Reps. Sylvia Garcia, Barry Moore Reintroduce Bipartisan and Bicameral Legislation to Protect Children Online

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX-29) and Rep. Barry Moore (D-AL-01) reintroduced the House version of the Strengthening Transparency and Obligations to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment (STOP CSAM) Act. This legislation expands protections for child victims and witnesses in federal court proceedings to help facilitate restitution for victims of child exploitation, human trafficking, sexual assault, and violent crimes. 

The bill also empowers victims by making it easier for them to ask tech companies to remove child sexual abuse material and related imagery from their platforms and by creating an administrative penalty for the failure to comply with a removal request. It also requires big tech companies to submit annual reports describing their efforts to protect children going forward.

"Tech executives keep showing up to Congress, saying the right things while doing nothing as children are harmed and targeted on their platforms. If these companies are comfortable making billions as they ignore rampant child abuse, we must hold them accountable for their failure," said Congresswoman Garcia. "As technology evolves, the law must evolve too. The bipartisan and bicameral STOP CSAM Act would finally give families a path to justice and make sure that children are protected."

“The rise of new technologies has created dangerous loopholes that predators exploit to traffic in child sexual abuse material,” said Congressman Moore. “In the last 15 years, the number of American victims has skyrocketed by over 400 percent. I’m proud to partner with Rep. Garcia on this bipartisan effort to ensure Big Tech is no longer allowed to look the other way. Our children deserve protection, and survivors deserve justice.”

Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Dick Durbin, the Ranking Member for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, reintroduced the Senate version of the bill late last month. The Senate version was cosponsored by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Katie Britt (R-AL), Ashley Moody (R-FL), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (D-MS).