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Floor Speech
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Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Durbin for his incredible leadership on this issue. It is truly a privilege to partner with him on this effort.
And I just want to say that the premise of this bill is very simple. It is simply this: that our children are not safe online. And I know that because the statistics tell the story. Just looking at the number of reports of child sex abuse material online the last year for which we have full data, the number of images, sexually abusive images online surged to 104 million. Think about that--104 million reported sexually abusive images. That is up from merely 450,000 as early as 2004. In the space of 20 years, we have seen an explosion of sexual abuse material online.
The data does not lie. Our children are not safe. But I also know it because whistleblowers tell us. The experts from these companies tell us the truth. I will never forget sitting in the Senate Judiciary Committee and listening to whistleblowers from Meta talk about the steps their company had taken to target their products toward children. And I asked one of these whistleblowers: How many kids who come to your platform would you estimate are exposed to child sex abuse material?
She thought for a moment, and then she said: I would say 100 percent.
I said: Wait a minute. A hundred percent? One hundred percent?
She said: Every child who gets on a Meta platform--whether it is virtual reality, whether it is Instagram, whether it is Facebook itself--every child who is on that platform for any length of time will be exposed to child sex abuse material, every single child.
The tech companies themselves tell us, but I also know our kids aren't safe online because I am a father of three children. My oldest is 13 now. I have got a 10-year-old and a 5-year-old. And my kids don't have devices. They don't have phones, and I am going to keep it that way as long as I possibly can. But I tell you what, my wife and I every day worry about what our children will be exposed to online.
And I have listened to parent after parent come before this body, take an oath, and testify about the ordeals their own children have been through.
Another employee at Meta testified about his own child--a daughter-- who signed up for an Instagram account and almost immediately was bombarded by predators and sex abusers looking at her images, direct messaging her, soliciting her for various sexual acts. It caused him to ask himself: What are we doing at these tech companies? Is there no amount of decency? Is there no respect for the basic privacy and security of our children? Our children are not safe online.
And I also want to say that this bill is based on another important principle, a simple one, which is that no amount of corporate profit justifies the exploitation of our children. All the Big Tech companies are rich beyond belief. They are the wealthiest companies, the richest, biggest companies, not just in America, not just in the world, but in the history of the world.
But I just want to say that no amount of money justifies subjecting our children to sexual abuse. No amount of money justifies ``sextortion'' of children on these platforms.
I don't care what Facebook's market cap is today or tomorrow. I don't care how much money Google makes next quarter. It does not justify the degradation of American children, not now, not ever. And this body has a moral obligation to stand for that principle and to vindicate it for every parent and every child in America. It is why we are here. It is our obligation and our responsibility, and that is what this bill does.
This is a very simple bill, as Senator Durbin described. It simply allows the victims of sex abuse material or their parents to get into court and to make their case against these companies. And it is not unfair to the companies. The companies are held to a very simple standard: Did they knowingly or recklessly host this content?
Now, let me just say this: We all know that these companies will deploy algorithms to the end of the Earth in order to target our kids, in order to advertise to our kids. They know every detail. Every scintilla of action that occurs on their platforms, they know about it because they are making money off of it.
And yet when we bring them before this body and put them under oath, the executives of these companies say: Oh, we couldn't possibly get rid of all the CSAM, all the sex abuse material. We just don't have the technology for it.
Oh, yes, they do. They do. But they don't want to root out the CSAM because they are making money on it because sex material online drives engagement online, which drives more eyeballs online, which drives advertising dollars online, and that is what they care most about.
It is time to give victims and parents the rights that every other American has, which is to get into court and to have their day in court and to protect their children.
This bill doesn't touch encryption. It doesn't destroy privacy rights. It protects all of those things, but, above all, it protects children. It protects our children online, and it is long overdue.
I will just finish with this: I wish I could persuade my colleague, who I think will soon object, to agree with us on this, but I certainly respect his view. The scandal is not that 1 or 2 or 10 or 20 Senators would take a different point of view. That is fine. The real scandal here is this bill cannot get a vote on the floor of this Senate. It passed unanimously--not once but twice out of committee--unanimously out of the Judiciary Committee of the United States.
Now, for years in a row, it can't get so much as a vote on the floor of the Senate. That is why Senator Durbin is here today. That is why I am here today. That is a scandal. It is absolutely indefensible.
I haven't heard a word of explanation, but I know the reason. The reason is the Big Tech companies are opposed to it, and the reason for that is the Big Tech companies would lose money. And they will spend no amount of money--there will be no limit to what they would spend to stop legislation that they don't want from moving on this floor.
It is time this body demonstrated its independence. It is time to demonstrate our loyalty to the people who put us here, not the corporations that write the checks and call the shots and run the TV ads and make their threats of their campaign contributions.
It is enough of that. It doesn't say ``We the corporations'' in our Constitution. It says ``We the People.'' It is time for the people to have their say. It is time for this body to vindicate their rights. It is time for us to vote on this bill.
I yield to the Senator.
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