- Written by Tom Gerken & Liv McMahon
- technology reporter
image source, Getty Images
Amid growing concerns about children’s mental health and safety online, technology leaders including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and X’s Linda Yaccarino are scheduled to testify in Washington today.
Politicians say big tech companies are not doing enough to protect children from sexual exploitation.
They are discussing stricter laws and demanding that executives appear to explain what has been done.
The heads of TikTok, Discord, and Snap will also be in attendance.
This is the first time many of the executives, including Yaccarino, are testifying before Congress.
Yaccarino, like Discord boss Jason Citron and Snap head Evan Spiegel, had to submit a subpoena, a legal order, before agreeing to appear at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. received. Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Xiang Zhichu voluntarily agreed to testify.
“Parents and children alike are demanding action,” Sens. Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham said when announcing the plan.
At the time, Meta said it had introduced “more than 30 tools” to support a safe environment for teens online.
online harm
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the same topic in February 2023, where witnesses and lawmakers agreed that the companies should be held accountable.
Lawmakers have since introduced bills such as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which was recently supported by Snapchat.
The committee is believed to be particularly concerned about reports of explicit images of children being shared online, including fake images created using artificial intelligence.
US lawmakers said such images were on the rise and cited evidence provided by whistleblowers and testimony from child abuse survivors as other reasons for the hearing.
Some major tech companies, which are facing lawsuits over their efforts with children and teens’ accounts, said they are working to address the issue.
Microsoft and Google have developed tools to help platforms identify such content and report it to the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Social media platforms themselves have also made some changes to make children safer online.
For example, many implement parental controls that allow parents to control access and show how much time their children are spending on social media, but also notify children to stop using the platform after a while. Some companies have tools in place.
Other systems companies use to protect children online include hiding harmful content like self-harm from social media feeds and restricting adults from directly messaging children. There are things to do.
But no one can stop politicians and the public from calling for greater scrutiny of big tech companies, and some of the biggest tech companies are probably trying to remember this fact.