August 4, 2016
Making History 3 times in 3 weeks!
Dear Friends and Partners of EIE;
For the third time in three weeks, we have big things happening here at EIE! Building on the success of McDonald's agreeing to filter their WiFi in nearly 14,000 stores nationwide and Starbucks' promise to filter their WiFi both nationally AND globally, we were able to convince the first Presidential candidate in history to sign a comprehensive Internet safety pledge: The Children's Internet Safety Presidential Pledge.
The Pledge was sent to each of the Presidential Candidates, calling upon them, if elected President to defend the innocence and dignity of America's children by enforcing the existing federal laws and advancing public policies designed to 1) prevent the sexual exploitation of children online and 2) to make the Internet safer for all.
GOP nominee Donald Trump returned the signed Pledge just before the GOP convention. EIE sent the Pledge to Secretary Clinton, whose campaign said they support the Pledge's goals but have a policy to not sign pledges, and we have not yet gotten a response from Gary Johnson.
As you know, EIE is a non-partisan, non-profit organization and does not endorse or oppose candidates for office. We are hopeful that eventually all three candidates will sign this historic Pledge, for the sake of the children.
This is a significant step forward to elevate the need for the next President to commit to prevent the sexual exploitation of children and youth online a priority! The Pledge specifically asks each candidate to agree to "Appoint an Attorney General who will make the prosecution of such laws a top priority in my administration and, to provide the intelligence community and law enforcement with the resources and tools needed to investigate and prosecute Internet crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children."
You will find the press release here.
Dozens and dozens of media outlets picked up the story, reporting on the press release. Among them, Lifesite News accurately reports on the pledge in this way; "The heart of the promise requires the president to prosecute existing obscenity laws by 'appointing an Attorney General who will make the prosecution of such laws a top priority in my administration.'"
I was quoted in Momzette, speaking about the signing, "I applaud Mr. Trump's leadership and commitment to uphold the rule of law as demonstrated by his signing of the Children's Internet Safety Presidential Pledge. Making the internet safer for children and families is a critical step in making America safe again." In SLOTpublication, I am further quoted as saying, "Government must also do its part and enforce all the laws on the books, not just some of them! Over the last two decades America's children have paid an unnecessarily steep price for the lax enforcement of federal obscenity laws. Obscenity is not protected under the First Amendment, and the failure to enforce the law is harming children across the nation and around the world.". In an interview, Hughes reportedly said that an explosion of internet porn "rewired teen brains." This positive coverage of the event makes opening the discussion on this important issue more possible.
When the next President of the United States says enough is enough to the Internet-enabled sexual exploitation of our nation's youth, the tide will begin to turn at the highest level to protect the innocence of America's children.
Enough is Enough will be asking other federal and state legislators and candidates to sign similar pledges in order to insure their commitment to this critically important issue. State leaders have already reached out to us to bring the Pledge to state legislators, which we plan to do.
The movement continues on with great momentum but we need your support and prayers.
Lastly, we just launched our August fundraising campaign to raise $22,000 in 22 day for the 22,000 filtered WiFi McDonald's and Starbucks stores nationwide.
Would you please support our efforts? The world may run on Starbucks, but here at EIE, we run on donations. Join us.
Thank you for all that you do!
Sincerely,
