PTC Urges Congress to Act Against Big Tech’s Threat to Children
By Movieguide® Contributor
The Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) is asking Congress to help curb online hazards for children ahead of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing with top tech CEOs on Jan. 31.
“Children are marketed to, preyed upon, and used for profit by technology companies,” Melissa Henson, vice president of the Parents Television and Media Council, said in a press release.
“Meta continues to be revealed as fueling child sexual exploitation…Snapchat has been used to ‘lure and sexually exploit children. X/Twitter has struggled to confront its child sexual exploitation problem,” she continued. “These examples continue to pile up. Our children’s health and well-being are at stake.”
Henson notes that social media companies profited over $11 billion from advertising to minors in 2022. She makes the point that if Big Tech profits off of America’s children, then they need to be held accountable when it comes to their potential harm.
“Congress has before it solutions such as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), designed to hold social media companies accountable and establish a duty of care for protecting children online, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), which expands privacy protections to teens and for children under age 13, the EARN IT Act, which would ensure that technology platforms protect children from child sexual abuse material, and other legislation that serves children and families instead of Big Tech interests,” Henson said.
“Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, continues to be revealed by media outlets, whistleblowers and lawsuits as fueling child sexual exploitation, providing a platform for pedophiles, and enabling sexually explicit and other harmful content that targets teens, especially teen girls,” Henson said. “Meta has been sued by the District of Columbia and 41 states, which claim its products are addictive and potentially harmful to children and their mental health.”
PTC acknowledges that Meta recently enforced some helpful child protection rules on its sites but still firmly believes that it and other companies need to be regulated by Congress.
“Congress cannot stand back and keep hoping that Big Tech will do more, be better, or act more responsibly. It is in our nation’s interest to protect future generations while they are still young,” Henson insists. “Congress must hold Big Tech accountable and protect our children, and we urge Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to schedule these bills for a vote immediately.”
Henson recently released an article that went into more detail about how Hollywood and Big Tech get around parents to deliver explicit content to kids.
“We are talking about programs such as EUPHORIA, SEX EDUCATION and PEN15, which carry TV-MA ratings and are not for children or teens,” She said.
Movieguide® previously reported:
The PTC President Tim Winter told the Christian Post:
“Instead of children just being collateral damage in the way of whatever explicit content they want to deliver to adults, Hollywood now seems to be directly marketing some of the most explicit stuff to children.” He continued, “It has never been more difficult as a parent to monitor your children’s media consumption then right now, today.”
Last summer, the Federal Communication Commission released a report that solidified the PTC’s concern about the rating system, which is outdated and doesn’t account for streaming services.
Winter said, “FCC publicly confirmed what the PTC has been saying for years about the TV content rating system and its inaccuracies, inconsistencies and lack of oversight in really serving the needs of parents as opposed to protecting the financial interests of Hollywood.”
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