Tech executives to give testimony regarding concerns about child safety

Tech CEOs, including Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Linda Yaccarino of X, are set to testify in Washington today regarding concerns about children’s mental health and online safety. Politicians argue that big tech companies are not doing enough to protect children from sexual exploitation. In response, lawmakers have been discussing the implementation of stricter laws and have demanded that executives explain their current efforts. The heads of TikTok, Discord, and Snap will also be attending the hearing. This will be the first time many of these executives, including Yaccarino, have testified before Congress. Yaccarino, as well as Discord CEO Jason Citron and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, received subpoenas before agreeing to appear at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew voluntarily agreed to testify. Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham stated that “parents and kids demand action” when announcing the plans for the hearing. The hearing comes three months after a former senior staff member at Meta expressed concerns to Congress about Instagram’s lack of protection for teens against sexual harassment. Meta responded by stating that they had implemented “over 30 tools” to create a safe online environment for teens. The Senate Judiciary Committee previously held a hearing on the same topic in February 2023, during which witnesses and lawmakers agreed that companies should be held accountable. Since then, legislators have introduced bills such as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which was recently supported by Snapchat. The committee is particularly concerned about reports of explicit images of children being shared online, including those created using artificial intelligence. US lawmakers have noted an increase in such images and have cited evidence from whistleblowers and testimonies from child abuse survivors as further reasons for the hearing. While big tech companies have claimed to be working on addressing the issue and have implemented measures such as parental controls and content filtering, they continue to face scrutiny from politicians and the public. Microsoft and Google have also developed tools to help platforms identify and report such content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the US. Despite these efforts, the demand for further scrutiny of big tech firms remains strong.