Take Action To Protect Children: Ask Your Congresspeople To Co-Sponsor The EARN IT Act
A companion bill to the EARN IT Act currently in the Senate was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Sylvia Garcia and Ann Wagner. This bipartisan legislation will confront the explosion of online child sexual abuse material and help hold tech companies accountable to report the sexual abuse of children online.
Join us in speaking out against the online exploitation by contacting your Members of Congress and asking them to support the EARN IT Act. Suggested language is below:
“Dear Senator/Representative XXXX,
I am writing to urge you to support the EARN IT Act sponsored by your colleagues Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Representative Sylvia Garcia, and Representative Ann Wagner. The explosion of online crimes against the most vulnerable is an epidemic. In 2018, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported over 45,000,000 images of child sex abuse materials exist. This appalling number will only increase if swift action is not taken.
BACKGROUND:
At the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, there were 4 million reports of internet crimes against children. That nearly doubled in April.
On July 2, with unanimous bipartisan support, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 22-0 to strengthen this critical bill.
The proposed EARN IT legislation revokes immunity that interactive computer services claimed under the Communications Decency Act, section 230 so survivors (and the 50 states) will be able to sue those who cause harm via online platforms, using federal civil law, and state criminal and civil law.
EARN IT invites tech accountability through a new commission to issue guidelines to limit sex trafficking, grooming, and exploitation of children online.
The time for standards of accountability is overdue when one of the largest tech companies in the world reported only 8 instances of CSAM while smaller peers provided over 1 million reports -- EARN IT can help.
Tech says they care about protecting children, this bill will be bad for protecting children, and tech should write the policy, not the experts in child protection.
There is a fundamental unaddressed problem that every time the child victim's images circulate, the child is re-exploited.
Proponents of EARN IT are not opponents of privacy or encryption as tech indicates; the purpose of this bill is solely about fostering accountability and protecting children who cannot protect themselves from sexual exploitation on their platforms.
The bill has been endorsed by nonprofits that have been working for decades on this issue, including ECPAT-USA, the leading anti-child trafficking organization in the United States seeking to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children through awareness, advocacy, policy, and legislation. As your constituent, I urge you to support this vitally important legislation.”
A full copy of the EARN IT Act can be found here. And you can learn more about our work with legislators here.
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