WASHINGTON, DC (April 9, 2025) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) reacted to today’s Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing with testimony from Meta Whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams (excerpt from her testimony here).
“So often Big Tech claims that any efforts to protect kids online (from preventing adults being able to contact and groom kids online, to preventing childhood exposure to pornography) is a threat to online privacy. But as we heard today at the U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing, Meta is tracking children online with such precision that they’re even targeting their negative emotions to serve them ads. It is clear Meta is not pro-privacy, it is pro-profit. It is time to pass a range of online safety regulations, Big Tech cannot police itself,” said Haley McNamara, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Programs, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
NCOSE urges Congress to protect children online with these steps:
- Reform CDA 230, so platforms can’t hide behind immunity.
- Enact the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), to require platforms to design with children’s wellbeing—not addiction—in mind.
- Advance the Take It Down, No FAKES and Defiance Acts, so victims of image-based sexual abuse can seek justice.
- Pass the App Store Accountability Act, to empower parents before harm occurs—with real ratings and verified parental consent.
- Don’t cement the myth that teens become digital adults at 13—as the current COPPA 2.0 would do.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-profit organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.
