Crapo Votes to Protect Children Online

Washington, D.C. -- In today’s U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Executive Business Meeting, U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) supported legislation to keep children safe online.  The Committee today voted to advance the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act (EARN IT Act) in the nature of a substitute amendment that contained technical changes to the original bill.  Senator Crapo issued the following statement at the conclusion of the hearing: 

“At the beginning of this process, I had considerable concerns about EARN IT’s implications for the Fourth Amendment.  Mandates on private companies under the guise of Best Practices would cause more evidence to be thrown out under the Fourth Amendment, which would do the opposite of what EARN IT intends, which is to protect children from sexual predators online.  While this new amendment is not perfect, it alleviates many of my concerns.  I welcome further conversations to improve EARN IT even more." 

“To be clear, the horrific issue of child sexual exploitation will not go away with EARN IT’s passage, and I appreciate the efforts of other Senators to look at further aspects of this matter, including the role of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and state and local law enforcement agencies.  I look forward to continuing conversations on ensuring practical and textual Section 230 protections, especially for smaller service providers, while also protecting children from victimization on the Internet.” 

A longtime proponent of legislation to support victims of trafficking, Senator Crapo in 2018 voted in favor of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), which strengthened enforcement procedures related to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA) by allowing the prosecution of third party service providers who knowingly facilitate sex trafficking on their websites.  

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