Protect Act of 2003 Law and Legal Definition
The PROTECT Act of 2003 enacted April 30, 2003is a United States law with the stated intent of preventing child abuse. "PROTECT" stands for "Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today". The PROTECT Act comprehensively strengthens law enforcement’s ability to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish violent crimes committed against children. This legislation provides a number of new measures that will protect children from sexual exploitation.
The main provisions of PROTECT Act includes:
1. Establishes the national “Amber Alert” network and “Code Adam” systems to recover abducted children
2. stronger laws to combat child pornography and exploitation
3. increased penalties for sex offenses against children (including life imprisonment for repeat offenders)
4. important enhancements to current “sex tourism” laws.
5. Eliminates statutes of limitations for child abduction or child abuse.
6.Bars pretrial release of persons charged with specified offenses against or involving children.
7.Assigns a national AMBER Alert Coordinator
8. Authorizes fines and/or imprisonment for up to 30 years for U.S. citizens or residents who engage in illicit sexual conduct abroad, with or without the intent of engaging in such sexual misconduct.
The PROTECT Act incorporates the provisions of the Truth in Domain Names Act (TDNA) of 2003,the Code Adam Act of 2003, the Secure Authentication Feature and Enhanced Identification Defense Act of 2003 and the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003.
