Problem Statement and Summary
Scope of Problem
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The circulation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online is astronomical. According to a months-long New York Times investigation:
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In 2008, over 600,000 images/videos of CSAM were reported to the National Center on Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), calling it an epidemic.
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In 2019, 70,000,000—70 million—CSAM images were reported. NYT called it an “almost unfathomable” increase in criminal behavior.
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CSAM has so overwhelmed law enforcement (LE), that the FBI and LAPD, for example, prioritize material depicting infants and toddlers, not older children.
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LE does not even have enough resources to target perpetrators in REAL TIME.
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A 2018 NCMEC/ Thorn study found that CSAM is getting worse: “The most notable historical finding was a trend toward more egregious sexual content”
Harm to Victims
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CSAM is documentation of crime. Victims suffer gross physical & psychological harm at the hands of offenders. They suffer again as harm is endlessly reenacted & circulating.
Tech Turns a Blind Eye: Protected by CDA 230
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CSAM is identified through digital “fingerprints” (hashes) unique to each image. NCMEC keeps a database with all CSAM hashes; LE & companies can run a program to check CSAM against the NCMEC database to verify if it has been identified already or not.
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The platforms on which CSAM circulates are not required by law to report it
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In 2018, of the 18.4 million reports of CSAM to NCMEC, 17 million came from Facebook because it screened all images on its platforms.
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Other companies (Amazon, Dropbox, Snapchat, etc.) simply don’t screen for it.
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Interactive computer services (ICSs) have NO INCENTIVE to report it.
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As a result of court rulings, the Communications Decency Act section 230 (CDA 230) gave near blanket immunity to ICSs; Tech companies can’t be held liable for CSAM because they aren’t “publishers” under law, so ICSs ignore CSAM.
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CDA230, passed in 1996, was written to encourage growth of the Internet when it was a baby; that stage is long over.
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ICSs have been given many chances to police CSAM and they refuse.
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Earn It Act Brings Accountability to Bear on Criminality
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It revokes the immunity from liability for CSAM that ICSs have under CDA230
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Survivors and state attorneys general will be able to sue tech companies for facilitating CSAM, using federal civil law and state civil and criminal law.
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It entails a precise, surgical, socially responsible change to CDA230.
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It creates a new Online Child Exploitation Prevention Commission
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Technology changes so rapidly, it is hard for decisionmakers to keep up, in order to keep citizens safe. The commission will establish best business practices & make recommendations to inform policy, the judiciary, and LE community.
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Preventing sex trafficking, grooming, and predatory behavior while exploring age gating and more family-friendly filter systems are among the commission’s tasks.
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It renames “child pornography” “child sexual abuse material” in federal statute.
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It upgrades some tools for the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
INFORMATIVE
ONE-PAGERS
INFORMATIVE PODCASTS & VIDEOS
Grow Your Vision
Jan 30, 2024 - Representatives Russell Fry (SC-07), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Ann Wagner (R-MO), and Robert Garcia (D-CA) introduced the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act. This legislation would provide federal criminal record relief to survivors of human trafficking who committed a non-violent offense as a direct result of having been a victim of trafficking.
Tens of thousands of human trafficking cases are reported every year in the United States. Often, human traffickers force or coerce their victims to engage in criminal activity such as financial crimes, drug offenses, fraud, and identity theft. This can lead to the arrest, conviction, and incarceration of trafficked victims without consideration of their victim status.
At the outset of a prosecution, this legislation would establish an affirmative defense to provide survivors with the opportunity to defend against only those charges that arose directly from their trafficking victimization. It would provide critical relief for survivors who have already been convicted as a result of their trafficking victimization through vacatur, expungement, and sentencing mitigation.
Specifically, for a court to grant a motion to vacate a conviction or expunge an arrest, a defendant must show by a preponderance of the evidence that the offense was committed as a direct result of having been a victim of trafficking. Additionally, the defendant must establish, by clear and convincing evidence, that the defendant was a victim of human trafficking at the time the offense was committed.
