IP Law Daily, TECHNOLOGY/INTERNET NEWS: Senators renew efforts to address online child exploitation, (Feb 20, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Catholic University of America | National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
By Jonathan Anderson
A bipartisan coalition of senators is renewing steps to address online child exploitation, announcing plans to reintroduce multiple bills aimed at improving internet safety for kids and eliminating immunity to tech firms for content on their platforms.
On Feb. 19, 2025, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) and Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) announced plans to reintroduce the STOP CSAM Act. The legislation allows victims of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to sue companies that host such content.
The bill targets a problem that has been growing for years. Between March 2009 and February 2022, the number of victims identified in CSAM rose from 2,172 victims to more than 21,413 victims, according to Durbin. Between 2012 and 2022, the volume of reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline concerning child sexual exploitation increased from 415,650 reports to more than 32 million reports.
“In the coming weeks, Sen. Hawley and I will re-introduce the STOP CSAM Act,” Durbin said. “This bill will finally open the courthouse door to families whose children have been victimized due to Big Tech’s failure to safeguard their online platforms.”
Durbin, the Democratic whip and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the announcement on the same day the committee held a hearing about child safety online. The committee unanimously advanced the STOP CSAM Act last Congress, but the legislation did not gain any further traction.
Some technology and civil liberties groups opposed the measure, arguing that while its aims were laudable, the bill raised significant privacy and free speech concerns. As one example, opponents cited what they argued was vague language in the previous bill that could lead to the suppression of lawful speech unrelated to CSAM.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) said the hearing was essential to properly craft and refine the legislation for its reintroduction. “We can’t come up with a wise and effective legislative solution without first understanding the nature and scope of the problem,” Grassley said.
Durbin also revealed plans to introduce a bill this Congress that would sunset Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) in two years. Durbin said joining him on that bill are U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.), Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), and Hawley.
Section 230 generally immunizes websites like Google and social media platforms such as Facebook for the content that their users post.
Five witnesses testified at the committee hearing. South Carolina Rep. Brandon Guffey (R., York) spoke about his 17-year-old son, who committed suicide in 2022 after he was victimized in a sexual exportation scheme. Other speakers were Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law professor Mary Graw Leary, Family Online Safety Institute CEO Stephen Balkam, and child safety advocate John Pizzuro.
Attorney Carrie Goldberg, founder of C.A. Goldberg Law Firm, also testified and described how tech companies she had sued on behalf of parents and minors invoked Section 230 as a defense.
“When Congress passed Section 230, it never imagined what the Internet would become or the complexity of future products. Now it knows it birthed a monster,” Goldberg wrote in written testimony. “Through careful legislative reform, Congress can fix what corporations won’t because of greed and courts can’t because of bad accumulated case law. Anybody could become my next client.”
News: TechnologyInternet GCNNews