{"id":929081,"date":"2021-10-27T15:59:40","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T19:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=929081"},"modified":"2021-10-27T15:59:42","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T19:59:42","slug":"lawmakers-slam-big-tech-companies-over-child-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawmakers-slam-big-tech-companies-over-child-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers slam Big Tech companies over child safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flawmakers-slam-big-tech-companies-over-child-safety%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=929081&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"attachment_2562872\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2562872\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 OCTOBER 26: Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) speaks during a Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security hearing on Protecting Kids Online: Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube on October 26, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Samuel Corum\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5>OAN Newsroom<br \/>UPDATED 11:56 AM PT \u2013 Wednesday, October 27, 2021<\/h5>\n<p>Big Tech companies are in the hot seat for kids\u2019 online safety. Youth is a captive audience, which has put a harsh spotlight on social media platforms.<\/p>\n<p>During a hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers held talks with executives from TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, to discuss the dangers of children\u2019s safety online. The hearing comes amid an ongoing battle with Big Tech, which is something Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has called a \u201ccrisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t trust Big Tech with your kids. Parents of America can\u2019t trust these apps with their children,\u201d stressed Blumenthal.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The time for platitudes &amp; bromides is over. Expressions of vague intentions to do the right thing will no longer suffice. There needs to be accountability for Big Tech. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yDaVDSHJcO\">pic.twitter.com\/yDaVDSHJcO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenBlumenthal\/status\/1453338114940940289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 27, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) grilled Snapchat over an experiment where his staff created an account for a 15-year-old and were \u201cbombarded\u201d with inappropriate material, despite not selecting any content preferences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen they opened the discover page on Snapchat with its default settings, they were immediately bombarded with content that I can most politely describe as wildly inappropriate for a child, including recommendations for, among other things, an invite to play an online sexualized video game that\u2019s marketed itself to people who are 18 and up, tips on, \u2018why you shouldn\u2019t go to bars alone\u2019, notices for video games that are rated for ages 17 and up and articles about porn stars,\u201d Lee stated.<\/p>\n<p>The Snapchat executive appeared confused, saying the discover page is a \u201cclosed content platform\u201d and that she was \u201cunfamiliar\u201d with what Lee described. Additionally, while all three companies defended how they protect kids online, lawmakers still felt as though the Big Tech companies were just talk with no real change.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Big Tech must not go unchecked. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UMpkocZ68r\">pic.twitter.com\/UMpkocZ68r<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarshaBlackburn\/status\/1453030432119926791?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 26, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cFor too long we have allowed platforms to promote and glorify dangerous content for its kid and teen users,\u201d said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). \u201cIn the weeks leading up to this hearing, I\u2019ve heard from parents, from teachers, from mental health professionals who are all wondering the same thing: \u2018How long are we going to let this continue\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blackburn asked what it would take for platforms to finally crackdown on the illicit drugs, the eating disorder content and the child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Blumenthal said they need real transparency, accountability and a market where the competition is to protect children, not to exploit them. He added the goal is not to shut down the tech companies, but rather to improve them and make them better.<\/p>\n<h4>MORE NEWS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/sen-hawley-email-shows-biden-told-officials-to-fill-out-planes-without-vetting\/\">Sen. Hawley: Email Shows Biden Told Officials To \u2018Fill Out Planes\u2019 Without Vetting<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 OCTOBER 26: Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) speaks during a Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security hearing on Protecting Kids Online: Snapchat, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-929081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}