Congress Continues Momentum to Protect Children Online
WASHINGTON, DC (February 22, 2022) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) supports the Kids Online Safety Act, a bipartisan bill to create more protections for children online and introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
“With the rapid rise of child sexual abuse material and exploitation of children online, Congress is right to propose a solution to sure that tech platforms default to safety for minors. It’s pure common sense,” said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
The Kids Online Safety Act ensures that safeguards are implemented on any software app or electronic service connected to the internet in order to: limit unrelated adults from contacting a minor; restrict the sharing of minor geolocation data; ensure that parental controls are enabled by default, among other protections.
“Between the recent introduction of the EARN IT Act and the Kids Online Safety Act, we are glad that Congress is taking online child protection seriously. It is past time for tech platforms to be held accountable for protecting our children from online harms,” Hawkins added.
A New York Times investigation revealed that 70 million CSAM images were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2019, compared to 600,000 in 2008, and called this an “almost unfathomable” increase in criminal behavior.
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