Harshbarger Asks Witness How Platforms Can ‘Better Identify’ Bad Actors Posing As Children Online

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During a House Energy Committee hearing on examining harms online last week, Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) questioned Yiota Souras, the chief legal officer at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, about online securities practices to protect children.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00I thank the gentlelady. The gentlelady yields back. Now I recognize Ms. Harshberger

00:05from the great state of Tennessee for her five minutes of questioning.

00:10Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank the witnesses for being here today. I want to

00:15thank you for speaking up for our kids. You know, if the examples against

00:20innocent children that you provided in your testimony do not give us members a

00:26righteous anger about this issue, then we better, we just better check our very

00:30soul. And as a parent, and I know there's parents in the audience who have gone

00:36through this, and I am so sorry for you because it could happen to anybody. Don't

00:41ever think that you are exempt from this happening. Young people, you listen. If you

00:47read the testimony of what happened to these children, you probably wouldn't

00:51let them online or you probably wouldn't get online. You know, as a parent, you try

00:55to make sure your child's safe and kept away from harm, but it's very clear as

01:01technology continues to accelerate just how difficult it is to protect your kids

01:08from these predators. And if you, listen, if they're sick, depraved, possessed, and

01:15dangerous criminals are what they are. And if you really, really want to know

01:19what I think they should do with these once law enforcement catches one, then

01:23you see me after this hearing is over, and I'll be happy to tell you what I

01:28think. I want to start with Ms. Soros. Your very powerful testimony gave

01:34horrifying accounts of children being preyed upon by adult sex offenders. With

01:40the data already available, how can platforms better identify users who are

01:44posing as children? Thank you for the question. In every other industry, there

01:50is a concept of know your customer. It's what provides safety and compliance, and

01:55that simply does not exist online. It does not exist for social media

01:58companies. So, you know, that is certainly first and foremost. They need to

02:03know who is getting online, how they are registering, if they are representing

02:06themselves truthfully, whether they're an adult, whether they're a teenager. We've

02:10seen in some of these sex torture cases that individuals are creating profiles,

02:14you know, grown men, adult men are creating profiles indicating that they

02:17are 15, 16 year old girl. They're allowed to post photos and create a whole

02:21persona online that to a child, especially a child who's very trusting,

02:26who's only been online for a few years, seems very authentic. So, you know, I

02:31would definitely say they need to know their customer. There needs to be

02:34transparency reporting around how social media platforms are accomplishing that

02:39task, and there also needs to be age assurance. I think all of us have touched

02:43on that issue a little bit, that there's still a lot to be determined around how

02:47best to effectuate that, but we need to create spaces for children online that

02:52are safe. You know, we allow children to get online, have private conversations

02:5724 hours a day with whoever is online, exchange content, videos, and images. We

03:03would never allow that in real life. So, we need to, we need to understand the

03:08environment and we need to work together to accomplish that. Do you think this

03:12information could prove an asset for parents monitoring their child's online

03:17activity to ensure they're interacting with their peers and not some sick,

03:21perverted monster who deserves to be locked up until Judgment Day? Absolutely.

03:28I think all of us, you know, agree that parents play a role here, but tech

03:32companies need to meet them, I would say, more than halfway. They need to provide

03:35tools that are comprehensible, that are easy, that are accurate, and they need to

03:39provide transparency so parents actually understand how the algorithms work and

03:43how the apps work. You know, it's sad to say, though, that, you know, I interacted

03:49with middle schoolers and taught Sunday school for 24 years, and I used to say it

03:52was a fatherless society, but it's a parentless society in a lot of ways, and

03:57some of those children don't always have a parent who will protect them. I

04:01understand that the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children and Law

04:06Enforcement are interested in prioritizing quality of reports over

04:10quantity, and that one thing that's helped with that is bundling of reports.

04:15Could you tell us a little bit why that's so important, and how could we

04:18encourage more companies to do that? Absolutely. So the process of receiving

04:23cyber tip-line reports at NCMEC, really, if I can just give a brief

04:28explanation, we operate the online reporting mechanism for reports

04:33regarding child sexual exploitation. So we are flooded with tens of millions of

04:37reports from social media companies, and then we provide those reports to law

04:41enforcement around the world, but, of course, domestically, federal, and state,

04:44local law enforcement. There has been, really, I would say an issue in recent

04:50years, as companies are increasing the volume of reports, that reports that are

04:54really related regarding the same image, regarding the same incident, regarding

04:58the same time frame, have been reported one by one as separate reports. That

05:04creates a tremendous burden for law enforcement. So we were very gratified

05:08this year that Meta, which is one of the larger reporters, it is certainly one of

05:13the larger social media companies, agreed to start bundling incidents that are

05:17related. It reduces the work burden and the time that law

05:22enforcement has to consume on those reports. Okay, very good, and I think I'm

05:26over my time, so I yield back.

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