Senator Durbin reacts to Meta introducing Teens Accounts
(The Center Square) – Instagram has rolled out Teen Accounts. According to the social media company, the new platform has built-in protections, which limit who can contact teens through the app and the content they see.
Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, said on social media, “While any step to protect kids online is welcome, this still puts the onus on parents instead of Big Tech.”
“Congress needs to pass my STOP CSAM Act,” Durbin said.
CSAM stands for Child Sexual Abuse Material.
State Rep. Adam Niemerg, R-Dieterich, said Durbin’s call for more protections for kids is hypocritical.
“Amazingly hypocritical of Durbin to be discussing child exploitation and sexual exploitation, when his own party and he supports gender affirming care without parental consent for children as young as third grade or second grade,” said Niemerg. “His party supports this.”
Last year during hearings on protecting rights of LGBTQ citizens, Durbin rejected calls for the United States to follow some European nations banning gender affirming care for minors.
“Now we have references to Europe as the standard bearer in terms of where America should go for its future. If we are called an outlier in that headline, guilty as charged. America has always been an outlier,” said Durbin. “I love Europe and the Europeans but we are Americans and when it comes to the decisions as basic as the rights of our individual citizens and freedoms, I think we got a pretty good starting point with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”
Durbin’s office did not immediately return The Center Square’s request for comment in response to Niemerg’s criticism.
At a state level in August, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed House Bill 4623, which clarifies that child pornography laws in Illinois apply to images and videos created by artificial intelligence. Legislators said the bill aims to protect children against malicious uses of AI. The bill passed both the Illinois House and Senate unanimously.
Instagram’s introduction of separate teen accounts for those under 18 comes after whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed Meta’s negligence in addressing Instagram’s harmful effects on teenage girls.
Durbin said, “Too little, too late. This should’ve happened years ago. Congress needs to act on tech safety now.”
Niemerg explained generally he supports parents having more control over what their teens interact with while online.
“There needs to be more social [in person] interaction with our kids and they need to get off the devices and get out in the real world because we are going to have a bunch of kids that know nothing more than to be on their devices and they’re not going to have any social skills and that’ll be a big detriment to this state,” said Niemerg.
Critics say the timing of this move by Meta suggests that they might be trying to avoid further regulatory measures and future legal challenges by implementing their own protections. Durbin criticized Meta for placing the responsibility on parents.
Former Illinois state Rep. Jeanne Ives said if Durbin was serious about protecting teens, the first thing he’d do is ban all sex change practices on minors.
“He would prohibit online grooming by trans activists. It is obvious Durbin has no clue about the irreversible harm the transgender community is having on young people,” Ives told The Center Square.
