Blumenthal & Blackburn to Hold Hearing With Snapchat, TikTok & YouTube on Social Media's Impact on Children
Next Tuesday, Blumenthal and Blackburn will hold a hearing in the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee to hear from the tech companies about their platforms’ impacts on young users
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, will convene a hearing on Tuesday, October 26, 2021 at 10:00 AM titled “Protecting Kids Online: Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.” Representatives from Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube will testify at the hearing.
“Recent revelations about harm to kids online show that Big Tech is facing its Big Tobacco moment—a moment of reckoning,” said Blumenthal. “We need to understand the impact of popular platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube on children and what companies can do better to keep them safe. The bombshell reports about Facebook and Instagram—their toxic impacts on young users and lack of truth or transparency—raise serious concerns about Big Tech’s approach toward kids across the board. I look forward to this next hearing in the series I am holding with Senator Blackburn leading to legislation that safeguards children and provides parents with tools to protect their kids.”
“Big tech companies continue to prioritize profit over safety and, in doing so, are harming children online,” said Blackburn. “TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube all play a leading role in exposing children to harmful content. TikTok is an especially egregious offender, both because they make the personal information of all TikTok users available to the communist Chinese government, and because the app pushes sexually explicit and drug-related content onto children. I look forward to standing alongside Senator Blumenthal as we continue to push these companies to better protect children from these dangerous situations.”
Next Tuesday’s hearing will be the fourth in a series of bipartisan hearings spearheaded by Blumenthal and Blackburn to inform legislation and prompt action by social media companies to address harms and dangers faced by children online.
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