abuse to keep for personal use or to sell to make money. I believe that the second criminal conviction of these crimes should be elevated to a class A felony and more jail time should be required in order to keep these type of sexual predators in jail and our children safe."
Meyer's aide, Suzanne Cunningham, told AVNOnline.com the bill was a response to an increase in child porn and child sex exploitation in the state. "It's been kind of a rising thing up here in Alaska," Cunningham said. "There have been several cases that have come out recently. Within the past two years, there have been three or four. One was recently decided where [a man] was convicted on 16 counts; he got 25 years for all 16. He's eligible for parole after 10 years."
She said the bill has an excellent chance to pass in the state Senate, though she didn't suggest whether the upper chamber would pass it unanimously as the House did.
