Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bill Cassidy are seeking information from the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to block cryptocurrency from being used as a payment method in the trade of child sexual abuse material.
The Massachusetts Democratic Party and the Louisiana Republican Party sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday asking what tools are in place and needed to address the problem.
“The pseudonymity that cryptocurrencies provide has allowed payments for CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Materials) to ‘rapidly move into the cryptocurrency world,’ and we want Congress and the administration to have all the tools they need to root out CSAM and sexual abuse.” We are doing our best to provide . Punish sellers of this material,” Warren and Cassidy wrote. letter.
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Both senators cited several reports showing increased activity, including a January report from blockchain forensics company Chainalytic that said cryptocurrency-based sales of child sexual abuse material were a growing problem.
“Overall, our data shows that the cryptocurrency-based CSAM market size decreased in 2023, but the sophistication of CSAM sellers and their resilience to detection and takedowns increased over time,” Chainalysis said. report.
Warren and Cassidy also quoted: report “Online child sexual exploitation (OCSE) perpetrators are increasingly using convertible virtual currency (CVC) to avoid detection,” the Treasury Department’s 2020-2021 Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said.
Senators sent the pair a list of questions about whether using cryptocurrency to pay for child sexual abuse content poses “unique challenges” when tracking bad actors. Both departments were also asked what additional tools were needed to resolve the issue. The deadline for responses is May 10.
Warren, who has been critical of cryptocurrencies, has come under criticism from the cryptocurrency industry over the past few years. Warren is preparing legislation aimed at cracking down on alleged use of cryptocurrencies for illicit finance and expanding Bank Secrecy Act requirements, including know-your-customer rules, to miners, validators, wallet providers and others.
The cryptocurrency industry rejected Warren’s bill and sought clarity on the role of cryptocurrencies in illicit finance.
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