Survivors Can’t Escape the Internet: Congress Must Pass the STOP CSAM Act

By Marjorie Saylor

As both a survivor of trafficking and a service provider who’s worked alongside victims across San Diego County for more than 13 years, I continue to witness how technology has transformed exploitation. Increasingly, I meet survivors who’ve escaped their traffickers but cannot escape the digital evidence of their abuse.

I know several victims who discovered that images created during their exploitation continued circulating online years after they reached safety. The trafficking may have ended, but the digital footprint of their abuse creates a permanent cycle of re-victimization. This heartbreaking reality is a common trend in modern trafficking cases. Predators use technology to extend their control long after physical exploitation ends, leaving survivors to relive their trauma over and over, while tech companies profit off the platforms hosting their abuse. This digital trap is even more pronounced for children, who are extremely vulnerable to online abuse and lifelong exploitation.

Of course, no one is ever “in favor” of exploiting kids online. That would simply be monstrous.  But if society wants to actually do something about it, we need leaders to take concrete action. And that means holding big tech accountable. One way is for Congress to pass the STOP CSAM Act, which we need more than ever. And Representative Darrell Issa has the chance to make a real difference when it comes to stopping the endless, ceaseless cycle of the digital distribution of child sexual abuse material, otherwise known as CSAM.

For the first time, victims won’t be immediately turned away at the court because of outdated laws. This bill would give survivors the right to sue tech companies that host, store, or profit from their abuse, forcing these multi-billion-dollar platforms to answer to the individuals they failed to protect.

Beyond providing a path to justice, the bill forces tech companies to actively clean up their platforms. It imposes civil and criminal penalties for non-compliance, cracks down on the standardless and delayed reporting that stalls police investigations, establishes a clear timeline for removing confirmed CSAM, and extends urgent protections for child victims and witnesses in federal courts. Ultimately, it treats child exploitation not as a minor content-moderation glitch, but as the severe crime it is.

Unfortunately, our nation is a primary haven for this type of exploitation. Corporate immunity and systemic loopholes allow for criminal networks to exploit mainstream tech infrastructure, evading detection by quickly moving this material from one U.S.-based hosting platform to another. Because many of the world’s largest cloud and image-hosting providers are based in America, we staggeringly account for 41% of all unique domains that host CSAM.

The rapid evolution of generative AI and deep fakes have only worsened this crisis. In 2025, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 1.5 million CyberTipline reports related to Generative AI and CSAM. Tragically, 1.1 million of those lacked actionable information for law enforcement to investigate. Overall, NCMEC received over 21.3 million reports in 2025 alone that contained 61.8 million images, videos, and other files related to suspected child exploitation. That’s more than 7,000 files of suspected CSAM reported every single hour.

The sad truth remains, tech companies do far too little to combat the exploitation of children online. Current law grants tech companies significant immunity from civil and state criminal liability when people use their services to distribute and store CSAM. Moreover, it doesn’t explicitly require them to search for CSAM proactively on their platforms, effectively disincentivizing companies from investing in better detection technology.

The case of Doe v. Twitter illustrates how tech companies operate with impunity. When a 13-year-old boy was victimized in a sextortion scheme, his mother repeatedly reported the explicit images to Twitter. And the social platform responded by stating the content did not violate their policies and would not take action to remove the images.

After nine days – and a request from the Department of Homeland Security and hundreds, if not thousands, of additional engagements online – Twitter finally removed the images. Despite this, the court ruled that current law protects Twitter from being sued for how it moderates, or fails to moderate, user content. Most recently, the Supreme Court declined to review this ruling, again confirming that in the eyes of the law, tech companies are shielded from facilitating CSAM on their platforms.

As a Californian and a mother, I’m proud that our state leads the world in technological innovation. But innovation without accountability comes at the expense of our children. While my own exploitation occurred before the digital age, I now carry a different fear…the fear that my own 13-year-old daughter and millions of children like her could face forms of exploitation that follow them online forever. No parent should have to worry that a kid’s abuse could be stored, shared, manipulated, and repeatedly rediscovered for years while technology companies evade responsibility. California’s leaders have a duty to ensure that innovation serves families and protects children, not predators.

Cases like this are exactly why the STOP CSAM Act is an urgent necessity. We must end this era of impunity, hold tech companies accountable, and empower survivors. We must act now!

To Congressman Issa: You are uniquely positioned to lead this fight. As Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet, stopping the exploitation of kids online fits squarely under your domain.

Californians value innovation, but we do not want outdated laws that allow predators to flourish. We will no longer accept a system that prioritizes corporate profits over child safety.

We call on Congressman Issa to co-sponsor the STOP CSAM Act and urge Chairman Jim Jordan to bring the bill for markup in the House Judiciary Committee immediately. Our kids and society both demand and deserve it.

Marjorie Saylor is a human trafficking survivor, abolitionist, and director of human trafficking services at One Safe Place, who dedicates her career to regional leadership, survivor advocacy, and legislative policy reform, including consulting on child exploitation and trafficking policy with Rights4Girls.