Top tech executives are scheduled to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on child safety in social media and are expected to make unprecedented policy commitments and legislative endorsements.
What Happened: Linda Yaccarino of X, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta META, and other CEOs from TikTok, Discord, and Snap SNAP are set to discuss the impact of their platforms on children’s safety on Wednesday, reported NBC News.
These hearings have typically been confrontational, but this time, representatives from the tech firms suggest their CEOs will extend olive branches in the form of legislative support and policy assurances.
X’s head of U.S. and Canadian public policy, Wifredo Fernandez, revealed that CEO Yaccarino would endorse the SHIELD Act and other child safety legislation. The SHIELD Act, proposed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), aims to criminalize nonconsensual intimate images and sexualized depictions of children.
Other proposed child safety laws include the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would impose a “duty of care” on social media firms recommending content to minors, and the Stop CSAM Act, designed to enhance protections for minor victims and mandate child abuse reporting.
Why It Matters: The hearing is expected to be a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate over child safety and online regulation.
Previously, Snap supported KOSA, claiming it aligned with their existing policies. In November, Meta advocated for legislation requiring app stores to obtain parental consent for app downloads by teens under 16.
A source close to the Senate Judiciary Committee mentioned that the hearings’ strategy is to publicly pressure CEOs for commitments, hoping to pave the way for legislation passage this year.
Notably, Snap’s CEO, Evan Spiegel, plans to announce that the company will not extend encryption on Snapchat in ways that might hinder scanning for child sexual abuse material. The use of encryption on apps has been a topic of intense debate.
Earlier, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced a partnership with the Center for Open Science to share “privacy-preserving social media data” with researchers focusing on well-being.
These developments suggest a potential shift in the tech industry’s approach to child safety and online regulation, with major companies taking proactive steps to address these concerns.
Image source – Shutterstock
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