Fran Pavley

The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to approve Senate Bill 145 by Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), which would raise the maximum penalty for egregious child pornography offenders.

California currently has the nation’s weakest child pornography sentencing laws. The bill would raise the maximum penalty for the worst offenders: those with huge collections of child pornography, those with images of children forced to endure sexual sadism or masochism, and those who use images to groom children to participate in this crime. The bill is sponsored by Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten and strongly supported by the California District Attorneys Association.

“SB 145 takes giant steps forward in protecting our most vulnerable citizens — our children — from predators who use horrific images to exploit and re-victimize them,” Totten said. “I am delighted the committee overwhelmingly approved this vitally important child protection measure.”

Testifying at the hearing was actress Alison Arngrim, who as a child in the 1970s and early 1980s played the part of Nellie Oleson on the television show, “Little House on the Prairie.” A sexual abuse survivor, Arngrim is now a board member for the national organization, Protect.  She spoke of the impact of online images and videos that haunt some abuse survivors for the rest of their lives.

“This is a real problem, a 21st century problem,” Arngrim said.

The bill will be heard by the Assembly Appropriations Committee before it can be considered on the Assembly Floor.

“We need to halt the cycle of child abuse at its roots,” Pavley said. “As long as there is a demand to see sexually abused children, and possessors of this material fail to receive serious consequences, possessors will continue to fuel the production and distribution of images and the vicious cycle of child abuse will continue.”