In the final transcript of a congressional hearing Wednesday that lambasted technology chiefs for failing to protect children online, Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, urged lawmakers to take action to protect the youngest internet users.
“No excuses,” he said.
Lawmakers have long made similar statements when it comes to holding tech companies accountable — and have little to show for it. Both Republicans and Democrats have said at various points that it is time to regulate the tech giants on issues such as privacy and antitrust. But that’s where it ended for years: There were no new federal regulations for companies to follow.
The question is whether it will be different this time. And there are already signs that the issue of online child safety could become more important in law.
At least six proposed laws pending in Congress target the spread of child sexual abuse material online and would require platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok to do more to protect minors. The effort is underpinned by emotional accounts from children who have been victimized online and died by suicide.
The only federal internet law passed in recent years, SESTA (for the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act), which makes it easier for sex trafficking victims to sue websites and online platforms, was passed in 2018. even after the heartbreaking statement from the mother of one victim.
Child safety is a personally relevant and deep issue that is an easier political sell than other issues, online safety experts and lawmakers say. At Wednesday’s hearing, when confronted with stories of children dying after sexual exploitation, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg said he was sorry the families had suffered.
“Much like the tobacco industry, it took a series of embarrassing tobacco hearings — but Congress finally acted,” said Jim Steyer, president of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit children’s advocacy group. “The dam has finally broken.”
Any legislative progress on child safety online would be a counterpoint to the gridlock that has gripped Congress on other technology issues in recent years. Time and again, proposals to regulate tech giants like Google and Meta have failed to become law.
In 2018, for example, Congress questioned Mr. Zuckerberg over sharing Facebook user data with Cambridge Analytica, a voter profiling company. Outrage over the incident led to calls for Congress to adopt new rules to protect people’s online privacy. But while California and other states eventually passed online privacy laws, Congress has not.
Lawmakers also attacked a statutory provision, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, that protects online platforms like Instagram and TikTok from many lawsuits over content posted by their users. Congress hasn’t made any significant changes to the law, other than making it harder for platforms to use legal protections if they’re accused of significantly supporting sex trafficking.
And after companies like Amazon and Apple were accused of being monopolies and abusing their power over smaller competitors, lawmakers proposed a bill that would make some of their business practices illegal. The attempt to get the legislation across the finish line failed in 2022.
Senators Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, and Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, and other lawmakers blame the power of tech lobbyists for killing proposed rules. Others said tech regulations had not been a priority for members of Congress, who have focused on spending bills and measures to subsidize American companies that make critical computer chips and use renewable energy.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, which hosted Wednesday’s hearing, discussed five child safety bills aimed at the tech platforms ahead of the hearing. The committee passed the bills last year; none of these have become law.
Proposals included the Strengthening Transparency and Obligations to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment (STOPCSAM) Act, which would provide new opportunities for victims to report child sexual abuse material to internet companies, and the Revising Existing Procedures on (REPORT) Act Reporting via). technology) that would expand the types of potential crimes that online platforms are required to report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Other proposals would make it a crime to distribute an intimate image of a person without their consent and urge law enforcement to coordinate investigations into crimes against children.
A separate proposal passed by the Senate Commerce Committee last year, the Kids Online Safety Act, would create a legal requirement for certain online platforms to protect children. Some of the proposed laws have been criticized by digital rights groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which say they could encourage platforms to remove legitimate content as companies try to comply with the law.
Ms. Klobuchar, who questioned technology executives at Wednesday’s hearing, said in an interview that the meeting “felt like a breakthrough.” She added: “As someone who has taken over these companies for years, it was the first time I felt hope for movement.”
Others were skeptical. For proposals to pass, they need the support of congressional leaders. Bills that passed out of committee last year must be reintroduced and go through this process again.
Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who helped develop technologies used by platforms to detect child sexual abuse material, said he watched Congress hold a hearing after hearing about about protecting children online.
“This is what we should be able to agree on: that we have a responsibility to protect children,” he said. “If we can’t get this done, what hope do we have for anything else?”
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2024-02-01 10:03:50
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