“I am proud to introduce legislation that provides critical relief to victims who unjustly incurred criminal records as a result of having been a victim of trafficking,” said Congressman Russell Fry. “There are currently almost 30 million victims of human trafficking across the globe, and the grave reality is that it’s happening right here in our own communities in the United States. In fact, Horry County is one of the top three counties in South Carolina in reported human trafficking. We must continue to prevent and prosecute these horrific crimes while also supporting survivors.”
“Human trafficking survivors deserve the opportunity to heal from the trauma of their experiences,” said Congressman Ted Lieu. “They should not be haunted by a criminal record that they got as a result of being exploited. Survivors can be charged with criminal activity they were forced to engage in. The resulting prosecution and possible conviction can prevent survivors from rebuilding their lives. Our bill would alleviate some of the burden associated with surviving trafficking by providing survivors with an opportunity to defend themselves against prosecution for crimes committed because they were being exploited. Trafficking survivors have endured enough—they should not also be subject to undue prosecution.”
ACT NOW
Let your voice be heard!
Reach out to your local representative and make it known
that the TSRA must be passed.
H.R.7137 - Trafficking Survivors Relief Act of 2024 (TSRA)
KOSA: S1409 & COPPA: S1418
HR7890
National Center on Sexual Exploitation Urges Passage of Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
WASHINGTON, DC (2023) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is calling on Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (S 1409) and Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (S 1418), both designed to further protect children online, and which are being marked up by the Senate Commerce Committee on May 3rd.
“The Kids Online Safety Act is an excellent bipartisan bill that creates a ‘default to safety’ standard for online platforms, one of the main safeguards we have been advocating for with tech platforms. Tech companies can and should do more to protect its youngest users given the potential for harm and exploitation on these platforms,” said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) creates a duty of care that a covered platform must act in the best interests of a minor who uses it and includes a duty to prevent and mitigate physical, emotional, developmental, material harms. KOSA provides families with the tools, safeguards, and transparency they need to protect against threats to children’s health and well-being online. The bill also ensures that parents and policymakers can assess whether social media platforms are taking meaningful steps to address risks to kids.
The Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) will strengthen protections for children and include minors up to age 16 in those protections from the collection, use and disclosure of personal information.
“Both of these bills have the potential to significantly improve young people’s wellbeing by transforming the digital environment for children and teens. Congress must solidify its commitment to the youngest generations by instituting these protections,” Hawkins concluded.
ACT NOW
Let your voice be heard!
Reach out to your local representative and make it known that KOSA and COPPA must be passed.
To learn how, visit NCOSE's page here
This is a piece of critical legislation which reauthorizes funding for FY2024 through 2028 to continue current year enacted appropriation and authorization levels to enhance programs, strengthen laws, and add accountability (Smith, 2024).
Named in honor of the renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Smith’s bill—the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (HR 5856) passed by a landslide in the House. It is now moving to the Senate, where it is expected to garner broad consensus.
Specifically, the Frederick Douglass Act:
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Seeks to promote situational awareness training—prevention—on how to keep safe for both elementary and secondary students and faculty through the Frederick Douglass Human Trafficking Prevention Education Grants;
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Authorizes survivors’ employment, housing, and education programs;
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Authorizes a new $175 million over five years program for DOJ Housing Assistance Grants for victims of human trafficking;
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Makes scalable prevention programs through training of the trainers and collaboration with Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force;
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Encourages the usage of prevention efforts to include accessible, age-appropriate, and trauma-informed approaches for USAID beneficiaries and the further incorporation of counter-trafficking efforts across the development portfolio;
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Streamlines statutory language for Tier 2 Watch List;
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Reauthorizes the Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
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Adds forced organ harvesting trafficking as part of the annual TIP Report to expose China and other countries for this crime.
