The family whose son inspired legislation to crack down on the exploitation of children on social media is condemning a White House intervention that secured administration support for a child online safety package — while allowing Meta and Google to send lower-level executives to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in place of their CEOs.
“It was our understanding that this legislation was never intended to become a political bargaining chip,” Tania and Tim Woods wrote in a Wednesday letter obtained by POLITICO sent to Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), other members of the committee and the White House. “It was created because children have died.”
James Woods, for whom the James T. Woods Act was named, was a 17-year-old Instagram user who died by suicide after being sexually extorted on the platform. His parents, Tania and Tim Woods, have since campaigned for tougher laws to prevent and penalize exploitation of children online — like the legislative package pending before the Judiciary Committee that would strengthen sentencing and criminal laws to help law enforcement prosecute individuals and groups that manipulate children on the internet.
Grassley has been working hard to advance the package, while also calling on the CEOs of Meta, Google, TikTok and Snap to testify before his committee about child online safety practices, among other topics.
But, after Meta representatives met with White House staff to express concerns about the hearing, the administration brokered a deal with Grassley that allowed lower-level executives at Meta and Google to testify in place of their CEOs in exchange for White House support of the James T. Woods Act, five people with knowledge of the events previously told POLITICO.
Calling on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before the committee, Tania and Tim Woods criticized the deal in their letter Wednesday, calling it “devastating for families like ours because it suggests that access and influence may carry more weight than the lives of children.”
“Mark Zuckerberg should not be negotiating the future of child safety legislation,” they wrote. “He should be answering for the role Meta has played in exposing children to predators and for the countless opportunities the company has had to make its platforms safer.”
Grassley’s Press Secretary Hannah Akey in a statement said the committee chair has worked hard with impacted families, law enforcement and child safety organizations to draft legislation to combat online child exploitation.
“The James T. Woods Act is a hugely bipartisan and widely supported bill that tackles disgusting crimes harming children nationwide … [Grassley] will continue his ongoing investigations of Big Tech, while also passing laws that will protect children across America,” Akey added.
Meta, Durbin and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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