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Masha was 5 when she was adopted from Russia by a man whom I refuse to call her father. The very first night she was brought home he started to sexually abuse her. After a while, he began to take pictures of her and to send them to fellow abusers via the Internet.
Now Masha is 13 and she’s been rescued from her horrible circumstances. She’s appeared before the Senate and on 20/20, testifying about the horrors of her situation. Many in the Russian adoption community felt that she was being exploited once again for ratings and they worried that the negative publicity would impact current Russian adoptions as public sentiment in Russia was given yet another example of a bad outcome of adoption.
I don’t know if anyone’s adoptions were impacted by the publicity surrounding Masha’s situation. I do know that something very good has come of it: Masha’s Law.
Masha’s Law triples civil penalties for downloading child pornography from the Internet – from $50,000 to $150,000. Did you know that’s the same penalty for illegally downloading a song? Sick, I know. But hopefully it will prove something of a deterrent, and should any young person be unfortunate enough to go through these circumstances he or she could sue for significant damages.
Here’s what Senator Kerry, the author of the bill, says in the Washington Times about the situation:
The Internet can bring people a continent away together. It can empower Americans to spread their ideas and innovations across the globe. But the Internet also allows child pornographers to take advantage of speed and anonymity to exploit vulnerable young people and spread horrifying images across the Web.
If you don’t believe the Internet can cause such harm, all you have to do is listen to Masha’s story. When she was just 5, Masha was adopted from a Russian orphanage by a man who began sexually abusing her the night she arrived. Today, after escaping the horrors of this abuse, Masha has come forward to tell her story and raise awareness so others are spared her unspeakable experiences.
This courageous 13-year-old has worked tirelessly to close loopholes in child pornography laws that allow predators to download pornographic images of children without significant penalties. All parents owe her a debt of gratitude.
The Senate and House are drafting child exploitation legislation, and Masha’s Law should be a critical component of any new bill passed.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, child pornography has become a multibillion-dollar Internet industry, and — worse still — the tools available to law enforcement are years behind the evolving technology used by child pornographers to escape detection.
The real problem with child pornography is that it prolongs the child abuse indefinitely — long after the child is rescued, as Masha was, from theabusive home. Not only was Masha physically abused, but her adoptive fatherpreserved that abuse to revisit himself and to share with the world. Thisdespicable man is in jail but pedophiles spread his revolting photographs across the Web.
Thank you, Masha.
