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WASHINGTON -- Congressional backers of a tough bill targeting child pornography received support Wednesday from family members of kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart.

Kidnappers abducted the 14-year-old at gunpoint from her Utah home in June, and police have yet to find the girl or arrest any persons involved. Making a difficult situation worse for the family, according to Elizabeth's uncle David Smart, are computer-generated images circulating on the Internet that show Elizabeth's face morphed onto a naked body.

David Smart and other relatives attended a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to register their support for efforts to put new controls on child pornography.

Congress needs to fill the "loopholes and find ways to put a better set of teeth" in the legislation, Smart said.

Replacing 1996 Act

Congress is rushing to craft a replacement for the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996, which the U.S. Supreme Court threw out earlier this year. That law made it a crime to spread "virtual" child pornography on the Internet.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said tightening the law without violating First Amendment free-speech guarantees is not a simple undertaking.

"We are all against child pornography--that vote would be an easy one," Leahy said. "The harder task is finding legislative solutions that are not merely designed to make us all look tough on child pornography in the short term, but that can withstand the test of time and the scrutiny of the courts. We need a law with teeth, but not false teeth."

Child pornography is a billion-dollar industry, according to Daniel Armagh, spokesperson for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a congressionally mandated nonprofit clearinghouse. Armagh estimated that child pornographers will do $5 billion to $7 billion of business over the next five years.

In the past, Congress has enacted several statues addressing child pornography. The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 aimed to ban virtual pornography--"child porn made with morphed computer images and without real children," Leahy says.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that the act was unconstitutional because its definition of virtual child porn was too broad.

"I respect the Supreme Court's role in interpreting the Constitution," said Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). "But that decision left some gaping holes in our national ability to effectively prosecute child pornography."

Virtual Porn?

Many people those charged with producing child pornography escape prosecution by arguing that the government can't prove the images were made using real children, as opposed to computer-generated images of children. As technology advances, distinguishing between the two becomes more difficult.

In response to the Supreme Court ruling, some members of Congress proposed amending the Constitution to prohibit child pornography, even if the pictures involved are computer generated. The proposal met with harsh criticism from civil liberties groups, and its backers quickly dropped the idea.

Hatch and Leahy are working on a solution that they hope will stand up in the courts. The Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2002--the PROTECT Act--aims to narrow "the definition of virtual child porn by requiring consideration of the artistic, literacy, or educational value of the work as a whole," Leahy said.

The bill also includes a children's shield law that would keep the identity of child victims out of the court, he said.

Associate Deputy Attorney General Daniel Collins said he is working with sponsors to create an effective law.

"We believe that the Court's decision and the Constitution leave the Congress with ample authority to enact a new, more narrowly tailored statue that will allow the government to accomplish its legitimate and compelling interest without interfering with First Amendment freedoms," Collins said.

Leahy intends to put the Hatch-Leahy bill on the committee's agenda for a vote before the end of this current Senate session, his office said.

Second Act

Meanwhile, members of the House and Senate are discussing a similar bill called the Child Obscenity and Pornography Prevention Act of 2002. This bill was approved by the House in June and is pending in the Senate. The bill's sponsors, Senator Jean Carnahan (D-Missouri) and Representative Earl Pomeroy (D-North Dakota), say they are open to discussion with Leahy.

"At the end of the day she wants a bill that will protect children from virtual child pornography," said Alex Formuzis, Carnahan's press secretary.

David Smart said he was impressed by Congress's efforts. People want to protect their children any way they can, from either pornography or abduction, he added.

"This brings a lot of hope to us," he said.

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