Hatch was the Senate sponsor of a measure to launch a national sex-offender registry, and Foley sponsored the legislation in the House.

Now, months later, Foley has resigned from office and is under an FBI investigation over allegations he sent sexually explicit messages to teens who are former congressional pages.

Hatch, a member of the Senate Caucus on Missing, Exploited and Runaway Children, said Monday it was “shattering news” that someone who had helped him write legislation to harbor children from pedophiles could be involved in sending such messages to minors.

“It's really unsettling to me that someone who worked so hard to pass what everyone is saying is a landmark child-protection law could do something like this,” Hatch said. “I just don't understand it.”

Foley, a Florida Republican and co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, resigned from office Friday after ABC News revealed that the congressman had several explicit instant-message conversations with former male pages.

The House also started an ethics investigation into the former congressman, who this session had sponsored three bills dealing with the exploitation of children, including one for the purpose of protecting “youth from exploitation by adults using the Internet, and for other purposes.”

Hatch and Foley had worked together to pass the legislation aimed at ensuring a national clearinghouse for people to find out if sex offenders were living in their neighborhoods.

In July, Hatch wrote on the Hill newspaper blog that: “Pedophiles use the web to hunt our children. After working for years with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and others, my House colleagues - notably Rep. Mark Foley - and I introduced a bill that would use the Web to hunt the predators.”

Hatch said Monday that he is “deeply aware of the trust parents place in Congress” when their children come to Washington to serve as pages or interns, and that he worries about the children involved.

“There has to be serious consequences for anyone who violates that trust so things like this don't happen again,” Hatch said.

The 186-year-old congressional page program allows high school students to live in Washington and serve as essentially gofers for members of Congress at the Capitol. The students live in dorms, attend school and other activities under close supervision.

Several Utahns have participated in the program, including James Keifert of West Jordan, who in 2004 served as a Senate page. He says he never heard of any inappropriate contact between pages and members of Congress.

“It's hard to believe one of those guys would just be like that,” Keifert said. “To do such a thing - it's an atrocity.”

Even so, Keifert says the page program should continue because it provides a valuable experience for aspiring youth.

“I don't think it should be scrapped,” Keifert said. “I wouldn't let one little thing like this ruin a good program.”

tburr@sltrib.com