Bipartisan legislation passed the U.S. Senate in December & now heads to the President’s desk to become law
Sen. Ossoff’s bipartisan bill with Sen. Blackburn would toughen penalties on websites and social media companies that fail to report crimes against children
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff’s bipartisan bill to protect children from online sexual abuse and exploitation passed the U.S. House today and now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
Sens. Ossoff and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)’s bipartisan REPORT Act would strengthen the national tipline run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to collect reports of online exploitation and would require evidence to be preserved for a longer period, giving law enforcement more time to investigate and prosecute crimes.
The bill would require websites and social media platforms to report crimes involving Federal trafficking and enticement of children, which they are not currently required to do. The legislation would also increase fines for companies that knowingly and willfully fail to report child sex abuse material on their site.
The bipartisan bill passed the U.S. Senate in December.
“My bipartisan bill with Senator Blackburn will ensure tech companies are held accountable to report and remove child sex abuse material and to strengthen protection for kids online,” Sen. Ossoff said. “At a time of such division in Congress, we are bringing Republicans and Democrats together to protect kids on the internet.”
“I am pleased that my bipartisan REPORT Act has passed the House and is heading to the President’s desk to be signed into law. Children are increasingly looking at screens, and the reality is that the internet and social media leaves more innocent kids at risk of online exploitation. Under this new law, big tech companies will now be required to report when children are being trafficked, groomed or enticed by predators,” Senator Blackburn said.
Reps. Laurel Lee (R-FL-13), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA-01), Madeleine Dean (D-PA-04), and Susie Lee (D-NV-03) introduced the companion bipartisan bill in the U.S. House, which was cosponsored by Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL-13), Barry Moore (R-AL-02), Bill Posey (R-FL-08), Russell Fry (R-SC-07), Carlos A. Gimenez (R-FL-28), Lucy McBath (D-GA-07), Glenn Ivey (D-MD-04), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18), and Henry C. “Hank” Johnson (D-GA-04).
According to NCMEC, the tipline received over 36 million reports last year.
Sen. Ossoff has heard from child welfare experts and local leaders across the state about this growing concern, who have noted that online child sexual abuse continues to run rampant but remains underreported in Georgia.
In a December 2023 U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ossoff pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray to address sextortion schemes targeting children online amidst a reported 700% increase in their frequency since 2021 in Georgia.
Last September, Sens. Ossoff and Blackburn launched an inquiry with Attorney General Merrick Garland about the FBI’s capacity to investigate and respond to crimes involving child sexual abuse and exploitation, highlighting a June 2023 report to Congress in which the DOJ cited an international threat assessment demonstrating that “the growth in online child sexual exploitation is outpacing our ability to respond.”
In January, Sens. Ossoff and Chuck Grassley (R-IA)’s bipartisan Preventing Child Sex Abuse Act of 2023 was signed into law to strengthen Federal protections against the sexual abuse of children, including online exploitation.
Click here to read the REPORT Act.
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