As the Senate Judiciary Committee calls the CEOs of some of the industry’s largest platforms to testify, the question is not whether the internet can be safe for children. It is whether tech companies, policymakers, and child safety advocates are moving fast enough to ensure that it is.
Almost all American teenagers are online daily, and the attempts to exploit them and younger children are persistent. Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 21 million reports related to suspected child exploitation, the vast majority generated by platforms proactively detecting and disrupting abuse.
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These crimes are not confined to one platform. Bad actors operate across multiple platforms with harder-to-detect tactics. They may groom and deceive on one service, share images on another, and monetize on a third, exploiting gaps between detection protocols.
WHY IS IT SO HARD TO PERSUADE LAWMAKERS TO PROTECT CHILDREN ONLINE?
No single company can see the full picture. This fragmented visibility is a bad actor’s greatest asset. Working with Google, Meta, Snap, TikTok, and other companies to close vulnerability gaps and strengthen the systems combatting online child exploitation, I see this reality every day.
This hearing offers a chance to assess progress made and consider how industry and lawmakers together can strengthen the infrastructure that protects children.
One powerful tool is Lantern, a cross-platform program where companies voluntarily share signals of abuse and threats. Since launching in 2023, companies in Lantern have shared over 2 million signals relating to online child sexual abuse, supporting enforcement actions against over 350,000 accounts, URLs, and pieces of content.
In one case, a Meta investigation identified a child exploitation money trail that suggested a coordinated network. Meta disabled the accounts and shared signals through Lantern. These signals enabled Block to identify a network of Cash App accounts connected to suspected CSAM transactions, and Microsoft to take action on connected Xbox accounts. This activity was reported to law enforcement through NCMEC, contributing to investigations that resulted in multiple arrests.
This coordination is critical as the threat landscape rapidly evolves. As Congress considers how to stop bad actors from exploiting children online, two threats in particular demand a response that outpaces the offenders themselves.
The first is generative AI. AI tools have lowered the barrier to produce abusive material at scale, generate grooming scripts, and impersonate trusted adults. AI-related signals shared through Lantern jumped 17-fold last year, often tied to “nudify” and undressing apps.
Responsible AI companies have built safeguards so that their platforms will not generate abusive imagery, and many companies are using AI detection tools to identify threats faster.
The second threat is financial sextortion, where offenders coerce victims into producing content and demand payment to suppress it. Financial institutions can play a critical role in disrupting these schemes, but only if they receive actionable intelligence from platforms where the attempted abuse originates.
Congress has rightly elevated online child safety as a bipartisan priority. But the Senate hearing should reinforce an important reality: no company, sector, or policymaker can solve this challenge alone. Bad actors exploit the seams between platforms, sectors, and standards. The response must be equally coordinated.
THE KIDS ACT TREATS EVERYONE LIKE A KID
The internet was built to create connections, but it must also be designed for protection. Since the last CEO hearing on child safety in 2024, meaningful progress has been made to strengthen systems across the industry. But progress does not mean the problem is solved. Stronger foundations are being built to prevent, detect, and disrupt abuse at scale, and that work must continue.
For every child online today, the measure of this industry will not be the launch of the next generation of products, but how urgently and collectively it acts to stay ahead of those seeking to exploit them.
Sean Litton is CEO of the Tech Coalition, which unites the global tech industry to protect children from online sexual exploitation and abuse. It represents platforms used by billions of people worldwide.
