Hirono, lawmakers grill social media CEOs amid child exploitation crisis
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - As social media continues to grow the prevalence of child exploitation, mental health issues and addiction are also on the rise.
Adolescents have been reporting poor mental health among many other issues, potentially stemming from social media. And parents say the platforms aren’t doing enough to protect youth from harm.
Congressmembers believe the social media giants have failed to police themselves at the expense of the youth.
On Monday, the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X, Discord and Snapchat went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify.
In the heated Senate hearing on child exploitation, lawmakers grilled the top tech executives with one claiming “you have blood on your hands.”
Parents also testified, saying their children were harmed or even took their own life because of online exploitation, cyberbullying and possibly body dysmorphia.
Some of the social media giant CEO’s apologized for the suffering their platforms caused to families.
But still, parents and children’s advocates stressed that none of the companies are doing enough to prevent it.
During the hearing, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) spoke about former Schofield soldier Christopher Ernest Fox.
He was sentenced in 2018 to 15 years in prison for his online exploitation and sextortion of a 12-year-old girl who he began communicating with through Instagram.
Sen. Hirono asked Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to report the number of underage children on his company’s platforms who experience unwanted messaging that could harm them.
“We’re not gonna have to count how many people there are, because fundamentally, if we identify that someone is underage, we remove them from...,” said Zuckerberg.
Hirono interjected and said: “I think that’s really important that we get actual numbers, because these are real human beings that’s why all these parents and others are here.”
Hirono added that she believes it should be mandatory for teens to remain on the most restrictive privacy and content sensitivity settings.
Watch the full committee hearing by clicking here.
Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.