WASHINGTON - US senators on Jan 31 grilled leaders of the biggest social media companies and said Congress must quickly pass legislation, as one lawmaker accused the companies of having “blood on their hands” for failing to protect children from escalating threats of sexual predation on their platforms.

The hearing marks the latest effort by lawmakers to address the concerns of parents and mental health experts that social media companies put profits over guardrails that would ensure their platforms do not harm children.

“Mr Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you don’t mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, referring to Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg.

“You have a product that is killing people.”

Mr Zuckerberg testified along with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi and Discord CEO Jason Citron.

Senator Dick Durbin, the Judiciary Committee’s Democratic chairman, cited statistics from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children non-profit group that showed skyrocketing growth in financial “sextortion”, in which a predator tricks a minor into sending explicit photos and videos.

“This disturbing growth in child sexual exploitation is driven by one thing: changes in technology,” Mr Durbin said during the hearing.

As the hearing kicked off, the committee played a video in which children spoke about being victimised on social media.

“I was sexually exploited on Facebook,” said one child in the video, who appeared in shadow.

In the hearing room, dozens of parents held pictures of their children who they said had been harmed due to social media.

Some parents jeered Mr Zuckerberg, whose company owns Facebook and Instagram, during his opening statement and shouted comments at other points during the hearing.

At one point, Senator Josh Hawley challenged Mr Zuckerberg to apologise to them directly, and several people held the children’s photos aloft again as Mr Zuckerberg turned around to address them.

Mr Zuckerberg expressed regret about what they had experienced and pledged to work to prevent it from happening to others, but stopped short of taking responsibility for facilitating the abuse, as Mr Hawley suggested he should.

In a tense exchange, the committee displayed copies of internal e-mails showing Mr Zuckerberg rejecting a request by Meta’s top policy executive to hire between 45 and 84 engineers to work on safety improvements.

X’s Ms Yaccarino said the company supported the STOP CSAM Act, legislation introduced by Mr Durbin that seeks to hold tech companies accountable for child sexual abuse material and would allow victims to sue tech platforms and app stores.

The Bill is one of several aimed at addressing child safety. None has become law.

X, formerly Twitter, has come under heavy criticism since billionaire Elon Musk bought the service and loosened moderation policies. This week, it blocked searches for pop singer Taylor Swift after fake sexually explicit images of her spread on the platform.

Jan 31 also marked the first appearance by TikTok CEO Chew before US lawmakers since March 2023, when the Chinese-owned short video app company faced harsh questions, including some suggesting that the app was damaging children’s mental health.

Mr Chew disclosed that more than 170 million Americans use TikTok monthly, 20 million more than the company said in 2023.

Under questioning by Senator Graham, he said TikTok would spend more than US$2 billion (S$2.7 billion) on trust and safety efforts, but declined to say how the figure compared with the company’s overall revenue.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz pressed Mr Zuckerberg about warning screens on Instagram that alert users an image might show child sexual abuse, but still allow them to see the image.

“Mr Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?“ Mr Cruz said.

Mr Zuckerberg responded that it can be helpful to redirect users to resources rather than blocking content, adding that the company would follow up with more information about the notice.

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar questioned what she said was inaction in the tech industry, comparing it with the response shown when a panel blew out of a Boeing plane earlier in January.

“When a Boeing plane lost a door in flight several weeks ago, nobody questioned the decision to ground a fleet... So why aren’t we taking the same type of decisive action on the danger of these platforms when we know these kids are dying?“ Ms Klobuchar said.

Noticeably absent from the hearing was YouTube, the most popular app for teenagers, and Apple, which has angered child safety groups for going back on a 2021 promise to scan iPhones for material abusive towards children.

Seven in 10 teens use YouTube daily, according to the Pew Research Centre. TikTok is used daily by 58 per cent of teens, followed by Snap at 51 per cent, and Instagram at 47 per cent.

In 2022, YouTube reported more than 631,000 pieces of content to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, according to a report produced by Google.

A Judiciary Committee spokesperson said the five executives who testified represented a diverse group of companies.

Weeks before the hearing, some of the tech companies announced changes to their services pertaining to children.

Meta introduced stricter controls on direct messaging for teenagers and greater parental controls. Snap announced its support for the Kids Online Safety Act, proposed legislation to restrict data collection on children and tighten parent controls on social media.

In front of the Capitol building on Jan 31, a non-profit critical of Big Tech displayed cardboard cut-outs of Mr Zuckerberg and Mr Chew sitting atop a mountain of cash while clinking champagne glasses.

Ms Mary Rodee, a parent in the hearing room, said she lost her 15-year-old son Riley in 2021, following sexual exploitation on Facebook Messenger. She has since fought for legislation to protect children online.

“The companies are not doing enough,” she said. “Enough talking.”

The bipartisan hearing encapsulated the increasing alarm over tech’s impact on children and teenagers.

The issue has united Republicans and Democrats, with lawmakers pushing for a crackdown on how Silicon Valley companies treat their youngest and most vulnerable users.

Yet, the grilling of the tech leaders may not ultimately amount to much, if history is any guide.

Meta’s executives have testified 33 times since 2017 over issues such as election interference by foreign agents, antitrust and social media’s role in the Jan 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol – but no federal law has been passed to hold the tech companies to account. Dozens of Bills have failed after partisan bickering over details and lobbying efforts by the tech industry.

Dr David Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University’s law school and a former head of consumer protection at the Federal Trade Commission, likened congressional actions on tech to the cartoon Peanuts.

“Congress has consistently punted on tech legislation that seems essential, but I feel like Charlie Brown – every time he wants to kick the football, Lucy takes it away,” he said. REUTERS, NYTIMES