Lawmakers push to protect exploited kids

By Mary Ellen Godin Record-Journal staff

MERIDEN Children who were exploited in sexual photos and videos are often haunted by those internet images years later because of shield laws that protect Big Tech.

But U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, and U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-South Carolina, hope to hold them responsible through a bipartsan bill that holds platforms accountable to report and remove such images, or be held accountable in civil courts.

The Earn It Act was approved unanimously by the Judiciary Committee last Thursday. The photographs and video exhibits were so graphic, lawmakers could not show them during the hearing, Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal was joined by members of the state Department of Children and Families and state police to share details of the act Friday at the State Police Division of Scientific Services on Colony Street. This is the third time the Earn It Act has cleared the Judiciary Committee.

“From 29 to 32 million of these images are on the internet,” Blumenthal said.

“Not only is it a crime against children, but these images stay on the internet haunting children for their whole lives. That’s why it’s such a horrifying crime. Unfortunately many of our major platforms refuse to report it or remove them. The tech companies are complicit. They should be held accountable by law enforcement and the survivors themselves. Right now there is no law.”

Technology platforms are shielded by Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which states that “No provider of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information by another infor- mation content provider. Blumenthal supports a repeal of Section 230, allowing civil action against platforms that don’t report and remove abusive content is a start. That legal phrase shields tech companies that can host trillions of messages from being sued by anyone who feels wronged by something someone else has posted whether legitimate or not.

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat, Youtube and other more obscure sites have abused that protection and should lose immunity or at least have to earn it by satisfying requirements set by the government, Blumenthal said.

But the measure faces opposition from technology lawyers and lobbyists, backed by millions of dollars in campaign contributions, Blumenthal said. Parents, victims and 250 advocacy groups, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, back the Earn It Act.

Cybersecurity advocates fear that such changes could prompt tech companies to stop offering end-to-end encryption for their users. Such encryption helps protect data from hackers, governments and other snoops. Law enforcement officials have argued that cybercriminals also use end-to-end encryption to share CSAM

Child Sexual Abuse Material and plan other crimes, and they’ve criticized tech companies’ efforts to expand their encryption offerings, according to the Washington Post.

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