Twitter CEO Elon Musk, responding to French President Emmanuel Macron’s plea for Twitter to protect children on the internet, gave a decisive positive answer on Friday morning.
“Will the bird protect our children?” Macron asked plaintively.
“Absolument,” Musk tweeted back. He later responded to a related tweet by saying that Twitter would “take action” to strengthen the team responsible for protecting children from sexual exploitation.
Prior to Macron’s plea, he issued a statement in which he said, “We need to better protect our children on social networks and the Internet. To protect our children on the Internet, we need to better verify user age, better detect and stop sexual predators, and better identify and address bullying. We need to be more efficient in taking down content.”
He announced a new effort among social media companies to combat the exploitation of children on the internet: “Alongside our partners, today we are launching the Children Online Protection Lab. France, Estonia, New Zealand, Amazon, Dailymotion, Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, Snap, TikTok and Qwant have signed up. All those who are willing should join us!”
We need to better protect our children on social networks and the Internet !
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) November 10, 2022
Alongside our partners, today we are launching the Children Online Protection Lab.
France, Estonia, New Zealand, Amazon, Dailymotion, Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, Snap, TikTok and Qwant have signed up. All those who are willing should join us!
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) November 10, 2022
Absolument
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2022
We will take action in this regard
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2022
Early this year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, established by Congress in 1984, reported that compared to 2020, reports of potential incidents of online child sexual exploitation soared 35% in 2021.
“A free and open secure internet is a powerful tool to promote connectivity, strengthen social inclusion and foster economic growth,” the charter for the Children Online Protection Lab states. “However, due to the misuse of digital tools and the lack of appropriate protection measures, children still experience violence and exploitation on a daily basis and in all countries. Thus, protecting children online remains a challenge.”
The charter goes on to discuss the potential dangers faced by young people on the internet.
“The tragedies that befall young people and their families around the world showed the importance of responding to risks of violence towards children, in particular the exploitation and sexual abuse, including that leading to self-destructive behaviors sexual solicitations and advances facilitated by internet and technology, cyberbullying, cyber-pimping, human trafficking humans, exposure to violent content and detrimental, manipulation of information as well as the risks associated with the very use of technology such as those leading to an excessive use or devaluation of self,” the charter continues.
Those who agree to participate in the charter will pool their resources to together to “develop new initiatives” in order to protect children online.