Wyden and Booker Block Unanimous Passage of Kids’ Safety Bills
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., on Wednesday blocked a request from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for unanimous consent on a trio of child-online-safety-related bills. On the Senate floor, Graham had the bipartisan support of Senate Judiciary Committee…
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Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; and Josh Hawley, R-Mo. They sought passage of the Earn It Act, the Stop Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment (Stop CSAM) Act and the Shield Act (see 2402060084). However, Wyden objected to passage of the Earn It Act and the Stop CSAM Act because they would “weaken” encryption standards by exposing social media companies to liability for securing messages. Weakening encryption will allow child predators to better track and exploit victims, said Wyden. Meanwhile, Booker objected to the Shield Act, a Klobuchar and Cornyn bill that would establish criminal liability for individuals who share or threaten to share intimate content without consent. Sextortion scams resulted in at least 20 victims, including children, dying by suicide in 2022, Klobuchar noted. Booker said he shares the goal of holding criminals liable, but the bill would create “unintended consequences.” The N.J. Democrat said he’s working with Klobuchar on changes in the bill but didn’t specify his concerns on the floor. There’s no disagreement these bills attempt to address the harm caused by “people who are evil to their core," said Wyden, but he said there’s disagreement about how to address that. Wyden said Congress should pass his legislation increasing resources for investigators and prosecutors (see 2402270069). In addition, Wyden said he agrees child abuse is a “horrible plague on the internet,” and criminals need to be “hunted down and locked up.”