Durbin Calls On His Colleagues To Support Bipartisan Package Of Bills To Protect Kids From Online Sexual Exploitation

Press Release

"Our nation's online safety laws are stuck in the last century. Over the past three decades, Congress has given tech and social media companies free rein to police themselves, and they've failed. Now our children are paying the price for these failures. It is time for Congress to step up and protect them.

When it comes to online platforms like Instagram or TikTok, only a few taps and clicks stand between our children and online predators who hope to exploit them. Just yesterday The Wall Street Journal published a report on what they describe as, "a vast pedophile network that has been thriving on Instagram for years.' Years! According to the report, Instagram not only hosts photos and videos of children being sexually exploited, it actively promotes the despicable content to other users. Predators even connect with one another through a set of grotesque hashtags that I will not repeat on the Senate floor. And the worst of these predators try to target new, unsuspecting victims and persuade them to share explicit images of themselves.

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James had his entire life ahead of him. He was a star on the school track team. He hoped to pursue a career in law enforcement. But now he's gone. You would think that Instagram, the platform through which James was exploited, would bear some responsibility, some responsibility for this horrifying tragedy. After all, this predator used Instagram to contact James, solicit explicit images, and then threaten his life. But you would be wrong. Under our existing laws of the United States, namely Section 230 of theCommunications Decency Act, written nearly 30 years ago, platforms like Instagram have near total immunity from being held legally accountable for this type of atrocity. That has to change.

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Earlier this year as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I pledged that we would take vigorous action to hold Big Tech accountable and stop the online exploitation of children. As part of this effort, I introduced the bill, the STOP CSAM Act, CSAM stands for child sexual abuse material. This legislation would create a civil remedy against any online platform that facilitates the exchange of child sexual abuse materials. In other words, if the STOP CSAM Act were law today, James' parents would be able to take legal action against Instagram for failing to fulfill their basic responsibility to protect their customers. Importantly, my STOP CSAM Act is one of five pieces of legislation that has been reported out of the Judiciary Committee during this Congress to stop the exploitation of children online. Every single one of these pieces of legislation was reported from the Senate Judiciary Committee by a unanimous vote. All five.

Wouldn't the American people be happy to hear that finally the Senate came together on a bipartisan basis to protect innocent children from sexploitation, from these child sexual abuse materials, and from the sort of situation that James Woods faced--the harassment with no accountability for the social media platform. We need to move quickly to do this. There is no excuse. Let's not wait on some other measure. These are five good, strong bills that will say to the social media industry once and for all, you bear responsibility for what goes on. And when you're responsible for it, you can be held accountable in a court of law. Parents and victims can't do this on their own. They've learned that over and over. They need someone to help, and that would be the United States Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the President. I hope every member of the Senate will join us in protecting our kids from this new world of threats."

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