February 23, 2023

EIE is fighting for the Safety of Kids Online at Recent Senate Hearings!

Breaking.... Donna's interview with Dr. Tim Clinton, co-host of "Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk," will air nationwide Friday, February 24, 2023. The segment, titled, "Enough is Enough: Let's Stop the Threat of Porn to Our Children," can be heard here on Friday, February 24 or on the Family Talk app! We hope you will tune in!

Enough Is Enough^®® Leadership is Advocating for Stonger Policy and Laws to Protect Children from Online Sexual Exploitation

Enough Is Enough^® (EIE) leadership took part in two separate hearings last week calling for greater accountability and more aggressive laws to protect children online.

EIE CEO and President Donna Rice Hughes testified before the North Dakota State Legislature’s Senate Judiciary Committee last Tuesday in an important hearing titled "Solving a Public Health Crisis: The Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Children." The hearing focused on protecting children from obscene pornography found online and in school library books.

Below are a few excerpts from Donna's testimony:

"The continuous invasion of graphic, hard-core online pornography, prosecutable under U.S. federal obscenity law, has been called the “largest unregulated social experiment in human history”. Any child with unrestricted Internet access is just a click away from viewing prosecutable obscenity (hard-core extreme content depicting graphic sex acts, rape, strangulation and violence) and even material depicting the sexual abuse or rape of a child (child sexual abuse material), found only on the black-market pre-internet. It not a matter of if, but when a child will be exposed to this content."
The corroding influence of internet pornography as a public health crisis is backed by peer-reviewed social and medical science. Its harmful impact upon the emotional, mental and sexual health of young children, tweens and teens continue to worsen. As such, nearly 17 states have either passed or adopted public health crisis resolutions, recognizing the many levels of harmful effects upon individuals and society, as well as the need for education, research, prevention, and policy change.

A link to Donna's written testimony can be found here.

The entire hearing/testimony can be viewed here.

We're grateful to ND State Senator Keith Boehm (District 33) for his leadership on SB2360, key legislation to curb the threat of our children accessing obscene materials, whether online or in a public place.

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

"Protecting Our Children Online"

EIE's Kathy Hatem (Dir. of Communications) and Bill Woolf (Dir. of Policy and Programs) attended the Feb. 14 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing "Protecting Our Children Online" in Washington, D.C., to support legislative action holding Big Tech accountable for harms faced by youth consumers of social media.

The mental health impact of social media on adolescence was discussed during the hearing, along with topics including proposed age limits and other regulations for social media, child data usage, online drugs and sex trafficking, and changing/eliminating Section 230, a provision of the Communications Decency Act which allows social media companies to avoid liability for shared content online.

"..the American consumer is virtually unprotected from adverse effects of social media."

- Senator Graham (R-SC)

"Big tech has relentlessly, ruthlessly pumped up profits by purposefully exploiting kids and parent’s pain."

- Senator Blumenthal (D-CT)

Kristin Bride, the mother of Carson Bride, who in 2020 tragically took his life at the age of 16 after being relentlessly cyberbullied on Snapchat, declared the following to the committee at the conclusion of the hearing:

"...it should not take grieving parents filing lawsuits to change what's happening because it's too late for us" (referring to impact of CDA 230)... "It is so difficult to tell our stories of the very worst day of our lives over and over and over again and not see change..." ... "we're done with the hearings, done with the stories, we are looking to you all for action..."

The entire hearing can be viewed here

Kristin, we agree with you and rest assured, EIE will never stop fighting for children's protection and safety on the internet.

EIE continues to advocate for the reintroduction and passage of the EARN IT Act, The Kids Online Safety Act, and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (also known as COPPA 2.0), bi-partisan legislation designed to protect children on the internet. EIE is also working with the FY23 Congress to advance hearings and key policies to prioritize the prevention of the online exploitation of children. It's time our leaders turn words into action!

Please continue to follow our progress at Enough Is Enough^® and share this information with your friends and colleagues. Finally, won't you consider Funding the Fight to protect children online by making your most generous donation now? Our work is not possible without your support! Thank you in advance!