For Immediate Release

Today, the president signed into law legislation to close loopholes in current child Internet pornography laws that Senator John Kerry has been pushing for since last December. Kerry succeeded in including "Masha's Law" in the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act.

Kerry was inspired to write "Masha's Law" after hearing the story of Masha Allen. Kerry and Masha unveiled the legislation together at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in January.

"This is important to do for Masha and the thousands of other children whom this law will help," said Senator Kerry. "We need to do everything we can to end the disgrace of child pornography."

Masha's dramatically increases penalties for anyone who downloads child pornography, raising the civil penalties from $50,000 to $150,000. It will also fix the law to allow victims ages 18 or older to recover damages from those who downloaded images of them.