“Time is of the essence” — new bill would shave months off tracking child pornography predators, says Attorney General

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — Attorney General Alan Wilson says a bill making its way through the General Assembly would shave months off of investigations into child pornography cases.

That’s why he says he’s urging fellow lawmakers to pass the new “Administrative Subpoena Bill” known as S-74.

“This bill cuts red tape. It makes it faster and more efficient for investigators to get to the scene of the crime when it involves abusing children. So that they can begin the process of the investigation,” says Wilson.

If it passes, he and other leaders including sheriffs from counties with the most cyber tips submitted regarding child pornography (Charleston, Lexington, York, and Greenville) say it would speed up the process of identifying adults who are sharing or downloading child pornography.

“Oftentimes it takes weeks and up to several months to be able to identify the identity of the person or the email or the IP address or the screen name. And when you’re dealing with a case in which there could be an actual child being harmed, an actual child being abused, time is of the essence,” says Wilson.

Currently the Attorney General’s office must go to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and ask for a subpoena for electronic records to locate the owner that appears to be viewing child pornography.

Under S-74, the Attorney General would have the power to issue the subpoena himself — while maintaining due process for any suspects.

“All this gives us is the subscriber information behind the IP address or the email or the screen name, it doesn’t mean that that person is the one who committed the crime, it just gives us a location. Basically it just gets us to the start line faster, and once we get to the start line, that’s when law enforcement can start getting search warrants and all the due process protections in our constitution are in place,” says Wilson.

This, while helping to fight back against other electronic crimes, says Senator Greg Hembree.

“We now have revenge porn, AI child abuse, we now have harassment and stalking done electronically now, so although this bill is really targeted towards internet crimes toward children, it is a tool that can be used for emerging crimes,” says Hembree.

According to Wilson, over 11,000 cyber tips regarding child pornography are submitted each year in South Carolina.

The bill has passed the Senate and the House, but now both bodies must agree on a final version.