{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-delivers-opening-statement-in-judiciary-committee-hearing-on-protecting-kids-online", "Durbin Delivers Opening Statement In Judiciary Committee Hearing On Protecting Kids Online", "2025-12-09", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "IL", "Richard J. Durbin", "D000563", "www.durbin.senate.gov", "durbin", "https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "During his opening statement, Durbin commented on his STOP CSAM Act, legislation that would crack down on the proliferation of child sexual abuse material online\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered opening remarks in today\u2019s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled \u201cProtecting Our Children Online Against the Evolving Offender.\u201d During his opening, Durbin highlighted his STOP CSAM Act, bipartisan legislation that would crack down on the proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online by allowing victims to sue companies that host this material, among other things. The Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced this legislation earlier this year.\n\nIn 2021, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a total of 139 CyberTips involving financially-motivated sextortion. In the first six months of 2025 alone, there have already been 23,593 financial-sextortion CyberTips. Another disturbing trend is a rise in offenders who do not just view or trade images of abuse, but direct real-time torture, encourage escalating violence, and groom children to produce CSAM and self-harm videos of themselves and others. NCMEC has identified this behavior as \u201csadistic online exploitation.\u201d In the first six months of 2025, NCMEC received 1,093 sadistic exploitation reports\u2014double the number from the same period in 2024.\n\nKey Quotes:\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s have a sense of urgency about what we are setting out to do. I have worked with Senator Hawley and many others\u2014survivors, law enforcement, [and] advocates\u2014to put together the STOP CSAM Act. The bill takes a comprehensive approach to stemming the tide of online child exploitation.\u201d\n\n\u201cI have repeatedly said that we must bring the same urgency to protecting kids in the virtual world that we do in the real world. But the landscape of online child exploitation has changed dramatically by the day. Two trends in particular demand our immediate attention: financially-motivated sextortion and sadistic online exploitation. What was once rare is now an epidemic.\u201d\n\n\u201cNCMEC has identified more than 36 young men in the United States who have died by suicide after being sextorted. We are joined today by one of those families. Mrs. [Tamia] Woods, thank you for being here. She lost her son James at 17-years-old after he was targeted. She is here in a courageous capacity\u2014transforming unbearable loss into a call for action.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is an unsuitable systemic failure, and what are we going to do about it? We are going to have a hearing, we are going to call witnesses, we are going to lament the situation. What are we going to do about it? Is there going to be a bill in the new session? To say that we are so overwhelmed with legislation on the floor [and] we don't have time [to address CSAM] is a joke\u2026 We have more than enough time to do it right. This Committee has a history of tackling tough issues. Mr. Chairman, it is up to you and me and Senators on both sides of the aisle to make it happen.\u201d\n\nVideo of Durbin\u2019s opening statement is available here.\n\nAudio of Durbin\u2019s opening statement is available here.\n\nFootage of Durbin\u2019s opening statement is available here for TV Stations.\n\nDurbin has used his role on the Senate Judiciary Committee to prioritize child safety online through hearings, legislation, and oversight efforts. On January 31, 2024, while Durbin was serving as Chair, the Committee held a hearing featuring testimony from the CEOs of social media companies Discord, Meta, Snap, TikTok, and X (formerly known as Twitter). This hearing highlighted the ongoing risk to children and the immediate need for Congress to act on the bipartisan bills reported by the Committee.\n\nIn addition, Durbin\u2019s bipartisan Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024 (DEFIANCE Act) passed the Senate in July 2024. The legislation would hold accountable those responsible for the proliferation of nonconsensual, sexually-explicit \u201cdeepfake\u201d images and videos. The volume of \u201cdeepfake\u201d content available online is increasing exponentially as the technology used to create it has become more accessible to the public. The overwhelming majority of this material is sexually explicit and being produced without the consent of the person depicted.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-delivers-opening-statement-in-judiciary-committee-hearing-on-protecting-kids-online"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.531281905248761, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}