Biden signs bill to protect children from online sexual abuse and exploitation

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On April 29, Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-SC) proposed a bipartisan bill to protect children from online sexual exploitation.

President Biden officially signed the REPORT Act into law on Tuesday. This is the first time that websites and social media platforms are required by law to report federal child trafficking, solicitation, and enticement crimes to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) CyberTipline.

Under the new law, companies that deliberately fail to report child abuse material on their website will face a hefty fine. For platforms with more than 100 million users, for example, a first-time offense would result in a fine of $850,000. To ensure that urgent threats of child sexual exploitation are carefully and thoroughly investigated by law enforcement, the law requires evidence to be retained for a longer period of time, which can be up to a year instead of just 90 days.

The NCMEC faces challenges investigating the millions of child sexual abuse reports it receives each year because it is understaffed and uses outdated technology. Although the new law cannot completely solve the problem, it is expected to make the assessment of reports more efficient, for example by allowing data to be legally stored on commercial cloud computing services.

“Children are increasingly looking at screens, and the reality is that this is putting more innocent children at risk of online exploitation,” Senator Blackburn said in a statement. “I am honored to join Senator Ossoff and Representative Laurel Lee in advocating for this bipartisan solution to protect vulnerable children and hold perpetrators of these heinous crimes accountable. I also appreciate the unwavering partnership of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in bringing this project across the finish line.”