YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyCivil LibertiesCriminal Justice & Due ProcessCorporate BenefitsTransparency & AccountabilitySets a 60-day limit for websites to report child abuse images and lets victims sue them.
Your Money
A judge could place a victim's award in a trust run by a trustee. This applies to victims under 18, victims who cannot manage money, and some victims living abroad.
Today courts must order at least $3,000 for victims in these image cases. The bill drops that floor to 10 percent of a victim's losses when the losses are under $3,000.
Civil Liberties
Federal court shields for child victims and witnesses now stop at age 18. The bill extends them to anyone who was under 18 when the crime happened, and applies to older cases too.
The bill widens an existing rule that no provider has to search, screen, or scan. It now covers scanning for any apparent child abuse image, not just certain facts.
A new law section lets victims sue an online service or app store that hosted the images or helped the abuse. Winners collect their actual losses or a flat $300,000, plus legal fees.
Sealed details about a victim can go only to a short list of people. That list includes the defense lawyer and a guardian. The bill adds police, for any investigation or intelligence purpose.
Much of this detail is optional today. The bill makes it required when a provider has it. It also lets the tip line send reports to more foreign police forces.
Using strong encryption cannot by itself make a company liable. But a court could still let a jury hear about it to show motive, intent, or planning.
Criminal Justice & Due Process
It becomes a federal crime for an online service to host or store this material on purpose. Knowingly helping certain abuse crimes also counts. The fine is up to $1 million, or $5 million if someone is harmed.
Court-ordered payments to victims now cover a set list of crimes. The bill adds obscene drawings and other images when they show a real child who can be named.
Corporate Benefits
Providers must keep reported material for a set time. The bill protects them from lawsuits when they use it in good faith to build or train tools that spot abuse.
A company can beat a victim's lawsuit by proving it pulled the material within 48 hours of learning about it. Services with fewer than 10 million U.S. users a month get two business days.
Section 230 normally keeps online companies from being sued over what users post. The bill states that it cannot limit the new claims victims bring under this law.
Transparency & Accountability
Today the law says to report as soon as reasonably possible, with no firm cutoff. The bill keeps that and adds a 60-day outer limit, starting 120 days after the law takes effect.
Knowingly missing the deadline can bring criminal fines of $600,000 to $1 million, based on the company's size. Civil penalties run $50,000 to $250,000 and triple if someone is harmed.
This covers services with over one million monthly users and over $50 million in revenue. They must report to the Justice Department and the FTC. The first report is due March 31 of the second year after the law passes.
Officials must remove anything that would weaken a safety measure or show how a service can be misused. Companies can also ask for more parts to be held back.
More about this bill
The apps and websites you use would face new legal duties over child sexual abuse material. They would have to report it to a national tip line within 60 days of learning about it. Those reports would have to name the account holder and include their IP address and related chats. A company that knowingly misses the deadline could be fined up to $1 million. That doubles if someone is harmed. These reporting rules would start 120 days after the bill becomes law. People abused as children would gain a new right to sue. They could sue websites, apps, and app stores that hosted the images or helped the abuse happen. There would be no time limit for filing. A winning case brings at least $300,000, plus lawyer fees. Section 230 could not be used to block these suits. That is the law that usually shields online companies from blame for what users post. A company could defend itself by proving it removed the material within 48 hours. Services with fewer than 10 million U.S. users each month would get two business days. Offering end-to-end encryption could not by itself make a company liable. But how a company handles encryption could still be shown to a jury as proof of intent. The bill also says providers are not required to scan or search what users post. Large platforms would file yearly safety reports with the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission. That covers services with over one million monthly users and over $50 million in yearly revenue. Those reports would be made public, though officials must black out details that could help offenders. Court privacy rules for child victims and witnesses would expand. They would cover adults who were under 18 when the crime happened. Judges would start from the view that releasing a victim's personal details causes harm. Courts could also appoint a trustee to hold money owed to a child victim. One change lowers the smallest payment some victims can receive. If a victim's losses total under $3,000, the minimum award drops to 10 percent of those losses.
Congressional Summary
Strengthening Transparency and Obligations to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment Act of 2025 or the STOP CSAM Act of 2025This bill revises the federal framework governing the prevention of online child sexual exploitation to expand protections for victims, expand requirements for electronic communication service providers and remote computing service providers (providers), and expand related penalties and remedies.The bill extends protections for child victims and witnesses who testify in federal court (e.g., privacy protections) to child victims and witnesses of kidnapping offenses and to child victims and witnesses who were under 18 years of age at the time of the crime, even if they are 18 or older at the time of court proceedings.Additionally, the bill establishes statutory procedures for courts to appoint a trustee to hold restitution payments for certain victims (e.g., minor victims) of offenses involving human trafficking, sexual abuse, child sexual abuse material, illegal sexual activity and related crimes, or crimes of violence.The bill requires providers to report online child sexual exploitation to the CyberTipline (i.e., the national reporting system for online child sexual exploitation) within 60 days. Reports must include specified information, such as information about repeat offenders. The bill establishes criminal and civil penalties for providers who fail to comply with the requirements.Finally, the bill prohibits providers from hosting or storing child pornography or knowingly facilitating the sexual exploitation of children and allows victims to pursue civil remedies.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Action Date
- Date Added
- 2026-04-02
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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