Top senator says US has 'miserably failed our children' as experts warn of 'egregious' new online threats

Source: ABC News

December 9, 2025, 6:05 PM


Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, had a blunt question for the three witnesses testifying at a Senate hearing Tuesday about evolving threats to children online: "Do you all agree that we've as a nation miserably failed our children -- that we have hearings and we talk, [but] we've done very little to protect them, as of this date?" All three witnesses -- including a former federal prosecutor and an executive director at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children -- agreed. "That's a damning indictment of all of us," Graham stated.

The hearing, titled "Protecting Our Children Online Against the Evolving Offender," is the latest in a yearslong smattering of hearings on Capitol Hill related to how lawmakers might be able to help stop ever-changing threats to children on social media platforms and online gaming systems.

On Tuesday, the frustration that Congress has not done more to protect children online was bipartisan, especially as the witnesses offered dire warnings about "sextortion" by scammers who trick victims into sending sexually-explicit images of themselves and then extort them for money -- and about online extremist networks like "764" that coerce victims into harming themselves or others for the simple purpose of creating chaos and undermining society.

"This trend has led to the most egregious exploitation that NCMEC has ever seen," National Center for Missing and Exploited Children executive director Lauren Coffren said of 764 and similar networks. "The imagery, the videos, the chats that we are seeing and reading are the most graphic that I have ever seen in my 20-year history."

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/top-senator-us-miserably-failed-children-experts-warn/story?id=128249516