Big Tech companies manipulate Section 230 to protect profits over life.
This week, Raven testified alongside Brandon Duffy, Carrie Goldberg, Professor Mary Grew Leary and Stephen Balkham in the Children’s Safety in the Digital Era: Strengthening Protections and Addressing Legal Gaps briefing. This hearing highlighted the wide array of dangers children face online as well as Big Tech’s hesitancy to address growing threats and their manipulation of Section 230 to prevent victims from pursuing legal justice.
A demonstration of true bipartisan collaboration, today reaffirmed Congress’ commitment to child safety and to holding these companies accountable; this is more important than ever.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children receives 100,000 CyberTips per day, each a tangible example of child exploitation. This is only projected to grow as technology, such as Generative AI, proliferates.
As Senator Blackburn noted, “It is only in the virtual space that it remains the Wild West, and our children can be attacked every day.”
John Pizzuro, CEO of Raven and former Commander of the NJ Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, provided his expertise and perspective on online child exploitation:
“New threats continue to emerge while old ones remain unaddressed. Artificial Intelligence now enables offenders to manipulate regular images of children into explicit content, create images of children who do not exist and groom children at mass. Offenders now increasingly exploit children for financial gain, in addition to their depraved sexual gratification. Yet, legislative inaction allows this crisis to persist. The Tech Industry has not meaningfully reduced online victimization. Their voluntary cooperation with law enforcement is minimal, allowing offenders to continue exploiting children with impunity.”
Raven is actively advocating for reforms that will keep more children safe from online exploitation. Our team has established a layered framework and will work with legislators as well as technology, victim, and privacy groups to identify which pieces of legislation are possible, useful, and reasonable.
CONTACT: Brenna Pitman, brenna@raven.us
Read the full transcript HERE
