EARN IT Act 2020

NCMEC has issued the following letter of support to Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal for their legislation, the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2020 (EARN IT Act of 2020).

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Dear Senators Graham and Blumenthal: 

On behalf of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the children and families we serve, I am writing to express our support for your legislation, the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2020 (EARN IT Act of 2020). 

For over twenty years, NCMEC has been at the forefront of the battle against online child sexual exploitation and has witnessed the escalating volume of horrifying images and videos of online child sexual abuse. From 1998 to the present date, NCMEC's CyberTipline, the national mechanism for the public and electronic service providers (ESPs) to report child sexual exploitation, has handled over 64.5 million reports relating to child sexual abuse material. Just last year, NCMEC received more than 16.9 million CyberTipline reports containing over 69 million images, videos, and other content related to suspected child sexual exploitation. 

NCMEC supports the EARN IT Act because it provides ESPs with a roadmap to adopt specific, consistent best practices developed by industry and subject matter experts to prevent, reduce, and respond to the online sexual exploitation of children. Currently, there is no incentive for ESPs to utilize consistent best practices across all of their platforms and, as a result, children are sexually exploited and endangered online by predators who circulate images of their sexual abuse across the internet and around the world. 

This legislation also recognizes the grievous impact of online child sex trafficking and grooming of children for sexual abuse and the need to ensure ESPs report these crimes to the CyberTipline. Finally, this legislation achieves a long sought-after measure to replace the term "child pornography" with "child sexual abuse material" throughout the criminal code. NCMEC strongly supports this legislative measure because child sexual abuse material most accurately reflects what is depicted in these images - the rape and sexual abuse of children. 

NCMEC is proud to lend our support to this important legislation. Thank you for your leadership and continued dedication to the safety of our nation's children. 

Sincerely,

John F. Clark
President and CEO