During A Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing earlier this month, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) spoke to witnesses about practices needed to combat CSAM.
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NewsTranscript
00:00to each of you for taking the time to be here,
00:04for submitting your testimony,
00:06and for continuing to work on these issues
00:10to protect children in the virtual space
00:13and to rid the virtual space of CSAM.
00:17And Ms. DeLon, as you know,
00:20my report act was signed into law
00:24by President Biden last year.
00:27And of course, that increases the time
00:30that you all can hold information
00:34from 90 days to a year.
00:35And it also requires the social media platforms
00:39to report to you when there are bad actors
00:43and when CSAM is present.
00:47And I was listening to you talk just a few minutes ago.
00:52Just a few minutes ago,
00:53we have heard that there are increases
00:57in reports to you all.
01:01But pick it up from there for me
01:04and build out with the increases in reports
01:08to the cyber tip line.
01:12Look at, let's look at what has happened,
01:18how law enforcement is responding,
01:20how we're being able to get these cases prosecuted.
01:24Thank you, and thank you for your leadership,
01:26Senator, on the report act.
01:29We have seen in the last year,
01:31we have seen 192% increase in online enticement reports.
01:36That is a result of reports coming in
01:39from the tech companies,
01:40as well as members of the public
01:42who are making those reports to us.
01:44We do have concerns regarding the quality of those reports.
01:49There is the requirement that the company reported
01:52if they become aware of it.
01:53But the fact that many of these reports
01:55are coming from the public,
01:56rather than the provider,
01:57shows that they're not detecting that.
02:00In addition, the company's still going back
02:03to the requirements of what should be included in a report.
02:07Companies are still choosing,
02:10based upon their own decision,
02:11what they wish to include in the report
02:13and what they don't.
02:14A more consistency across the companies would be good.
02:17We did issue in response.
02:19Just right there.
02:20So then, they are reporting,
02:23but their metric is a subjective metric?
02:26Is that what you're saying?
02:27That is correct, Senator.
02:29That is correct.
02:30And we did issue guidelines
02:31based upon the report act last fall
02:34that does provide very clear guidance
02:36and helpful information
02:38on the recognizing child sex trafficking
02:40and online enticement on their platforms.
02:42So, should we look at
02:46going back into the report act
02:52and being specific
02:54in some of that guidance that you all issued?
02:58Should we put that into statute
03:00so that there is a uniform approach?
03:03There's also, that is one idea.
03:06There's also, within the Stop C-SAM Act,
03:08there are provisions there
03:10regarding building out what information
03:12would be helpful in a cyber tip line report.
03:14If the report is being made,
03:15then there is a belief that a crime has occurred.
03:18At that point, provide the information
03:19that's necessary to identify the child
03:22and identify a possible offender.
03:24Okay.
03:25Well, what we want to do is make certain
03:28that with the changes that were made
03:30through the report act,
03:32that you all are able to get that information
03:36to law enforcement.
03:37Law enforcement is able to apprehend bad actors,
03:40and we are able to get them off of these platforms
03:44and prosecuted.
03:46So, we would appreciate that.
03:50Mr. Tanago, I appreciate the work that IJM has done
03:57in fighting human trafficking.
03:59And one of the things that we have discussed,
04:03some of us have discussed,
04:05is the need to have a national uniform,
04:10national human trafficking database.
04:14And as you know, Senator Klobuchar and I
04:17have introduced the legislation
04:20that would establish that,
04:21so that we have a way to pull this information together,
04:26and then we're able to actually see what is happening,
04:32what trends are happening,
04:33and get a full picture of what is taking place
04:38in the 50 states.
04:41So, I want you to talk for just a minute
04:43about why it is important to have that data
04:47from each of the states and collectively
04:51be able to review that.
04:53Well, thank you for that question, Senator Blackburn.
04:55I think it's essential.
04:57And in fact, in all of IJM's programs,
05:01we always conduct a baseline study
05:04to measure the prevalence of the crimes
05:06that we are combating at the start of our program,
05:09and then again, at the end of our program.
05:12And nine out of nine times,
05:14we have been able to measure a reduction
05:17in the prevalence of violent crimes.
05:20And I think it's really important,
05:21when I talked about the scale of harm,
05:24nearly half a million children
05:28who are being sex trafficked in live streaming
05:31in the Philippines alone,
05:33the reason that we spend all the time and effort
05:37to do that research study is because we believe
05:40that at some point down the future,
05:41at the end of our program,
05:44we will be able to reduce the prevalence of that crime.
05:47But the only way we know
05:48if anti-trafficking programs are working
05:51is if you collect the data, right?
05:53And at the end of the day,
05:54I think what all of us care about
05:56is that children are being protected,
05:58whether it's from trafficking,
05:59whether it's from CSAM,
06:01whether it's from live stream child sexual abuse,
06:03at the end of the day,
06:04our work should lead to fewer victims
06:08of these terrible crimes.
06:09And the only way we know if that's happening
06:12is if we gather the data.
06:13And I appreciate that.
06:14And I think the live streaming is such a heinous act.
06:19And being able to curtail that
06:23and to apprehend those individuals
06:26is going to be an important part of what we do.
06:30Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
06:32Thank you, Senator Blackburn.
06:33Thank you for your tremendous leadership on this issue.
06:36Let me now call on the ranking member, if he's ready,
06:40for any statement he might want to make
06:41and then for his question.