Sen. Cornyn calls for to the Senate to fight the sexual exploitation of children
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) urged the Senate Wednesday to fight the sexual exploitation of children online.
Congress has so far failed to adopt laws and other proposals circulating on Capitol Hill aimed at bolstering children's online safety, despite intense pressure to act.
"Last year the Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 32 million - 32 million - reports of suspected child sexual exploitation," Cornyn said.
Last month, Cornyn and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced the Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution (SHIELD) Act, which makes it a crime to knowingly mail or distribute, or attempt or threaten to distribute, images exploiting children.
"Children are our nation's most valuable resource, and yet we neglect them far too often when they fall prey to predators online and in our streets," said Cornyn.
The Senate Judiciary and Senate Commerce Committees are the two principal bodies weighing in on children's online safety. A number of bills on the subject were approved by senators on the committees last year, but they have since stalled and have not been taken up by the entire Senate.
Another bill by Cornyn and Klobuchar, the Project Safe Childhood Act, passed the Senate on October 24, 2023. It aims to modernize the investigation and prosecution of online child exploitation crimes and make improvements to how federal prosecutors and law enforcement work together and use new technology to go after predators.
"As we are demonstrating here on a bipartisan basis, the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by the Senator from Illinois, we passed six bipartisan bills that aim to protect those children," Cornyn said Wednesday. "Two of the bills that have already passed the Senate, including my Project Safe Childhood Act. Four others still need to pass."
The Kids Online Safety Act, which would provide kids and parents with better tools to protect themselves online, hold Big Tech accountable for harm to kids, and provide transparency into black box algorithms, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"We need these bills to be taken up and passed and sent to the President of the United States without further delay," Cornyn said to the Senate.
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance held a hearing focused on the apparent increase of child sexual abuse material being distributed online. Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, who founded the Tim Tebow Foundation, an organization that works to protect vulnerable children, testified.
In his testimony, Tebow urged lawmakers to back and approve a bill that provides resources to protect the most vulnerable.