The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (S.1207 / H.R.2732) is a bipartisan bill that would confront the explosion of online child sexual abuse material, incentivize companies to create a safer online environment and help bring an end to online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC). 

This legislation can be a beginning for achieving justice for victims, and can be a step forward in offering some level of addressing online exploitation and trafficking of children.

The EARN IT Act does several key things:  

1. Clarifies there is no immunity for social media and technology companies that knowingly facilitate the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). 
2. Gives victims a path to justice and the possibility of restoring their privacy.
3. Updates existing federal statutes to replace “child pornography” with the more accurate term “child sexual abuse material” (CSAM). This content is crime scene documentation; “child pornography” fails to convey the seriousness of the abuse. 
4. Allows the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to update its tools. 

The Senate version has a significant additional component:  

5. Establishes the National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention, made up of survivors, technology representatives, civil rights experts, and other stakeholders. The commission must develop best practices for interactive computer services providers (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) to prevent, reduce, and respond to the online sexual exploitation of children—including enticement for sex trafficking.  

The Strengthening Transparency and Obligations to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment Act (S. 1199) is a comprehensive approach to close gaps in the law and crack down on the proliferation of child sex abuse material online.

This bill expands protections for child victims and witnesses in federal court; facilitates restitution for victims of child exploitation, human trafficking, sexual assault, and crimes of violence; and empowers victims by making it easier for them to ask tech companies to remove child sexual abuse material and related imagery from their platforms and by creating an administrative penalty for the failure to comply with a removal request. 

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H.R. 5856 reauthorizes several programs that prevent trafficking in persons, which are managed by the Departments of Justice (DOJ), Health and Human Services (HHS), Homeland Security (DHS), and State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development over the 2024-2028 period.

The Kids Online Safety Act (S. 1409) is a bipartisan bill providing young people and parents with the tools, safeguards, and transparency they need to protect against online harms. The bill requires social media platforms to put the well-being of children first by providing an environment that is safe by default.

This bill sets out requirements to protect minors from online harms.  The requirements apply to covered platforms, which are applications or services (e.g., social networks) that connect to the internet and are likely to be used by minors. However, the bill exempts internet service providers, email services, educational institutions, and other specified entities from the requirements.

Covered platforms must take reasonable measures in the design and operation of products or services used by minors to prevent and mitigate certain harms that may arise from that use (e.g., sexual exploitation and online bullying).  Additionally, covered platforms must provide (1) minors with certain safeguards, such as settings that restrict access to minors’ personal data; and (2) parents or guardians with tools to supervise minors’ use of a platform, such as control of privacy and account settings.

Covered platforms must also:

• disclose specified information, including details regarding the use of personalized recommendation systems and individual-specific advertising to minors;
• allow parents, guardians, minors, and schools to report certain harms;
• refrain from facilitating advertising of age-restricted products or services (e.g., tobacco and gambling) to minors; and
• annually report on foreseeable risks of harm to minors from using the platform.

The Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution Act (S. 412/H.R. 3686) is a bipartisan bill that addresses the devastating impact of the nonconsensual distribution of explicit images online. The SHIELD Act will benefit child victims by criminalizing the distribution of visual depictions of a nude minor in instances where the images are exploitative, but do not meet the legal definition of sexually explicit conduct that constitutes child pornography.

This bill makes it a crime to knowingly mail or distribute (or attempt or threaten to distribute):

• an intimate visual depiction of an individual with knowledge of the individual’s lack of consent, where what is depicted was not voluntarily exposed by the individual in a public or commercial setting, and where what is depicted is not a matter of public concern; or
• a visual depiction of a nude minor with the intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, or degrade the minor or to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.

A violator is subject to criminal penalties—a fine, a prison term of up to five years, or both—and mandatory restitution. Violators must also forfeit any material involved in the offense, property constituting or derived from the proceeds from the offense, and property used to commit or facilitate the offense.