Will lawmakers really take action to protect children online? Some say yes.

In the final minutes of a congressional hearing on Wednesday that blasted tech executives for failing to protect children online, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, urged lawmakers to take action to protect the youngest internet users. to protect.

“No excuses,” he said.

Lawmakers have long made similar statements about holding tech companies accountable — with little to show for it. Both Republicans and Democrats have stated at various points that it was time to regulate the tech giants on issues such as privacy and antitrust. But that's where it ended for years: with no new federal regulations for the companies to adhere to.

The question is whether it will be different this time. And there are already indications that the topic of online child safety could receive more legislative attention.

At least six legislative proposals waiting in Congress target the spread of child sexual abuse material online and require platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok to do more to protect minors. The efforts are supported by emotional stories from children who have been victimized online and died by suicide.

The only federal internet law passed in recent years, SESTA (for the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act), which made it easier for sex trafficking victims to sue websites and online platforms, was passed in 2018 . even after heartbreaking testimonies from a victim's mother.

Child safety is a personally relatable and entrenched issue that is an easier political sell than some other issues, online safety experts and lawmakers say. At Wednesday's hearing, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, confronted with stories of children who had died after sexual exploitation, said he was sorry that families had suffered.

“Like the tobacco industry, it took a series of embarrassing hearings for tobacco — but eventually Congress acted,” said Jim Steyer, president of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit children's advocacy group. “Finally the dam broke.”

Any legislative progress on online child safety would counterbalance Congress's standstill on other technical issues in recent years. Time and again, proposed rules for governing tech giants like Google and Meta have failed to become law.

In 2018, for example, Congress questioned Mr. Zuckerberg about a leak of Facebook user data to Cambridge Analytica, a voter profiling company. Outrage over the incident led to calls for Congress to pass new rules to protect people's online privacy. But while California and other states eventually passed online privacy laws, Congress did not.

Lawmakers have also attacked a legal statute, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online platforms such as Instagram and TikTok from many lawsuits over content posted by their users. Congress has not substantially changed the statute, other than making it more difficult for the platforms to use the legal shield when accused of meaningfully aiding the sex trade.

And after companies like Amazon and Apple were accused of being monopolies and abusing their power over smaller rivals, lawmakers introduced a bill to make some of their business practices illegal. An attempt to get the legislation across the finish line failed in 2022.

Senators Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, and Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, as well as other lawmakers, have blamed the power of technology lobbyists for sidestepping proposed rules. Others have said tech regulations have not been a priority for congressional leaders, who have focused on spending bills and measures aimed at subsidizing U.S. companies that make crucial computer chips and harness renewable energy.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which hosted Wednesday's hearing, discussed five child safety bills targeting the technology platforms ahead of the hearing. The committee passed the bills last year; none has become law.

Proposals included the STOPCSAM (Strengthening Transparency and Obligations to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Maltreatment Act), which would provide new avenues for victims to report child sexual abuse material to internet companies, and the REPORT Act (Revising Existing Procedures on Reporting via Technology), which would expand the types of potential crimes that online platforms must report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Other proposals would make it a crime to distribute an intimate image of someone without that person's consent and would push law enforcement to coordinate investigations into crimes against children.

A separate proposal passed by the Senate Commerce Committee last year, the Kids Online Safety Act, would create a legal obligation for certain online platforms to protect children. Some legislative proposals have been criticized by digital rights groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which say they could encourage the platforms to remove legitimate content as the companies try to comply with the laws.

Ms. Klobuchar, who questioned the tech executives at Wednesday's hearing, said in an interview that the session “felt like a breakthrough.” She added: “As someone who has been taking on these businesses for years, this was the first time I felt hope for movement.”

Others were skeptical. For proposals to pass, they need the support of congressional leaders. Bills that passed the committee last year will have to be refiled and go through that process again.

Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who helped create technology used by platforms to track child sex abuse material, said he watched the Congressional hearing after heard about the protection of children online.

“This is one thing we need to be able to agree on: that we have a responsibility to protect children,” he said. “If we can't get this right, what hope do we have for anything else?”