guffey: no, sir. we did meet with the staff but coming up here to the hill, unable to meet with one of the representatives. >> senator blumenthal: would you like to meet with them? >> mr. guffey: i would love to. i 1000% agree. >> senator blumenthal: why don't you tell us as a parent but also as an advocate and the author of the article why you think some of the arguments made against - based on the supposed free speech thesis are incorrect. >> mr. guffey: i believe it is follow the money. if you look at the big tech lobby and representatives that fight against it, you follow the money and where it ends up. i believe that fear and as an elected official, i see it myself. you are often worried about what this will look like and that's one of the reasons whenever i was presenting, i used the phrase that we have too many politicians worried about the next election rather than leaders worried of the next - it is a fox narrative that's put out there. people agree with you and they'll turn right around and

i first want to lead with you, representative guffey. watching your family behind you and friends how difficult this must be and how heart felt your testimony was. i don't know how anyone can listen to you and not want to get something done here. i want to thank you for that. you've described how victims of these crimes often suffer from mental health trauma. can you quickly elaborate on why even the threat of nonconsensual distribution of explicit images can be tragic. >> the threat is dangerous part of it. not even the sharing of the images are as bad as the threat because you're taking your deepest, darkest shame or most private moment and the threat of sending it out to complete strangers. it's complete vulnerability. and i believe that in this country, we've lost grace and we have too often kicked people for the mistakes that they make and we tell our kids, everything you do on-line will stay with you forever. well, imagine if you just took your darkest moment and just posted it on-line. >> exactly. federal. why should this be feder

guffey soon after discovered his son had been a victim of sextortion.a scammer on instagram posing as a teenage girl, began chatting with gavin and persuading him to send nude photos. the sextortion began almost immediately after photos were sent. scammers threatened to publish them if gavin did not send money. he venmoed the scammers the only $25 that he had and pleaded for more time. but the threats kept coming. two weeks after his son's funeral, guffey received private instagram messages himself, taunting him and demanding money in exchange for nude photos of his son. anyone with their shared last name who was a follower of gavin on social media also got these despicable messages in one truly horrific dm, an anonymous account on instagram sent him a laughing face emoji and asked guffey, did i tell you your son begged for his life? earlier this year, a 24 year old nigerian man was charged after investigators discovered texts on his phone that he sent to the duffys and at least nine other people. he was charged with multiple counts, including child exp