Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (“EARN IT Act”) S. 3398

Over 600,000 images/videos of CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) were reported to the National  Center on Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 2008. It was labeled an epidemic.

Eleven years later in 2019, 70,000,000 (70 Million) CSAM images were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The New York Times called it an "almost unfathomable" increase in criminal behavior. 

Enter the EARN IT Act. This act will facilitate creation of best practices to prevent, reduce, and respond to online child sexual abuse material (CSAM); enable online companies to be held civilly liable and subject to state prosecution if they violate child pornography laws; enhance reporting to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC’s) CyberTipline; and modernize language to ensure these crimes are referred to as child sexual abuse, rather than child pornography.

MYTH: “Unfortunately, the bill is not the solution to this serious problem.”

FACT: NCMEC, as national clearinghouse for missing and exploited children for over 36 years, joined by scores of other child advocacy groups would not be supporting EARN IT unless it was a serious part of the solution to online CSAM.

MYTH: “EARN IT also threatens to disincentivize platforms from providing strong encryption....”

FACT: This argument is directed to the first version of the Leahy amendment – now it’s clear that EARN IT (House version) is neutral as to encryption.

Harm to Victims 

• CSAM is documentation of crime. 
• Victims suffer gross physical & psychological harm at  the hands of offenders. They suffer again as harm is endlessly reenacted & circulating. 

Earn It Act Brings Accountability to Bear on Criminality 

• It revokes the immunity from liability with regard to CSAM that ICSs have under CDA230 
• Survivors and state attorneys general will be able to sue tech companies for  facilitating CSAM, using federal civil law and state civil and criminal law. 
• It entails a precise, surgical, socially reposnsible change to CDA230. 
• It creates a new Online Child Exploitation Prevention Commission  

The technology to protect our children from sexual abuse is out there, it's time to put it to work.