Tech CEOs Grilled On Child Safety Measures At Senate Hearing

The chief executives of social media companies Meta, X, TikTok, Snap, and Discord faced tough questions on their efforts to combat online child sexual exploitation at a US Senate hearing on Wednesday.

The witnesses included Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X CEO Linda Yaccarino, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Discord CEO Jason Citron.

At the hearing, Senator Dick Durbin, Judiciary Committee Chair, highlighted a sharp rise in financial "sextortion" of minors last year, based on National Center for Missing and Exploited Children data.

Linda Yaccarino, who leads X, mentioned the establishment of a content moderation center in Austin, Texas. She emphasised X's support for the STOP CSAM Act.

TikTok CEO Chew outlined safety measures, such as disabling direct messaging for accounts under 16 and automatically setting them to private.

In written testimony, Zuckerberg highlighted Meta's introduction of features for parents and teens, including controls enabling parents to set limits on their children's usage of Meta's services.

Snap, the creator of the Snapchat messaging app, expressed its support for the Kids Online Safety Act, potentially paving the way for increased legal action against tech firms that suggest harmful content to young users.

Discord CEO Citron stressed the urgent responsibility to protect platform users from online and offline criminals, acknowledging the potential for exploitation and abuse on their platforms.