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Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Child sexual abuse material is a toxic plague on the internet. There are real victims who need support and criminals who have to be hunted down and locked up. I don't take a back seat to anybody when it comes to helping kids and punishing predators.

Last Congress, Senator Durbin and I compromised on a different version of this bill and agreed to let that version pass by unanimous consent.

Let me say that again. Last Congress, we reached agreement on a version of this bill that could have passed unanimously.

Today, to my regret, the sponsors have chosen to abandon those negotiations and instead are seeking to advance what I consider to be a dangerous bill that would make internet users unsafe. That is because the bill would weaken the single strongest technology that protects kids and families online. That is strong encryption. It will make it easier to punish sites using encryption to secure private conversations and personal devices.

While STOP CSAM sponsors claim that their bill does not target encryption, the bill explicitly allows courts to punish companies that offer strong encryption. It also would encourage scanning of content on users' phones or computers before information is sent over the internet, which has, in my view, the same consequences as breaking encryption.

Weakening encryption and other security technologies is the single biggest gift that can be given to the predators and dangerous criminals who want to stalk and spy on kids. Sexual predators will have a far easier time stealing and extorting photographs of children, tracking their phones, and spying on their private messages when encryption is breached.

Doing so threatens the privacy and security of every single law- abiding American.

I heard some talk about who supports the bill. Let me tell you who supports the bill. It is Big Tech. Google and X have endorsed that. Let me repeat that. Google and X have endorsed this bill. It is the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union who oppose it.

This is really about who are you for. I am here for women who depend on encryption to seek reproductive healthcare information. I am here for journalists reporting on sensitive stories in places where their messages could be intercepted and used against them. I am here for kids and teenagers seeking information about immigration laws as Donald Trump continues a brutal crackdown.

The key to better protecting kids online is to do what is effective, not what only sounds effective. Congress ought to focus our energy on giving law enforcement officials the tools they need to find and prosecute criminals responsible for exploiting children and spreading vile abuse materials online and to help prevent children from becoming victims in the first place. I repeatedly have given that support to prosecutors and law enforcement officials to do more to protect kids from being exploited.

I remain open to revisiting conversations with the bill's sponsors to get back to a version that doesn't make the internet less safe. We did find a compromise in the last Congress, and I want to say to my longtime friend Senator Durbin and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle that I am willing to work together to find another such compromise.

I urge, for example, my colleagues to support my bipartisan Invest in Kids' Safety Act, which I will shortly reintroduce. The bill would direct $5 billion in mandatory funding to do three things: one, give law enforcement agencies the tools and personnel they need to catch the predators who create and spread CSAM; two, fund community-based programs to prevent at-risk kids from becoming victims in the first place; and three, invest in programs to support survivors of abuse.

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