WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, last week, House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (KY-02) spoke during a Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade hearing titled The World Wild Web: Examining Harms Online. Chairman Guthrie’s remarks focused on the committee’s plans to enact meaningful online safety measures to protect our children and highlighted the story of 16 year old Kentuckian, Elijah Heacock, who tragically took his own life after falling victim to an online extortion scheme.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is scheduled to hold a full committee vote on the TAKE IT DOWN Act to address online safety issues, as part of a larger mark-up of bills, this Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. You can watch the hearing here.
Background:
If enacted, the TAKE IT DOWN Act would protect victims of real and deepfake ‘revenge pornography' by criminalizing the publication, or threat of publishing, of these harmful images. Additionally, this legislation would require websites to quickly remove such content upon notice from the victims within 48 hours.
You can view Chairman Guthrie’s full opening remarks from last week here or read highlights below.
Chairman Guthrie honors Elijah Heacock and outlines the path ahead:
“I wish I could say that we had in place everything we needed to keep our children safe online, and we weren't having this hearing today. This hearing is about children. It's not about what's going on here in Washington, DC; it's about children. It's about the families in this audience who've lost children.
“It's about a phone call I had yesterday with the mother of Eli Heacock, who took his own life about two weeks ago because of something that was going on online. He was being scammed…
“Eli was a twin brother. Because he was a preemie, he had a feeding tube - 16 years old, he had a feeding tube. His mother said to me, ‘well at least he didn't have to deal with this feeding tube anymore when the medical examiner took it out.’
“It was a kid that everybody loved, she said ‘I couldn't believe people from five counties showed up to be at his funeral. I didn't know he touched that many lives.’
“I mean, these are who we're here to talk about. This is what this hearing is about, and I will say to my friend the Ranking Member, that we want this to be bipartisan. We want these bills to get a bipartisan vote…
“We're going to have a bill this year - it's going to pass as soon as we can get everything we need together to do it. We're going to move on the TAKE IT DOWN Act, that's why we're having this hearing today to get this moving quickly.”
Chairman Guthrie on his commitment to protect children online:
“We’re here for a very serious issue, and I really hope that – and I'll take my good friend, the ranking member, up on her request - that we make this bipartisan, because it absolutely has to be bipartisan because it touches everybody, and everybody's district. I know some of us on this [committee] have had the phone calls like I had yesterday, and I know it moves everybody.
“So, what I want to say is that the TAKE IT DOWN Act, and KOSA, and all these other bills that protect our children for online safety are going to be a focus of this subcommittee, focus on this committee, and we're getting them across the House floor.”
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