Durbin Unveils New Efforts To Protect Children's Online Safety On The Senate Floor

Floor Speech

"There's a grave threat to America's future lurking online. Big Tech giants and other online platforms are working every day to capture the minds of our children in order to pad their profits. So who is protecting our kids from internet profiteers and predators? I'm sorry to say, almost no one. In fact, our laws are written to protect the predators, not the kids. Clearly, every child can benefit from a safe online experience. They can make friends, expand their knowledge, learn skills, but social media, we all know, has a dangerous dark side. Innocent children are lured into online environments and powerful algorithms work to keep them there. Unsuspecting kids can be sexually exploited, and their childhood images captured forever by predators and profit-taking abusers. Drug pushers no longer search for playgrounds to sell deadly narcotics. Two clicks on the internet bring them their new, young customers. Many children are bullied and harassed online or pressured into dangerous, deadly behavior.

We've given tech companies nearly three decades to police themselves. They have failed miserably, and our children are paying the price. Our teenagers are in a mental health crisis. Congress must impose stronger, enforceable online protections for kids. Our children are not commodities, and we can't continue to expect parents and victims alone to stand up to Big Tech with few ways to hold tech companies accountable.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

This Senate can help Charlotte and countless other young people who are sexually abused online each year by passing a bill I'm introducing… it's called the STOP CSAM Act. CSAM stands for child sexual abuse material. Federal law still uses the old term "child pornography.' But that's misleading because "pornography' implies consent, and children under the age of 18 cannot legally consent to the creation or sharing of sexually explicit images of themselves. So these images are, by definition, evidence of a crime. Yet, under current law it is extremely difficult to bring lawsuits against tech companies that allow child sexual abuse materials to be posted on their websites… [the STOP CSAM Act] would protect victims and promote accountability within the tech industry. Companies that fail to remove CSAM and related imagery after being notified about them would face significant fines. They would also be required to produce annual reports detailing their efforts to keep children safe from online sex predators. And any company that promotes or facilitates online child exploitation could face new criminal and civil penalties.

When Section 230 was created in 1996, Mark Zuckerberg was in the sixth grade. Facebook and social media sites didn't even exist. It's time that we rewrite the law to reflect the reality of today's world… We have the bipartisan support in the Senate to protect our children and grandchildren online. It's time that we use it."

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