The CEO Of Social Media Will Be Asked Difficult Questions At The US Senate Session On Child Abuse Online

Senator Dick Durbin, chairman of the Democratic Party on the Judicial Committee (photo: x @SenatorDurbin)

JAKARTA - On Wednesday, January 24, chief executives from social media companies Meta, X, TikTok, Snap, and Discord will face difficult questions about efforts to counter child sexual exploitation online at a US Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Senator Dick Durbin, chairman of the Democratic Party on the Judicial Committee, said several tech companies had made some recent changes to protect children from online predators but that was not enough.

"It is clear that we need legislation because the technology industry is failing itself to protect our children. They protect their profits, but they do not protect our children," Durbin said on Tuesday, January 30.

This will be TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew's first appearance before US lawmakers since March when China's short video app company faces tough questions, including some suggesting that the app is damaging to children's mental health.

"We made a careful product design choice to help make our app unfriendly to those who try to harm teens," said Schw's written testimony. He also added that TikTok community guidance strictly prohibits anything that puts "the youth at risk of exploitation or other dangers - and we firmly enforce it."

Chew revealed more than 170 million Americans use TikTok every month - 20 million more than the company said last year. Durbin said the platforms were used by perpetrators to target children or trade in child sexual abuse material.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, who owns Facebook and Instagram, CEO X Linda Yaccarino, CEO of Snap Evan Spiegel, and CEO of Discord Jason Citron will also testify.

"We are committed to protecting young people from abuse in our services, but this is a continuing challenge," Zuckerberg said. "As we raise defenses in one area, criminals change their tactics, and we have to find new responses."

Spiegel says Snap's parental controls resemble "how we believe parents are monitoring their teens' activities in the real world - where parents want to know who their teens are spending their time but don't have to listen to every private conversation."

The committee last year approved several laws including one that would remove tech companies' immunity from criminal and civil responsibility under the law on child sexual harassment which was first proposed in 2020. However, until now no one has become a law.

Senator Amy Klobuchar told Reuters it was time to take legislative action. "It took too long for social media companies to look away as small children join the platform, increase the risk of sexual exploitation, use algorithms that encourage harmful content, and provide a place for merchants to sell deadly drugs like fentanyl," he said.