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Floor Speech
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I feel like I have probably worn the carpet out in this Chamber talking about Big Tech and what happens to our children when they are on different social media platforms, because it seems that repeatedly Big Tech makes the decision to put profit over the safety of our children. We have seen this repeatedly. You look at these big tech companies, and what do they base their valuation on? It is based on the number of eyeballs they bring to their sites and then the data those eyeballs generate, which means you have to scroll for hours and hours on end. Indeed, we know that studies are showing us that teenagers spend as much as 8 hours a day with a phone in their hands--8 hours a day. One of the reasons this happens is because these social media platforms--whether it is Snapchat or TikTok or Instagram-- are designed specifically to addict you. Research has shown this. This addiction fuels depression, eating disorders, and self-harm.
It is astounding to me that you can find videos on how to commit suicide, music to commit suicide to. This is evil, and it is wrong. And we know from research that most kids meet drug traffickers, sex traffickers, predators, pedophiles, perpetrators, sextortionists, groomers--they meet them online. That is where the introduction comes.
I have talked a lot. As I said, I feel like I have worn the carpet out down here talking about what is happening on Facebook and Instagram and Snap and TikTok and Discord and the effect it has on our Nation's precious, precious children. But this also applies to companies that are not big-name companies, that everyone does not yet know about, because this is an issue that goes across all social media sites of all sizes.
There is a site that is especially dangerous for our teens, and it is called Kik, K-I-K. Kik is a messaging app that is very popular with preteens and teens, and the big selling point is that it allows the users to conceal their identities. How about that for a lesson for your children and grandchildren? Let's lie, and then let's cover it up. And your parents probably won't know you are on Kik. You provide no personal information, no profile picture, no verification.
It should come as no surprise that Kik has become a paradise for pedophiles. In fact, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation recently released a report calling it the ``predator's paradise.'' One of the center's researchers created an account, posing to be a 12-year- old girl. So she put it up there to see what would happen--12-year-old girl. Immediately, within seconds--within seconds--this account was flooded with sexual messages from strangers, including nude photos. Most of the messages are too explicit to be repeated here.
I encourage parents to read this report from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. They need to read it and get a sense of just how easy it is for a sexual predator to contact their child.
The danger on this is this: If your child did this and if they put an account up there--it was instant. Instant. And this is something your child cannot unsee. This is why parents need to be aware. So look at that report.
These issues with Kik are not new. For years, the center has documented sexual predators on that platform. In response, Kik claimed that it implemented safety measures to protect children. But how about that? An account set up as a 12-year-old girl--zero protections; immediate, within seconds, responses to that account, to that post, with sexual messages.
The center's latest report lays out what a big lie this is. Kik's policies are actually designed to allow that kind of predatory behavior. Kik purports to be an 18-and-up platform. Yet the app still allows children to connect with strangers through a rebranded stranger- connection tool. And get this: It is called Kik-it. K-I-K-I-T. Kik-it. What this does is it puts a user into a private chat with a stranger.
The center also discovered multiple accounts advertising that they are under age--``im12,'' ``13yearoldgirl,'' and others--but the platform has done absolutely nothing--zero, nothing--to remove these.
Now, Kik says it has implemented sexual content filters. If it has done that, how did this massive number of messages get through within 1 minute--within a minute? So Kik is lying. The 12-year-old test account the center created had the filter turned on. That did not stop her from receiving unsolicited sexual messages and nude photos from strangers.
We have seen this story over and over from Big Tech platforms. They allow predators and criminals to harm our children. They give them that access. They sell them that drug. They ship it in to them. They deliver it to the doorstep.
The 15-year-old girl thinks she is going to meet a 16-year-old boy at the mall, and it turns out to be a 40-year-old man who drugs her, and she loses her life. This is what is happening.
Every time we bring this forward, they promise that they are going to do better, that they are going to make the platform safer, but their reforms are toothless, and they are doing nothing to protect our children. The reason is it would cut into their bottom line. Our children are dollar signs to them, and if they can get away with making an extra buck off of our kids--indeed. We have a couple of the companies that actually assign a dollar value per child, an annual dollar value: They are worth $247 to us, so the more the merrier.
And they don't care. They absolutely don't care.
This is why Congress must send the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act to President Trump's desk. We are very grateful the White House has signaled its support for the duty of care. We can't afford to delay. We need to get this to a vote. Without the duty of care, Big Tech will have no reason to ensure that their platforms are safe for children.
The reason we have to move with the duty of care and safety standards is because every industrial sector in this country has safety standards. You buy a car, a toaster oven, a blanket, dishes--everything has safety standards. The only industrial sector with no duty of care, no safety standards, is the virtual space.
Some people will say: Oh, it is an infringement of free speech, don't you think?
The answer is no. When you have a safety standard on an automobile, they assure you that the automobile is safe to drive. When you get behind the wheel and you get on the road, it is going to be safe to drive. They don't tell you what color to paint the car or what color the upholstery should be or how to drive the car; what they do is to tell you the car is safe to drive.
That is what we are saying about the virtual space. Let's put some safety standards there, a duty of care, so that our children aren't a product, our children aren't a dollar sign; that when our children get on a social media app or get on Google to do some research, they are going to be safe and they are not going to have unwanted videos and material coming at them.
The Kids Online Safety Act has been overwhelmingly popular. It passed out of the Senate 91 to 3 last Congress. This Congress, it has 76 bipartisan cosponsors. Eighty-six percent of Americans say they want tech companies held accountable for what they have done to America's children. I agree.
Big Tech can spend all the millions of dollars it wants trying to kill this legislation. Indeed, last year, they spent about $20 million in a period of a couple of months and hired one lobbyist for every six Members of Congress. So I think they can start to stand with parents that are pleading for help or they can continue being selfish. But eventually, a duty of care and a standard have to be put in place on the social media platforms and on the virtual space.
I think it is time for Congress to choose our Nation's children over the Big Tech lobby and Big Tech's bottom line.
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