Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Judiciary Committee Hearing on Children’s Online Safety
WASHINGTON – U.S.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, today delivered an opening statement at the Senate Judiciary
Committee hearing entitled “Protecting Our Children Online.” The hearing will
examine the challenge of ensuring online child safety and privacy, with
witnesses testifying to the risks, threats, and harms that children face in the
online world.
Key quotes:
“The online world offers tremendous
opportunities and benefits. But, it also poses serious risks and dangers
to our children. In almost every aspect of the real world, child safety
is a top priority. We lock the door and teach our kids not to talk to
strangers. But in the virtual world, criminals and bullies don’t need to
pick a lock or wait outside the playground to cause harm. They can reach
our children through social media apps like Facebook and Snapchat. And they can
harass, intimidate, addict, or sexually exploit our kids without anyone leaving
home.”
“As too many families know, cyberbullying—which
is often relentless, cruel, and anonymous—can lead to tragic results.
Social media can also cause a variety of mental health problems in teenagers,
including anxiety, depression, stress, and body image issues. This has
been well documented, and the Big Tech companies know it. But despite all
these known risks and harms, online platforms are doing everything they can to
keep our kids’ eyes glued to their screens. In the process, they are
vacuuming up tons of data that they use to build profiles and target our kids
with even more ads and content. It’s a lucrative business, but it is
compromising our children’s privacy, safety, and health. We shouldn’t
stand for it.”
“Today’s discussion builds upon years of
important work by this Committee. Ranking Member Graham held important
hearings on this issue when he chaired this Committee, and I thank him for his
partnership in organizing today’s hearing. We should consider it a call
to action. There are a number of good legislative proposals to protect
our kids, such as the EARN IT Act, which enjoys strong bipartisan
support in this Committee. Additionally, for months, I’ve been working on
a comprehensive bill to close gaps in the law and crack down on the
proliferation of child sex abuse material online: the STOP CSAM Act.
Today I’ll be putting out a discussion draft of this legislation and I plan to
move forward with it in Committee soon.”
“I look forward to hearing our witnesses’
ideas for reform, and I hope they can provide the basis for advancing
legislation through this Committee and ultimately to the President’s desk to be
signed into law.”
“Like we do in the real world, we need to
protect our kids in the virtual world. This is not a partisan issue—it’s
an issue that keeps parents and children up at night. It deserves the
focus of this Committee and this Congress. And it deserves action.”
Video of Durbin’s opening statement
is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s opening statement
is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s opening
statement is available here
for TV Stations.
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