Enough is enough. The next president must protect children from online exploitation

By Dean Grigg, Op-ed contributor Monday, November 04, 2024

"Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked" (Psalm 82:3-4 ESV).

On Nov. 5, Americans will elect a new president. As we prepare to do so, it is obvious many issues divide our nation.

Yet, as I prepare to vote like many of you, I am convinced that one issue exists on which we all, including our presidential candidates, must agree. In fact, protecting the innocent and vulnerable is more than an obligation. It is a command from God.

Safeguarding children from the dangers of online exploitation must be of utmost importance under the next president, which is why Enough Is Enough (EIE), a national, non-partisan, nonprofit organization that has been a leading voice in the fight to protect children and families from online exploitation since 1994, is asking both presidential candidates to sign the 2024 Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge (the “Pledge”).

This bi-partisan Pledge, which is supported by over 60 organizations representing millions of concerned Americans, including survivors, calls upon both candidates to prioritize the online safety of America’s children if elected by:

1. Upholding the rule of law by ensuring aggressive enforcement and funding of existing federal laws and advancing sound public policies to prevent the online exploitation and abuse of children.

2. Directing the surgeon general to undertake investigations to address the public health risks of the online exploitation and abuse of minor children.

3. Considering the creation of a bipartisan presidential commission to examine the links between obscene pornography, child sexual abuse material, online exploitation and sex trafficking and make recommendations to the administration and Congress.

4. Advancing bipartisan legislation requiring internet technology services and platforms to improve safety measures, policies, tools and reporting mechanisms and promote voluntary efforts.

5. Considering the creation of a White House position of children’s internet safety director to oversee the president's domestic policy on children’s internet safety issues, and;

6. Supporting bipartisan congressional efforts to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

Unfortunately, no child is immune to the dangers of online exploitation. With the explosion of the internet, the ever-increasing use of smartphones, laptops and other devices, evolving social media and gaming platforms, and the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence, children are increasingly vulnerable to the impact of near-unfettered access to explicit and harmful online content.

Parents, caregivers, and law enforcement are often overwhelmed, uninformed and ill-equipped to combat these evils. A 2018 study published by the National Institutes of Health suggests that only about 26% of child sex abuse cases are disclosed to adults and only 12% are ever reported to law enforcement. Inconsistency in reporting, limited resources, an unwillingness to enforce existing laws, and the lack of corporate accountability has allowed criminals and technological companies alike to profit from the exploitation of children.

In its 2023 CyberTipline® Report, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) documented over 36 million reports of suspected online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) containing more than 105 million images, pictures, videos and other files. Sixty three percent of the images involved children younger than 8 years old, including toddlers and infants. In 2022, the Internet Watch Foundation reported in its MIT Tech Review that the United States now hosts more CSAM than any other country, accounting for 30% of the global total of identified CSAM.

As consumption of CSAM increases, so does a predator’s desire to make direct contact with children. NCMEC’s 2023 CyberTipline® Report further showed that from 2021 to 2023, online enticement of children increased by more than 300%.

Consider further that according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) human trafficking has become one of the fastest growing illicit enterprises in the world, generating an estimated $190 billion per year. In 2021, the ILO estimated that 50 million people live in modern-day slavery worldwide.

An estimated 28 million people are living in forced labor, which includes sex trafficking. The ILO further estimated that 1 in 8 of those living in forced labor are children, with more than half of those being commercially sexually exploited. According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, less than 1% of human trafficking victims are actually identified and reported.

Not only must the criminal threat of online childhood exploitation be addressed by the next administration but also the resulting mental health crisis that is plaguing America’s youth.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently stated that the potential risks of harm to the mental health and well-being of children from the use of social media is the “defining public health challenge of our times.”

A 2022 Pew Research Center Report showed that 95% of 13- to 17-year-olds use social media. A similar study in 2020 from the Cybersmile Foundation found that 46% of children aged 12 to 16 feel they are addicted to their smartphones; while a year earlier JAMA Psychiatry concluded in this 2019 study that children who spend more than three hours per day on social media are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, aggression and other antisocial behaviors.

Answering the call to action to protect the innocent, vulnerable and oppressed from Psalm 82 will take all of us: parents, corporations, community leaders, and every level of government, including our next president. We must act now, or we will lose an entire generation of children to these evils.

Enough Is Enough and its allies proudly stand together to defend our children; and we collectively call upon Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump to sign this bipartisan Pledge and stand with us. Concerned Americans can join us in urging the candidates to sign the Pledge by signing our petition here.

Dean Grigg is EIE’s Director of Government and Law Enforcement Relations and former Assistant Attorney General in South Carolina. Learn more at https://enough.org/ and https://internetsafety101.org/.