Smith said the Frederick Douglass Act would also reauthorize funding for his International Megan’s Law, which was enacted in 2016 and requires convicted child sex offenders who travel abroad to provide notice to the US Government—via the Angel Watch Center—prior to departure to all planned destinations. Upon receipt of the travel itinerary, the US government informs the destination country or countries of those plans.
According to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the US Government has notified foreign governments of the planned travel of 27,679 covered sex offenders to their countries. As of late January, 9,489 individuals who were convicted of sex crimes against children were denied entry by these nations.
During debate on the House Floor, Smith highlighted the vital input he received from human trafficking survivors for the bill and shared compelling testimony delivered by a brave survivor from New Jersey at one of his recent hearings examining the United States’ current implementation of programs to combat trafficking.
“At a congressional hearing I chaired last May, Gina Cavallo—an amazing, courageous woman from my home state of New Jersey—told us how she suffered unspeakable violence including rape, beatings, coercive drug abuse and other torture as her traffickers sold her like a commodity to one buyer after another,” said Smith.
“In writing the Frederick Douglass Act, we listened to survivors including Gina Cavallo who have heroically spoken out against these crimes against humanity and demanded that lawmakers craft polices and write laws that are survivor-informed and trauma-informed,” Smith said.
A host of organizations and survivor experts who provided insights, recommendations and endorsements for Smith’s legislation stressed the benefits of the bill and offered praise for the strong support and House passage.
“One of the most important things I tell fellow survivors is, ‘You are not alone,’” said Judge Robert Lung, former Chair of the US Advisory Council on Human Trafficking. “The TVPRA is your opportunity to tell survivors, ‘You are not alone, you matter and Congress cares.’ Those may be the most life changing, and important words spoken in this legislative session. May God continue to bless Congress.”
CONTACT YOUR STATE SENATORS
AND ASK THEM TO SUPPORT THIS BILL TODAY!
Protecting Kids on Social Media Act: HR1291
WASHINGTON (February 2, 2023) - Today, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) introduced the Social Media Child Protection Act, which would make it unlawful for social media platforms to provide access to children under the age of 16. The rates of teen and adolescent depression, anxiety, and suicide have risen at unprecedented levels since the emergence of social media.
“Our nation’s young people are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis,” said Rep. Stewart. “More than 40 percent of teenagers say that they struggle with feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and more than half of parents express concern over their children’s mental well-being. There has never been a generation this depressed, anxious, and suicidal – it’s our responsibility to protect them from the root cause: social media.
“To all those who say this would be an overstep by our government, I understand your concern. And I share your ideological belief that more government usually makes life worse, not better. But we have countless protections for our children in the physical world – we require car seats and seat belts; we have fences around pools; we have a minimum drinking age of 21; and we have a minimum driving age of 16. The damage to Generation Z from social media is undeniable – so why are there no protections in the digital world? It’s well past time that we take bold, comprehensive action for the sake of our kids.
“President Biden recently wrote that ‘…young people are struggling with bullying, violence, trauma and mental health. We must hold social-media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit.’ And the Surgeon General recently stated that adolescents shouldn’t be given access to social media until they’re at least 16 years old. This legislation is a real opportunity for bipartisanship in a divided Congress. Let’s get to work and give our nation’s young people the protections they so desperately need.”
The Social Media Child Protection Act makes it unlawful for social media platforms to provide access to children under the age of 16. It also…
1. Makes it the social media platform's responsibility to verify age (using methods like ID verification);
2. Requires social media platforms to establish and maintain reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information collected from users and perspective users;
3. Gives the authority to the State to bring a civil action on behalf of its residents;
4. Gives parents a private right of action on behalf of their children;
5. Directs the FTC to prevent any social media platform from violating these regulations including implementing fines for violations.
(Stewart, 2023)
CONTACT YOUR LOCAL ELECTED REPRESENATATIVES
AND ASK THEM TO SUPPORT THIS BILL TODAY!