4 takeaways from a heated hearing with Tech CEOs – January 31, 2024

Senators grilled the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord and X Wednesday in a heated hearing about harm posed to teens and kids online.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced most of the pressure from the panel, which focused primarily on the ways teens and children can experience harm through Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

But each CEO faced questions about the policies they have in place to mitigate the risks of online sexual exploitation, as well as the spread of harmful content that promotes suicide, self-harm and eating disorders over the roughly four and a half hours of questioning.

The packed hearing room was filled with parent and survivor advocates who held up photos of victims and put pressure not just on the companies, but also on the senators to add regulation that would hold the companies accountable.

Read more here. 

As Big Tech CEOs will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on their failure to protect kids online. Accountable Tech, Design It For Us, Fairplay, ParentsTogether Action, Tech Oversight Project, and our allies will host a rally on Capitol Hill to elevate the lived experiences and real stories of young people harmed by Big Tech’s online platforms and social media. Together, we will ring the alarm around Big Tech’s failure to protect kids online and call for Congress to act.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing will feature Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter/X CEO Linda Yaccarino, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, and Discord CEO Jason Citron. RSVP to hold these Big Tech CEOs accountable and protect young people online!

Due to the nature of the rally happening after the hearing, the timing of the event may change. Please look to the email you used when submitting your RSVP to stay up to date on any adjusted timings.

Location: U.S. Capitol Building, Corner of Independence Ave SE and First Ave. Please look to the diagram above for precise location.

Learn more here.

For the first time ever, on January 31, five Big Tech CEOs from Meta, X, Snap, TikTok and Discord are being called to testify on their failures to protect children online. Pressure has been mounting especially over the last year as the Senate Judiciary Committee has introduced several bipartisan bills to help stop the exploitation of kids online.

Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is any content that depicts sexually explicit activities involving a child. This devastating crime has severe and lifelong consequences for survivors, and the online sharing of this material traumatizes victims long after the abuse has ended. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an exponential increase in online sexual exploitation and abuse of children (known as OSEAC). To give a scale of this epidemic, in 2019, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 16.9 million reports of CSAM to their CyberTipline. In 2022, that number nearly doubled, to over 32 million reports, marking the highest number of reports ever received in one year.

Read more here.

Apple still allows child sexual abuse images and videos on iCloud and we believe it’s time to escalate our efforts. Our goal is to bring attention to the issue, urging Apple to take concrete steps to address the problem ahead of the Super Bowl.

We’re asking you to join us in amplifying the stories of those affected by Apple’s negligence. We’ve put together an Action Toolkit that includes information on how you can contribute, share our message, and play a vital role in our campaign this weekend.

Commercial Link: https://bit.ly/3vR4cLj

Please use this Toolkit and raise awareness of your “social media” platforms. Here are some examples:

# protectchildrennotabuse

We need your help.
We are sending a message to Apple that we are here to demand change and are not going anywhere. Ahead of
Apple’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, we’re amplifying the stories of survivors to demonstrate the human impact
behind the status quo.

Repost from Heat Initiative on your preferred platform. Talk about it with your friends, families, and networks.

– I join survivors of child sexual abuse and the @HeatInitiative in holding @Apple
accountable for CSAM stored on iCloud.
–I am joining @HeatInitiative in demanding that @Apple: 1) Stop the spread of
child sexual abuse images and videos on iCloud 2) Create a robust reporting
mechanism for users to report child sexual abuse images and videos to Apple.
Learn more at ProtectChildrenNotAbuse.org.D
–Did you see the @HeatInitiative commercial calling on @Apple to prioritize child
safety? Join @HeatInitiative in telling Apple leadership that it’s time to act by
signing their petition here:

A form of cybercrime called “financial sextortion” is rapidly rising in North America and Australia, with a major portion driven by a non-organized cybercriminal group in West Africa who call themselves “Yahoo Boys,” according to a new study from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI).

Sextortion is “a crime that involves adults coercing kids and teens into sending explicit images online,” according to the FBI. The criminals threaten their victims with wide distribution of the explicit images, including to the victims’ friends and family, unless the victims pay them, repeatedly, through a variety of peer-to-peer payment apps, cryptocurrency transfers and gift cards.

NCRI, a nonprofit, found cybercriminals used the social apps Instagram, Snapchat and Wizz to find and connect with their marks.

Read more here.

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Keeping Kids Safe: A Roadmap for Parents, Teachers & Others

Did you know that children are at risk of sexual abuse, now more than ever?

While your children are ‘playing on their laptops’ online grooming could be occuring?

Would some tips on how to protect them be useful?

Sexual abuse and grooming of children across the world are both frightening realities, and ways to manage this are desperately needed.

This roadmap is for the parents, teachers, grandparents, and front-line staff everywhere. Resources are instrumental in combatting these predators, and children need practical tools to use.

This book has been written by a survivor of 16 years of child sexual abuse and trafficking and is considered a masterpiece.

Easy to follow, invaluable to use, this is one roadmap you will need to study.

Learn more here and how to buy your copy.