Social media CEOs questioned about safety measures for children

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday heard testimony from leading tech executives about their efforts to protect children from harmful content on their platforms. The CEOs of Meta, X, TikTok, Snap, and Discord defended their companies, saying they have put measures in place to verify the ages of their users and to keep the accounts of minors private. The hearing’s audience included parents who say their children died or took their own lives as a result of harassment, sexual exploitation, or drug sales on a social media site. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to the parents in the room after Senator Josh Hawley asked if he would like to do so.

What did the CEOs say? All of the tech leaders said their platforms have increased efforts to remove dangerous content, especially child sexual abuse material, referred to as CSAM. Snapchat employees monitor the app for dangerous content and “remove that content, deactivate and device-block offending accounts, preserve the evidence for law enforcement, and report certain content,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said. Meanwhile, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the company has removed millions of posts and users over the last year for sharing explicit content. TikTok CEO Shou Chew said his company has installed family pairing tools to help parents monitor their children’s activity.

What new regulations have been proposed? Senators on the committee pointedly asked the leaders if they would support several pieces of legislation aimed at protecting children. Yaccarino publicly supported the Stop CSAM Act, which would make it easier for victims to ask social media companies to remove explicit material from their platforms. The business leaders declined to officially endorse other measures, including the Kids Online Safety Act, which would require companies to give minors the option to disable addictive product features. None of the leaders endorsed the EARN IT Act, which would remove liability protections for tech companies that do not remove CSAM. Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said that decades after the dawn of the internet, “we haven’t passed any of these laws because of everyone’s double talk … It’s time to actually pass them.”

Dig deeper: Read Todd Vician’s report in WORLD Magazine about how social media platforms earn billions of dollars from ads aimed at children.