Urge President Donald J. Trump to Support Bipartisan Children’s Internet Safety

CitizenGO - started this petition to President Donald J. Trump - 2024-10-15

Urge President Donald J. Trump to Sign the Children’s Internet Safety Pledge

While the digital world allows children access to beneficial and enriching content, social interaction, and entertainment, when unrestricted, it opens the floodgates to dangerous, obscene, violent content, child sexual abuse material, and criminal activity. Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the impact of this broad spectrum of content and activity.

Online child exploitation has reached alarming levels, with NCMEC receiving a record 36.2 million reports in 2023, reporting a 300% increase in online enticement cases since 2021 ... Younger and younger children are being targeted “on an industrial scale” by internet groomers, with a three-fold increase in imagery showing 7–10-year-olds.

The surge in financial sextortion and the negative mental health and safety risks of social media on youth are now considered critical public health challenges. This has left parents, caregivers, and law enforcement officials overwhelmed. Americans, especially parents, are deeply concerned about the online risks to children.

To address the global pandemic of online child exploitation, CitizenGO with Enough Is Enough® and 60-plus supporting organizations and survivor leaders are calling on President-elect Donald J. Trump to sign the Children's Internet Safety Presidential Pledge to address the global pandemic of online child exploitation. We urge President-elect Trump to demonstrate his commitment to defend the innocence and dignity of America’s children in the digital world by publicly supporting the Pledge.

In summary, the six key Pledge tenets are as follows:

1) Uphold the rule of law by ensuring aggressive enforcement and funding of existing federal laws and advancing sound public policies to prevent the online exploitation and abuse of children;

2) Direct the Surgeon General to undertake investigations to address the public health risks of the online exploitation and abuse of minor children;

3) Creation of a bipartisan Presidential Commission to examine the links between obscene pornography, child sexual abuse material, online exploitation, and sex trafficking and make recommendations to the Administration and Congress;

4) Advance bipartisan legislation requiring internet technology services and platforms to improve safety measures, policies, tools, and reporting mechanisms and also promote voluntary efforts;

5) Creation of a White House position of Children’s Internet Safety Director to oversee the President's domestic policy on children’s internet safety issues and;

6) Support bipartisan Congressional efforts to amend Section #230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996

We assert that the 47th President of the United States has both the challenge and opportunity through the presidential appointment process, presidential directives and policies, a robust legislative agenda, and the implementation of The Children’s Internet Safety Pledge to make the Internet safer and more secure for children and families.

An entire generation will be lost if online threats to children are not mitigated now. By signing this petition, you’re joining CitizenGO with Enough Is Enough and our Allies in calling on President-elect Trump to pledge to prioritize the protection of America’s children and adolescents from online exploitation.

Safeguarding the innocence and dignity of children in the digital world is a non-partisan issue that currently has wide bipartisan support at the federal and state levels of government.

Enough Is Enough® is a national, nonpartisan, non-profit organization that has led the fight to make the internet safer for children and families since 1994. EIE's efforts to prevent the internet-enabled exploitation of children incorporates a four-pronged holistic strategy with shared responsibilities between the public, corporate America, government, and faith community. Enough Is Enough does not endorse or oppose candidates for office.