Senator Hawley Chairs Hearing on Fighting Online Child Sexual Abuse Material, Calls for Empowering Big Tech’s Victims

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Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Today in the first Judiciary Committee subcommitteehearingof the 119th Congress, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)—chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, alongside Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)—urged the Committee to quickly pass their marquee legislation, the STOP CSAM Act, to better protect children online. Senator Hawley focused on the rapid rise in online child exploitation material, emphasizing that victims currently haveno legal recourseagainst Big Tech companies that allow CSAM to proliferate on their platforms.
“Today, there are more than 104 million known reported images of child sexual abuse online. This is truly a crisis. It is an epidemic,”said Senator Hawley.“It is time to allow the victims to have their day in court,”he continued.“One of the most fundamental rights we have as Americans is to get our day in court, get in front of a jury, and vindicate the personal rights given to us by our Constitution, by our systems of law, and by nature and nature’s God. That right is currently denied to parents and victims.”
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Senator Hawley noted that while Big Tech companies claim it is too expensive to stop CSAM on their platforms, they raked in the profits in 2023: Meta made$23 billion, Google made$60 billion, and Apple made$97 billion.“Don’t tell me Big Tech companies don’t have the wherewithal financially to disrupt, detect, and report. They absolutely do. The truth is, they don’t want to do it and right now, they’re not compelled to do it,”said Senator Hawley.The witnesses at the hearing were survivors, advocates, and law enforcement experts, all directly or indirectly impacted by CSAM. Senator Hawley convened the subcommittee hearing in a renewed push to pass the bipartisanStop CSAM Actafter the Senate Judiciary Committeeunanimously advancedthe bill last Congress. Last month, the Senatorsannouncedthat theSTOP CSAM Actwould be reintroduced.The witness list included:

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381 Russell Senate Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510Office: 202-224-6154Fax: 202-228-0526
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