Senate proposal on child exploitation fuels fears of encryption regulation

Privacy advocates fear that a new Senate proposal aimed at combating the exploitation of children would lead to new government rules that weaken encryption protections for internet users.

The Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act, draft legislation circulated by Sens. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, would establish the National Commission on Online Child Exploitation Prevention to develop best practices for preventing online child pornography. The proposal would encourage websites to follow these best practices by weakening a 24-year-old law that generally protects websites from lawsuits related to content posted by their users.