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

4/1/2025

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.

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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.

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

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