1. United States
2. Letter

I'm writing again today to ask you to please apply strict scrutiny to age verification laws and rules that the Fifth Circuit erred in its ruling. Age verification has even been disputed by law enforcement officials, who are begging parents to use device-based parental controls to more effectively protect children after a recent arrest of over 100 people in North Texas who were caught exploiting children for ten years. This issue goes more deeply than simply banning explicit imagery. Another incident of children being taken into protective custody after being abused at a religious camp highlights the ineffective nature of bills like this that purport to stop children from being victimized or sexualized. Not only are they invasive but they slow investigations into tragic ongoing cases like the two listed above. Strict scrutiny applied to laws like these doesn't mean that children will or should go unprotected. It serves to help law enforcement pick out legitimate cases from clogs in the system. It took 10 years before the victims of exploiters in North Texas saw justice. If it weren't for SESTA and FOSTA, which somehow missed the actual exploitation going on in this country, this case could have been handled in two to five years. Parental controls aren't a cop-out from federal prosecution. They could very well save children from situations that age verification laws SESTA and FOSTA were supposed to prevent.