Tech CEOs grilled over child protection failures
OAN’s Abril Elfi
12:02 PM – Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Tech chief executives of social media companies were grilled during a Senate hearing over their failure to protect children from exploitation.
On Wednesday, the CEOs of the social media platforms Meta, X, TikTok, Snapchat, and Discord faced tough questioning at a Senate hearing regarding their efforts to combat online child sex exploitation.
In a powerful opening, a video was shown featuring a child sharing their experience as a victim on a social media platform.
“I was sexually exploited on Facebook,” said one child.
The Democrat chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, presented statistics from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, revealing a significant increase in financial “sextortation” cases, where predators manipulate minors into sharing explicit content, over the past year.
“This disturbing growth in child sexual exploitation is driven by one thing: changes in technology,” Durbin emphasized during the hearing.
As the CEOs entered the room, anxious parents held up pictures of their children, symbolizing the urgency of the issue.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) directly confronted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of having a “product that is killing people.”
“Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you don’t mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands,” Graham declared. “You have a product that’s killing people.”
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew had previously submitted a testimony stating that TikTok’s community guidelines strictly prohibit anything that endangers teenagers or exposes them to exploitation, and they actively enforce these guidelines.
“We make careful product design choices to help make our app inhospitable to those seeking to harm teens,” Chew affirmed.
According to Durbin, criminals are exploiting these platforms to target children and share information about child sexual abuse.
Zuckerberg, who owns Meta, which includes Instagram and Facebook; Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X; Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat; and Jason Citron, CEO of Discord, are all scheduled to testify later in the day.
Spiegel highlighted that Snapchat’s parental controls mirror how parents monitor their teens’ activities in the real world, respecting privacy while ensuring safety.
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How has technology contributed to the growth of child sexual exploitation, according to Dick Durbin?
Tech CEOs Grilled Over Failure to Protect Children from Exploitation
OAN’s Abril Elfi
12:02 PM – Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Tech chief executives of social media companies were grilled during a Senate hearing over their failure to protect children from exploitation.
On Wednesday, the CEOs of the social media platforms Meta, X, TikTok, Snapchat, and Discord faced tough questioning at a Senate hearing regarding their efforts to combat online child sex exploitation.
In a powerful opening, a video was shown featuring a child sharing their experience as a victim on a social media platform.
“I was sexually exploited on Facebook,” said one child.
The Democrat chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, presented statistics from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, revealing a significant increase in financial “sextortation” cases, where predators manipulate minors into sharing explicit content, over the past year.
“This disturbing growth in child sexual exploitation is driven by one thing: changes in technology,” Durbin emphasized during the hearing.
As the CEOs entered the room, anxious parents held up pictures of their children, symbolizing the urgency of the issue.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) directly confronted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of having a “product that is killing people.”
“Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you don’t mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands,” Graham declared. “You have a product that’s killing people.”
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew had previously submitted a testimony stating that TikTok’s community guidelines strictly prohibit anything that endangers teenagers or exposes them to exploitation, and they actively enforce these guidelines.
“We make careful product design choices to help make our app inhospitable to those seeking to harm teens,” Chew affirmed.
According to Durbin, criminals are exploiting these platforms to target children and share information about child sexual abuse.
Zuckerberg, who owns Meta, which includes Instagram and Facebook; Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X; Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat; and Jason Citron, CEO of Discord, are all scheduled to testify later in the day.
Spiegel highlighted that Snapchat’s parental controls mirror how parents monitor their teens’ activities in the real world, respecting privacy while ensuring safety.
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