More than 240 groups support the act including the National District Attorneys Association.

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES, February 10, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A new bill called the Earn It Act (Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2022) was just introduced in the Senate.
Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are the sponsors with wide bipartisan support including 21 Senators co-sponsoring the bill.

The bill removes blanket immunity for violations of laws related to online child sexual abuse material (CSAM). It also creates strong incentives for online service providers to deal with online child sexual abuse material on their service.

The Earn It Act establishes a Commission composed of the heads of the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Trade Commission as well as survivors of child sexual exploitation or abuse and groups working on abolishing child sexual exploitation. It also provides avenues for survivors to have civil recourse.

This comes after years of complaints from victims and families about their photos or videos being shown on pornography sites. Repeated unsuccessful attempts have been made by many to have photos removed, while those sites were making thousands of dollars by selling explicit images of children.

Some of these images include rape and torture of children. Unfortunately, there is a big business in such materials and the US is the leading consumer of such pornography in the world.

In a press release issued by Senator Graham’s office, the Senator said, “There are tens of millions of photos and videos circulating throughout the internet, showing the most heinous acts of sexual abuse and torture of children.” He continued, “The EARN IT Act removes Section 230 blanket liability protection from service providers in the area of child sexual abuse material on their sites. To all the victim groups and law enforcement entities urging Congress to do something about the scourge of child sexual abuse material and the exploitation of children on the internet: we hear you. The days of children being exploited on the internet and their families being unable to do anything about it are coming to an end.”

Senator Blumenthal was quoted in that release saying, "The modern internet is infested with stomach-churning images of children who have been brutally assaulted and exploited, and who are haunted by a lifetime of pain after these photographs and videos are circulated online. Tech companies have long had ready access to low-cost, or even free tools to combat the scourge of child sexual abuse material but have failed to act. Millions of these horrifying images go unidentified and unreported by the tech platforms that host them because there are so few consequences when these companies look the other way. That ends with the EARN IT Act.”

The problem comes from various forms of child exploitation and sexual abuse including victims of human trafficking who are then used to create pornographic videos. Other incidents occur with “revenge porn” being circulated by teenagers and then picked up by porn sites who sell it to others. Teenagers sometimes innocently sent an explicit photo to a person they are dating, and it ends up on the internet without consent. They are then unable to get it taken down as the internet sites do not have a legal obligation to take down materials, or so they have argued when confronted with this problem. Criminals also lure children into performing sex acts by threats or coercion.

In 2021, 29.3 million reports were received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about child exploitation videos and/or photos online.

In a briefing on this bill several Jane Does spoke about their experiences with finding their own images online and not being able to get them taken down. Parents also spoke about their fights to have their children’s sexual exploitation photos or videos taken down.

Supporting the bill and urging its passage, the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) said, “Prosecutors are thrilled to once again support the EARN IT Act, a bill that would hold the tech industry accountable for the exploitation of children on their platforms."

Dozens of groups have supported this bill including Rights4Girls, Voices Against Trafficking, Innocents at Risk, Airline Ambassadors, and Youth for Human Rights International.

Youth for Human Rights has held briefings about human trafficking and the connection between trafficking and exploiting children online. They continue to work on educating children about their rights and how to protect themselves against being abused or coerced into any trafficking or exploitation. They join dozens of other groups in supporting the passage of this bill.

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