So I think we have enough to take this case up the ladder. I am requesting that you, the readers of this email, follow up with some additional emails. But these ones are different. These are not requests to the DOJ, but to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
The Office of the Inspector General within the U.S. Department of Justice is an independent watchdog agency established under the Inspector General Act of 1978 to ensure honesty, accountability, and efficiency throughout the Department. Its mission is to detect and prevent waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct within all DOJ components, including the FBI, DEA, ATF, Bureau of Prisons, and U.S. Marshals Service. Although it operates within the DOJ, the OIG functions independently, conducting audits, inspections, and investigations and reporting its findings directly to both the Attorney General and Congress.
When credible allegations of wrongdoing arise (such as neglect of federal law enforcement duties or misuse of resources) the OIG can investigate, gather evidence, and issue public reports recommending corrective actions or referrals for prosecution. While it cannot itself enforce laws or impose penalties, the OIG plays a vital role in holding the Department accountable by exposing failures and compelling reform through transparency and congressional oversight. For citizens, submitting a complaint or inquiry to the OIG is one of the most effective ways to demand integrity and action from the federal justice system. I have seen OIG at work in the military, and I can testify to you that these people know how to clean house.
So since the DOJ is not answering us, we can go to the OIG and get the hammer to fall down on these very people failing to enforce federal laws.
I will supply you with the email address you will need to send to, and a prewritten email that all you need to do is cut and paste. You can obviously rewrite it and style it to your own liking, and don't forget to fill in your own name:
- - - - - - -
dojoig.hotline@usdoj.gov
Dear Office of the Inspector General,
I am writing to raise serious concern regarding the Department of Justice’s apparent lack of enforcement of long-standing federal laws prohibiting the exposure of minors to online pornographic material. This relates to the Criminal Division of the DOJ; more specifically, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), which is currently headed by Steven J. Grocki, who is chief of the CEOS.
According to the CEOS's own page, : "...in 1987, CEOS´s mission has been to protect the welfare of America´s children and communities by enforcing federal criminal statutes relating to the exploitation of children and obscenity." Though they were created for the specific purpose of protecting children from exploitation and obscenity, they have been failing to do this very job on multiple occasions and on many fronts across the internet.
According to the Department of Justice’s own website:
“The Supreme Court has ruled that, “transmitting obscenity and child pornography, whether via the Internet or other means, is... illegal under federal law for both adults and juveniles.”-Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844 (1998)
“Obscenity is not protected under First Amendment rights to free speech, and violations of federal obscenity laws are criminal offenses. Federal law strictly prohibits the distribution of obscene matter to minors. Any transfer or attempt to transfer such material to a minor… including over the internet, is punishable by federal law…. “
And according to another official page from the DOJ:
“It is illegal for an individual to knowingly use interactive computer services to display obscenity in a manner that makes it available to a minor of less than 18 years of age (see 47 U.S.C. S 223(d) -Communications Decency Act of 1996, as amended by the PROTECT act of 2003)... It is also illegal to knowingly make a commercial communication via the Internet that includes obscenity and is available to any minor less than 17 years of age (See 47. U.S.C. S 231 – Child Online Protection Act of 1998)… Harmful materials for minors include any communication consisting of nudity, [or] sex… In addition to facing imprisonment and fines, convicted offenders of federal obscenity laws involving minors may also be required to register as sex offenders.”
Despite the clear language of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and the Child Online Protection Act of 1998, adult websites continue to operate openly without adequate age-verification systems- thereby allowing minors unfettered access to explicit and obscene material in direct violation of federal statute. This persistent neglect of enforcement obligations raises questions about oversight, accountability, and adherence to the DOJ’s stated mission to uphold federal law and protect the welfare of the public.
Currently the DOJ's failures is allowing large standing pornographic websites to commit sexual crimes against children that would throw any other man or woman in prison and potentially award them an ankle bracelet. Adult bookstores are not allowed to distribute materials to children, so why are online pornography brokers freely allowed to do the same?
The Supreme Court has affirmed that transmitting adult materials, obscenity and child pornography to minors - by any means, including the Internet - is illegal under federal law (Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844, 1998). Yet, over two decades, federal enforcement has remained inconsistent and largely absent. As a result, the responsibility has fallen to individual states, many of which have enacted their own age-verification laws to fill the federal vacuum. That eighteen states must legislate independently to compel compliance with already-existing federal mandates signals a systemic failure of federal oversight. The public deserves to know why these violations are being tolerated and what the Department intends to do to correct its course.
Accordingly, I am requesting an official response and investigation from your office into (1) why federal laws prohibiting the distribution of obscene content to minors are not being uniformly enforced, (2) what mechanisms, if any, exist within the DOJ to ensure compliance from commercial entities operating adult websites, and (3) whether the Department intends to coordinate with state governments to establish consistent, nationwide standards for age verification. The continued inaction of federal authorities in the face of widespread and easily verifiable violations of law represents not only a dereliction of duty but also an ongoing risk to the mental and moral well-being of American children. I urge your office to exercise its oversight authority and demand accountability where it has been absent.
Websites like enough.org, https://endsexualexploitation.org/doj/ have garnered large petitions to get the DOJ to enforce our laws; On July 14th, 2015, the National center on Sexual Exploitation held a conference at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center calling the DOJ to enforce our laws. In Washington D.C., Patrick Trueman, the former chief of the CEOS, called upon the DOJ to enforce its obscenity laws. Professor Robert P. George at Princeton University has also called for the DOJ to enforce these laws, and in Dec 2019, members of Congress Jim Banks, Mark Meadows, Vicky Hartzlet, and Brain Babin sent a letter to Attorney General Barr requesting that already existing Pornography laws be enforced. In Aug of 2016 President Trump signed an Anti-Pornography pledge, asserting that if he were elected he would enforce federal obscenity laws, but he failed to uphold his promise.
Despite the public calling upon the government to create these laws in the first place; and multiple petitions and calls from the public since those laws were enacted; along with renewed concern from almost half of the States within the United States; along with new calls from the highest educators, lawyers and legislators in the country- the DOJ has failed to do it's job and uphold its mission to enforce its own laws uniformly.
This is a flagrant breach of misconduct, neglect, and a misuse of funds; as the Criminal Division of the DOJ has shown a blatant disregard for the public's desire for the welfare of children to be protected multiple times over decades. I am waiting for your answer as to whether or not you will be opening an investigation into this matter to straighten this issue out.
Respectfully,
[Your Name]
A Concerned American Citizen
Sources:
https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-ceos
https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-ceos/obscenity
https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-ceos/citizens-guide-us-federal-law-obscenity
https://americanprinciplesproject.org/media/professor-robert-george-asks-department-of-justice-answers-anti-porn-laws/
https://www.nationalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/12.6.2019-Obscenity-Letter-to-AG-Barr.pdf