Bill against child exploitation arrives to the White House

JACKSON, Tenn. — The REPORT Act is at the White House and awaits the President’s signature.

This bipartisan legislation passed unanimously in both the senate and the house.

This law would toughen the penalties for websites and social media companies that fail to report crimes against children.

“One of the things that it will do is to mandate that social media platforms report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline,” said Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn.

Reports must be made if someone on the platform is displaying sexual child abuse materials.

It will also change the way the information can be transferred to law enforcement.

“The period of time for holding this information was so short that they didn’t always have time to get the predator into court before that window expired,” said Blackburn.

If passed, the law would strengthen the national tip line run by NCMEC to collect reports of online exploitation.

It would also require any evidence to be kept for a longer period of time to give law enforcement more time to investigate and prosecute crimes.

According to NCMEC, in 2023, the tip line received over 36 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation online.

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