During remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke about online child safety protection bill.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President whether you're a parent or a grandparent or just have children around you that you dearly love
00:08There's one thing that's going on in every household that should give you concern
00:13Genuine concern about the safety of the kids. It's this
00:18You ever seen the kids staring into the screen and wondering what they're doing
00:22Are they speaking to a friend? Are they playing a game? Are they looking up some information?
00:28You hope it's something that innocent, but you're never sure
00:33what we found in the Senate Judiciary Committee is that many kids are lured into the
00:40Programs and
00:41messages of these
00:43pieces of
00:44Technology and their lives are changed for the worse
00:48This afternoon we're going to vote on moving to measures which move to protect kids
00:53From the abuses which happen on the internet
00:56It's long overdue the Senate Judiciary Committee has five bills that we reported out with unanimous votes
01:04That doesn't happen in the Senate Judiciary Committee
01:07But unanimous votes all the Democrats and all the Republicans to protect children from the abuses which occur
01:13I have a measure called
01:16children's sexual abuse material
01:19CSAM that says basically
01:22If your child is exploited by the internet and you tell the social media platform that's broadcasting it
01:30To stop and desist and they refuse to do it. They're liable in civil court. It can be held liable by lawsuit
01:38That is a good way to enforce
01:41provision to protect the children
01:43In the meantime, we're moving with other measures and I'd like to speak about one that just passed this week
01:50We made a significant step earlier this week to address the problem of non consensual
01:56sexually explicit deep fakes spreading online
02:00women and girls from all walks of life
02:03from Taylor Swift
02:04to Megan Thee Stallion
02:06To high school girls in my home state of Illinois have been victims of this form of image-based sexual abuse
02:13Sadly, none of them have legal recourse against the perpetrators because the law is not keeping up with the technology
02:21Now this is starting to change
02:24this week the Senate passed my defiance act a
02:28Bipartisan legislation that will finally provide a remedy for victims of non consensual
02:33sexually explicit deep fakes you've read about them in the newspapers when it comes to the
02:39Celebrities, which I mentioned earlier it happens every day across America this landmark legislation cannot become law soon enough
02:48This form of image-based sexual abuse has skyrocketed in recent years
02:53One researcher found that the number of non consensual
02:57pornographic deep fake videos
03:00Available online has increased
03:03900% since 2019
03:06Another found that over 24 million people
03:09Visited a group of just 34 websites
03:12dedicated to non consensual deep fake pornography in September 2023 alone in
03:18total
03:19Non-consensual deep fake pornographic videos have been viewed almost 4 billion times
03:264 billion
03:28This explosive growth has been driven by advances in technology
03:33Namely generative
03:35artificial intelligence
03:37What used to take technology expertise and a lot of time can now be done with the push of a button
03:43Countless apps can swap someone's face into another person's body or can digitally remove someone's clothing
03:50So they appear to be nude
03:52Deep fake apps are often advertised as harmless entertainment
03:56But when explicit images are produced and shared without the consent of the person depicted the harm is very real
04:04Imagine losing control over your own likeness and identity
04:09How powerless victims feel when they can't remove the illicit content can't prevent it from being
04:15Reproduced repeatedly and cannot prevent new images from being created
04:20My partner in this legislation is congresswoman, Alexandria
04:25Ocasio-Cortez
04:26Who introduced a companion bill in the house like far too many women?
04:31She has been the victim of non consensual sexually explicit deep fakes
04:36She has described how this image based sexual abuse has resurfaced trauma and her thought and haunts her thoughts even to this day
04:44Once these deep fakes are seen they cannot be unseen as she put it and I quote her deep fakes are a way of digitizing
04:52Violent humiliation against other people in
04:55The design and function of the internet amplify the scale and spread and type of this type of exploitation
05:02survivors of non consensual sexually explicit deep fakes are often forced to relive their trauma and face ongoing harm that
05:10increases
05:11Exponentially over time due to the viral flow of information on the internet and the difficulty of removing harmful content
05:19Tragically our laws have not kept pace with technology leaving victims with virtually no legal remedy
05:26Time and again victims are told that nothing can be done to help them because existing laws simply do not apply to deep fakes
05:34Thankfully now the Senate has taken a step
05:37Towards fixing this blatant disregard for the trauma suffered by individuals who were victimized by this crime
05:43By passing this Defiance Act
05:45We've brought victims one step closer to taking back some power over their identity and giving them a day in court
05:52Our work is far from being done
05:54I call on the House of Representatives to move on this issue
05:59Immediately to follow the Senate's lead and quickly take a take up the Defiance Act in
06:04Zooming doing so Congress will reflect the will of the vast majority
06:08Americans who are demanding that Congress pass new laws to address non consensually
06:14sexually explicit deep fakes
06:17according to a recent survey conducted by the University of Maryland an
06:21overwhelming 85% of Republicans
06:2587% of Democrats support prohibiting these non consensual sexually explicit deep fakes
06:31Our constituents are concerned about what's happening online
06:35Democrats and Republicans alike agree that Congress must establish guardrails to protect society from these changes in technology
06:43I want to thank Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez for her leadership on this issue and her courage for speaking up
06:50She's been an indispensable partner in crafting and advancing this bill. I'd like to thank the Senate co-sponsors of the legislation
06:57Including some of my Republican colleagues like Senator Graham
07:01Ranking member of the Judiciary Committee Democratic Majority Leader Schumer, Senators Hawley, Klobuchar, King, and Lee
07:09This bill would not have come to fruition without the input of survivor advocates
07:15Including the Sexual Violence Prevention Association
07:18the National Center for Sexual Exploitation
07:21The National Women's Law Center the National Network to End Domestic Violence and many others
07:26Their lived experience and leadership have shaped this bill and brought it to this
07:33Stage of passage. I also want to thank some of the other organizations that have endorsed the bill
07:38Center for Democracy and Technology the National Organization for Women my image my choice
07:45reign
07:46Pact and rights for girls when the Defiance Act is signed into law if it is brought up and passes the house
07:53Victims will finally finally have the ability to hold liable those who produce
07:58Disclose solicit or possess sexually explicit deepfakes all knowingly or recklessly
08:05Disregarding that the person depicted did not consent to the conduct
08:09Congress has waited long enough. It is past time to give victims of non consensus consensual
08:16Sexually explicit deepfakes the tools they need to fight back
08:19Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. Would the senator withdraw his request?
08:28The senator from Washington, mr. President I call