U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced on Apr. 9 a congressional inquiry into eight major technology companies for what he describes as insufficient reporting of online child sexual exploitation, which he said has hampered law enforcement investigations. Grassley is also releasing new information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), detailing reporting deficiencies by these companies and data related to generative artificial intelligence.
The issue is significant because electronic service providers are required by law to report suspected cases of online child sexual exploitation to NCMEC’s CyberTipline, yet the majority of reports in 2025 came from just eight companies—Meta, Amazon AI Services, TikTok, Snapchat, Discord, X.AI, Grindr and Roblox—which together submitted over 17 million reports and accounted for 81% of all submissions that year.
According to NCMEC’s findings provided to Congress at Grassley’s request, many reports lacked essential location data or sufficient information about users or suspects. Some companies failed to disclose when child sexual abuse material was found in their AI training data or did not report instances of sadistic online exploitation targeting children. While Meta and X.AI have improved their reporting processes in recent months, others continue to struggle with quality issues. “For almost thirty years, NCMEC has worked tirelessly to combat online child sexual exploitation by attempting to persuade ESPs to detect, report and remove child sexual exploitation on their platforms and improve the quality and substance of their CyberTipline reports,” NCMEC wrote in a letter released by Grassley’s office.
Grassley is now pressing these eight tech firms for responses regarding how they plan to address the concerns raised by NCMEC in its March correspondence with his office. “On March 16, 2026, NCMEC responded to my [oversight] letter and provided my office with new information regarding online child exploitation. I’m alarmed by what I’ve read,” Grassley wrote. He continued: “Based on information provided to my office, I am concerned that some companies have not provided NCMEC and law enforcement with sufficient data needed to protect kids and prosecute suspected predators.”
In addition to oversight efforts targeting electronic service provider reporting practices, Grassley is leading bipartisan legislation called the James T. Woods Act alongside Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), aimed at strengthening federal sentencing laws related to online child exploitation crimes.
Grassley brings decades of experience in public service—including time as a factory worker—and continues farming corn and soybeans in Butler County while serving as Iowa’s longest-serving U.S senator according to his official website. He also assists constituents with federal agencies according to his official website.
