In today’s video, we bring you an important and thought-provoking speech from Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) as he addresses the Senate floor regarding the STOP CSAM Act. Senator Wyden passionately discusses the critical issue of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and the need to protect children and families. However, he raises significant concerns about the potential impact of the bill on strong encryption, which is vital for securing private conversations and personal devices.

Transcript:

President, I very much share the stated goals of the Stop CSAM Act. Child sexual abuse material is a toxic plague on the internet. There are real victims who need real support and criminals who must be hunted down and locked up. I take a back seat to no one when it comes to helping kids and punishing predators. However, this bill would weaken the single strongest technology that now protects children and families: strong encryption. It will make it easier to punish sites that use encryption to secure private conversations and personal devices. While Stop CSAM Act sponsors have argued that the bill does not target encryption, the bill explicitly allows courts to punish companies that offer strong encryption. It also would encourage scanning of content on users’ phones or computers before information is sent over the internet, which has the same consequences as breaking encryption.

Weakening encryption is probably the single biggest gift that you can give to the predators and the monsters who want to stalk and spy on kids. Sexual predators will have a far easier time stealing and extorting photographs from children, tracking their phones, and spying on their private messages once encryption is breached. Doing so threatens the privacy and security of every single law-abiding American. I also think it’s surprising that the senator is asking to pass the bill at the very same time this bill’s sponsor is reportedly circulating an updated version of the bill with a number of changes. Although that new version of the legislation has not been made public, it would certainly be a mistake to pass legislation that is apparently still in the process of being revised.

What this is all about is whether you are going to talk about doing something that’s effective or actually take effective action. I have proposed doing just that. We ought to focus on giving law enforcement officials the tools they need to find and prosecute criminals responsible for exploiting kids and spreading vile materials online. That way, we can help kids from becoming victims in the first place. Let me also say that we can do this if members support my bipartisan Invest in Child Safety Act. The bill directs $5 billion in mandatory funding to do three things which would ensure that we had an effective response for the families and the parents: one, give law enforcement agencies the tools and personnel they need to catch the predators who are creating and spreading CSAM; two, fund community-based programs to prevent at-risk kids from becoming victims in the first place; and three, invest in programs to support survivors of abuse. Any legislation that doesn’t include these pieces is missing the point. Therefore, I object.