Hearings to examine children's safety in the digital era, focusing on strengthening protections and addressing legal gaps.
2025-02-19
Source: Congress.gov
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Good morning, everybody. In today's digital era, our young people face risks that previous generations couldn't even have imagined. Even though technology brings amazing opportunities for education and growth, it also opens doors to new dangers that we must confront. This isn't the first hearing we've had on this issue, and unfortunately, probably won't be the last. We held a hearing on this same subject roughly a year ago when we brought CEOs from some of the largest social media companies to discuss safety issues on their platforms, and we held a similar hearing a year before that. On the one hand, this is alarming because the problems is getting worse. In 2023, as an instance, the NCMEC Cyber Tipling received 36.2 million reports of suspected online child sexual exploitation. a 12% increase over 2022. And even though the numbers haven't been published for 2024, it seems that they're expected to go up. Additionally, alarming are the new technologies that are being used by bad actors to exploit children online. Predators can use generative AI for instance, to take normal images of children and manipulate them to create novel forms of CSAM.
In 2024 alone, NCMEC reported over 60,000, almost 61,000 instances of generative artificial intelligence, CSAM. Despite this, so far, Congress has enacted no significant legislation to address these dangers against children. And tech platforms have been unhelpful in our legislative efforts. Big tech promises to collaborate, but they're noticeably silent. in supporting legislation that would affect meaningful change. In fact, big tech's lobbyists swarm this hill armed with red herrings and scare tactics, suggesting that we'll somehow break the internet if we implement even these very modest reforms. Meanwhile, these tech platforms generate revenues that dwarf the economies of most nations. So how do they make so much money? They do it by compromising our data and privacy and keeping our children's eyes glued to the screens through addictive algorithms. Indeed, in one recent study, 46% of teens reported that their online quote, almost constantly, end quote. This has had severe mental consequences for adolescents. It has also led to a rise in sexual exploitation as some algorithms have actually connected victims to their abusers.
Such tech platforms, should such tech forms be allowed to profit at the expense of our children's privacy, our children's safety, and our children's health? Should they be allowed to contribute to a toxic digital ecosystem without being held accountable? So I believe to everybody, the answer is very clear. When these platforms fail to implement adequate safety measures, they're complicit in harms that follow and they should be held accountable. That said, there are some signs of encouragement. Just as new technologies are being developed that exacerbate harm to children online, so too are technologies being developed to combat exploitation. As one example, with AI rapidly evolving, open source safety tools are being developed to recognize and report CSAM. Some of the witnesses here today will speak to the effectiveness of these tools. Additionally, on the committee, on a committee with some of the most diverse viewpoints in the United States Senate, we have actually advanced bipartisan legislation that addresses legal gaps in our current framework especially those related to the blanket immunity that Section 230 provides. Last Congress, for example, we reported several bills. online safety bills out of committee with overwhelming bipartisan support.
And there are a number of bills that are being considered and refined this Congress, which we'll give attention to in due course. That being said, we can't come up with a wise and effective legislative solution without first understanding the nature and scope of the problem. And so that's why we're having this hearing today. Our witnesses come from various backgrounds. and represent very diverse perspectives, all of which point to the need for our committee to improve legislation and continue our work to keep kids safe. So with that, I'll open things up to ranking member Durbin to give opening remarks. After that, we'll hear from Senators Blackburn and Klobuchar. Then I'll introduce the witnesses and swear. I want to personally thank you, Senator Grassley. This is unusual, a change in leadership in this committee, and yet an issue which we took up very seriously in the last few years on a bipartisan basis has survived the change, and in fact this hearing is evidence of the determination of the chairman. I'd like to join him in that assurance that we're taking this issue very seriously. It was almost Exactly two years ago, this committee held a similar hearing.
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