It has been more than 18 months since the CEOs of major American technology companies appeared on Capitol Hill to testify about the crisis of online sexual exploitation of children.
It was a powerful and hopeful moment in the fight against the scourge of child sexual abuse material, which has grown to unconscionable levels across the online ecosystem.
What has Congress done since then? Policymakers have indeed acted, which should be applauded.
In May 2024, the REPORT Act requiring tech companies to report child sex trafficking and online enticement was signed into law.
Just a year later, the Take It Down Act cleared both houses of Congress — thanks to the timely and powerful advocacy of First Lady Melania Trump — and was signed into law. It requires tech companies to take down non-consensual intimate imagery within 48 hours of notice from a victim.
These steps represent important progress, but Americans should know that lawmakers have failed to advance comprehensive policy change to address child sexual exploitation online.
A 2023 package of online safety bills advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to receive a vote on the Senate floor in 2024.
And although a Senate Commerce Committee advanced the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act, which passed the Senate 91-3, it died in January after never receiving a vote in the House.
By many measures, the crisis of child sexual abuse online has continued to accelerate with the rise of photorealistic AI-generated images and videos of children being sexually abused.
A study published in March from researchers at the Georgia State University School of Public Health and the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute estimates that one in 12 children worldwide have been subjected to online child sexual exploitation or abuse.
What has the U.S. tech sector done since their leaders were summoned to the Hill last January?
The clearest answer can be found in an August report from Australia’s online safety regulator, which “shows minimal progress has been made by some of the most well-resourced companies in the world to tackle this urgent issue.”
Perhaps most startlingly, the responses from companies including Apple, Google and Meta indicated that “no providers were using” available technologies to detect child sexual abuse and exploitation in live streams and video calls “in all or parts of their service(s).”
This is unacceptable and just one example of how the tech sector can and should be doing more.
Julie Inman-Grant, Australia’s eSafety commissioner who was born in the U.S. and worked for major U.S. tech companies before entering government service, called the report’s findings “hugely concerning.”
“This is illegal content. This is literally the rape, torture of children and they’re enabling it and turning a blind eye,” she said.
We should all recognize that this astonishing information is only publicly available because the Australian government legally compelled these disclosures. No similar transparency reporting requirement exists under U.S. law.
This must change. Americans deserve to know what level of investment and effort that U.S. Big Tech has determined is acceptable to prevent the creation and sharing of child sexual abuse materials, including of a 22-month-old in South Carolina and a Florida infant.
Thankfully, legislation that would compel that kind of needed transparency has been introduced in the 119th Congress. The Stop CSAM Act takes a comprehensive approach to the issue by requiring annual transparency reports from large online platforms who are already required to report suspected instances of exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline.
The bill would also improve the quality of CyberTipline reports, strengthen privacy protections and improve restitution processes for child victims.
Additionally, it would offer new pathways to legal recourse for survivors through civil lawsuits against online platforms and app stores that “promote or aid and abet” these crimes.
This week, Capitol Hill will again be focused on children’s safety from online abuse. Yesterday, a Senate subcommittee held a hearing “examining whistleblower allegations that Meta buried child safety research.”
Today, hundreds of concerned Americans from over 40 states will join my organization, International Justice Mission, to lobby members of Congress and their staff on the Stop CSAM Act, which unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in June.
The First Lady should continue her advocacy and champion this piece of legislation. Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) should schedule a vote for the act on the Senate floor this month.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) should move it forward in his committee and House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) should commit to having the House vote on it as soon as possible.
In the end, President Trump could sign into law truly historic legislation to protect vulnerable children. Our kids deserve nothing less.
Nate King serves as director of U.S. policy and advocacy for International Justice Mission. International Justice Mission is a global non-governmental organization whose mission is to protect people in poverty from violence.
