[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1028-S1029]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Kids Online Safety Act

  Madam President, late last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee held 
a hearing with the CEOs of five big tech companies--Meta, TikTok, X, 
Snap, and Discord. We did it for a simple reason: Big Tech needs to be 
held accountable for putting profit over children's safety.
  When our children are online on these platforms, they are the 
product. With addictive algorithms, infinite scroll, and endless push 
notifications, social media sites are keeping teenagers on their 
platforms for an average of 8\1/2\ hours a day. It is a disaster for 
the mental health of young Americans.

  But the more time minors spend on these platforms, the more data Big 
Tech can collect, allowing them to rake in billions of dollars in 
revenue. Discord's 2022 revenue, the latest available, was $445 
million. X--their revenue for 2023 is estimated to be $3.4 billion. 
Snap--their 2023 revenue was $4.6 billion. The 2023 revenue for 
ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese Communist Party-affiliated owner, was $110 
billion. Meta's 2023 revenue was $134.9 billion.
  At the same time, big tech companies have turned a blind eye to how 
their platforms are exposing minors to harmful content, drug dealers, 
and predators. But when provided the opportunity to explain themselves, 
the CEOs continued to make excuses for their platforms' failures to 
protect our children online on their platforms.
  During this hearing, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg said he would absolutely 
work with lawmakers to address these problems, but for years, Meta and 
other Big Tech platforms have funded an army of lawyers and lobbyists 
who have fought us on this issue every single day in every single 
possible way. Many of these groups argue that the free market can solve 
this problem, but even though the free market is an incredible force 
for good, it can't stop Meta from putting a lifetime value of $270 per 
teenager who is on their site during their teenage years.
  Still, Zuckerberg claimed that Meta is ``on the side of parents 
everywhere working hard to raise their kids,'' and he wants ``everyone 
who uses [their] services to have safe and positive experiences.'' Yet, 
when questioned about this issue--and it is a vast pedophile network. 
That is not how I termed it; it is how the Wall Street Journal termed 
it in a report. So I questioned him about how this vast pedophile 
network was allowed to grow on Instagram, including content showing 
teenagers for sale to older men. The tech CEO was unable to explain how 
this content does not violate Meta's terms of service and their 
community standards.
  Now, we would think that building out what the Wall Street Journal 
called a ``vast pedophile network'' and having postings showing 
teenagers for sale to older men would indeed violate community 
standards or terms of service, but he could not answer that question. 
Instead, he insisted that his company is not ``perfect''--his choice of 
word. I have to tell you that is a huge understatement.
  Just last month, newly released internal documents revealed that Meta 
executives refused to take action after learning that their algorithms 
connected children with potential child predators. According to the 
documents, which were revealed through a lawsuit brought by the New 
Mexico attorney general against Meta, Meta executives refused to act 
even though they knew about this and knew that 100,000 minors were 
receiving sexually abusive content from adults on their platform every 
single day. Think about those numbers.
  Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that, last year, Meta 
employees warned executives that Facebook and Instagram's paid 
subscription service enabled child exploitation by likely pedophiles, 
but the company pushed ahead with this feature anyway even though they 
knew it was endangering children.
  These are stunning revelations. They corroborate the testimony from 
Facebook whistleblower Arturo Bejar,

[[Page S1029]]

who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last November. 
Bejar is a former engineering director at Facebook. He told us that 
Meta executives knew that millions of teens face bullying, eating 
disorder content, the solicitation of lethal drugs, and sexual 
exploitation on their platforms while they are using those platforms, 
but rather than raise the alarm that their platforms were endangering 
children, company executives withheld this damaging information from 
congressional oversight, rolled back safety tools, and dismantled teams 
responsible for children's safety. In other words, they chose to make 
the problem worse instead of fixing it.
  Why did they do that? Because when our children are on their 
platforms, our children are the product. They are the product. They 
need money. Remember that $270 per-teen amount that they subscribed? 
That is of value.
  So to parents, think about this next time your child is on Instagram. 
Meta sees them as a $270 profit--profit. They put the profit before the 
kids.
  Unfortunately, this isn't just limited to Facebook and Meta. Across 
the board, we have seen social media platforms, including Snapchat and 
the Chinese-owned TikTok, become open drug markets where dealers 
connect with children and sell illicit drugs, including fentanyl.
  We have heard from countless families from across the country who 
have seen their children die from suicide after facing relentless 
bullying on social media. And we have seen digital platforms become 
havens for sex traffickers and child predators who use social media to 
prey on the most vulnerable among us.
  For years, Big Tech companies have made empty promises about how they 
will address the rampant abuse, the malicious content, criminal 
activity on their platforms. But do you know what? Nothing has changed.
  Big Tech has proven they can't police themselves. They won't act. So 
it is imperative that Congress steps in.
  Over the last 3 years, Senator Blumenthal and I have crafted the 
bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act, which would provide parents and 
children with the tools, safeguards, and transparency they need to 
protect against these online harms. This legislation, which has reached 
a total of 64 cosponsors, includes crucial provisions to hold Big Tech 
companies accountable; mandatory audits to ensure that platforms are 
mitigating harms to children; new tools for parents to identify harmful 
behavior and report abuse directly to these social media platforms; new 
controls for families to support their children, including to opt out 
of algorithmic recommendations. Perhaps most importantly, the 
legislation would create a duty of care for online platforms to prevent 
and mitigate specific dangers to minors, including the promotion of 
suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, and sexual exploitation.
  Without real and enforceable reforms, social media companies will 
only continue to pay lipservice to the issue of protecting children 
while continuing to put profits above their safety. Yes, they need that 
$270 per kid. That is what our children are worth to them.
  Now is the time to bring about some real change. Now is the time--it 
is past time--to hold Big Tech accountable. We have to make certain, we 
have to ensure, our children can be free to be children again.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Rosen). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.