Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bi-partisan bill aimed at curbing online child exploitation by cracking down on the proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

According to the FBI, CSAM is defined as any sexually explicit material involving anyone under the age of 18, including images, videos, and any other content that exploits minors. Legally considered a form of child pornography, it is prohibited to produce or distribute CSAM on any platform. However, in the age of internet connectivity, there is a lack of effective regulation to prevent the spread of these materials on web platforms, leading to an epidemic of online child sexual exploitation.

This was made even worse by the COVID pandemic, when predators learned that instead of seeking out children in person, they can hide behind the safety of a computer screen and share materials with little risk of consequence. Artificial Intelligence has also exacerbated the problem, allowing producers to create fake images of both real and computer-generated children. Between July and December of 2024, Google reported 2.5 million instances of CSAM to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And that’s just Google.

One problem that contributes to the spread of CSAM is the inability for victims to hold online platforms accountable for hosting these materials. Scores of children have spiraled into self-harm, mental disorders, and even committed suicide after being exposed and exploited by online predators. And yet currently, families have no recourse for justice. At a Senate Judiciary hearing in 2024 that we at Concerned Women for America (CWA) personally attended, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) forced Facebook-founder Mark Zuckerburg to publicly apologize for any harm done by allowing CSAM on the platform. But public apologies do not undo the litany of damage caused by sexually exploiting young kids.

S.1829, The Strengthening Transparency and Obligations to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment (STOP CSAM) Act, led by Hawley and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), would allow victims of this type of exploitation to sue the companies that host these materials. These include social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X. Currently, these companies are granted broad immunity through Section 230, a statute meant to protect public platforms from the actions of bad actors who use them. However, there is an argument to be made that Section 230 is too broad and protects these companies from having to take any kind of responsibility at all. This bill punctures that broad immunity by allowing families to place blame not just on the predators and exploiters, but on the websites that too often ignore the problem and give them a voice.

Freedom of speech is one of the most important rights we enjoy as Americans, but freedom requires proper limits to protect people from becoming slaves to vice. It’s heartening to see that while Congress does not agree on much these days, both sides of the political aisle can agree that sexually exploiting children online should not be a protected form of speech. The bill passed unanimously out of the Judiciary Committee and is now on track to be taken up for a full Senate vote later this year.  CWA thanks the Senators fighting to protect the innocence of the next generation, and we will continue to pray and work to see this legislation reach the president’s desk in the not-too-distant future.