STOP CSAM Act of 2025

Victims can sue websites, apps, and app stores that hosted or spread abuse images of them. They can take the $300,000 instead of proving what they lost. Judges can add legal fees and more.

A judge could name someone to hold the money for a victim who is a child, cannot manage it, or lives abroad. The judge can make the offender pay that person's fees.

Today someone convicted of trading abuse images must pay each victim at least $3,000. If a victim's total losses come to less than that, the floor would drop to 10 percent of those losses.

No website has to go hunting for abuse material. The bill keeps that rule and widens it. Duties start once a company learns of something.

The new claim against websites and app stores has no time limit. Someone abused years ago could still sue over images shared today.

A company cannot lose one of these suits just for offering strong encryption. But a jury can still hear about that choice, as a clue to what the company meant to do.

Reports go to the CyberTipline, a nonprofit hotline that passes them to police. The bill adds foreign police who work with the FBI, ICE, or Interpol.

Sealed files can hold a victim's address, health records, and school records. Courts could share them with any police agency, for any case.

It becomes a crime for an online service to host abuse images on purpose. It is also a crime to knowingly help others break child abuse laws. Fines reach $5 million if someone is hurt.

A first missed report costs up to $850,000 for platforms with 100 million or more monthly users, and up to $600,000 for smaller ones. Repeat violations raise the cap to $1 million, and it doubles if someone is harmed.

To use the removal defense, most sites must take the material down within 48 hours of learning about it. Sites averaging under 10 million U.S. users a month get 2 business days instead, which can span a weekend.

A judge can sanction someone who files two or more of these suits knowing no child was involved. The same rule applies to companies and lawyers who raise baseless defenses twice.

Section 230 normally stops most lawsuits against websites over content their users post. The bill says it cannot be used against the new victim claims.

This covers companies with over 1 million monthly users and over $50 million in revenue. They report each year on abuse on their service. The government must publish the reports, minus details that would help abusers.

Courts would start from the assumption that naming a child victim or witness harms them. Anyone seeking to open those records must clear a four-part test showing a strong public need.

The title is about abuse images. But these court privacy rules cover any crime a child saw or suffered. That includes a parent taking a child abroad. They last into adulthood.