Broader Powers to Fight Child Porn Requested

WASHINGTON —  Warning child pornographers that “your industry’s days are numbered,” President Reagan asked Congress on Tuesday to enact legislation that gives federal prosecutors the power to crack down on sexual exploitation of children.

The legislative package, bound to be scrutinized by civil liberties groups, would place child pornography under federal racketeering statutes, expanding the techniques that can be used to prosecute and punish criminal offenders.

The proposal would broaden the legal leeway for federal authorities to step into investigations of suspected pornography cases and obtain wiretaps for those criminal probes, make it a crime to receive or possess obscene material with intent to sell and give prosecutors the right to move against computer networks and parents who permit their children to be used in the production of pornography.

The package also would prohibit the “transmission of obscenity”--the definition of which has been a troubling issue for Congress and the courts--over pay television.