Top Senator Now Says the US Has ‘Failed Our Children’

In a tense Senate hearing on Tuesday, one of the nation’s top lawmakers didn’t hold back, accusing the country of dropping the ball when it comes to safeguarding children from dangerous online threats.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., posed a direct question to the panel of witnesses:

“Do you all agree that we’ve as a nation miserably failed our children — that we have hearings and we talk, [but] we’ve done very little to protect them, as of this date?”

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Every single witness agreed.

“That’s a damning indictment of all of us,” Graham replied.

The hearing, called “Protecting Our Children Online Against the Evolving Offender,” highlighted growing dangers like “sextortion” schemes and violent extremist groups operating on social media and gaming platforms.

These aren’t just isolated incidents—they’re escalating, and experts say current laws aren’t keeping up.

The Rising Tide of ‘Sextortion’ and Extremist Networks Like ‘764’

One of the most chilling threats discussed was “sextortion,” where scammers trick kids into sharing explicit images and then blackmail them for money or worse.

But even darker are networks like “764,” described as groups that coerce vulnerable children into self-harm, violence against others, or even suicide—all for the sake of chaos.

Lauren Coffren, executive director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), didn’t mince words.

“This trend has led to the most egregious exploitation that NCMEC has ever seen,” she testified, referring to 764 and similar groups.

“The imagery, the videos, the chats that we are seeing and reading are the most graphic that I have ever seen in my 20-year history.”

Coffren explained that these predators are “motivated purely by chaos,” essentially “weaponizing our nation’s children to be able to create terror.”

The numbers back up the urgency: NCMEC received more than 2,000 reports of abuse linked to 764 or similar networks in just the first nine months of 2025—double what they saw all of last year.

The FBI, which has labeled 764 as “modern-day terrorism,” is currently investigating over 350 people in the U.S. with suspected ties to these groups.

These networks often start on popular platforms, gathering personal info and intimate photos from kids, then using it to blackmail them into horrific acts, sometimes streaming the results for others to watch and share.

A Mother’s Heartbreaking Story: The Human Cost of Inaction

Perhaps the most emotional moment came from Tamia Woods, a mother from Streetsboro, Ohio, who lost her 17-year-old son James to sextortion in 2022.

“I stand before you as a mother whose only child was taken by something so preventable, so cruel and so ignored that it should shake every person in this room to their core,” Woods told the committee.

James took his own life after being targeted by overseas scammers.

Since then, Woods has founded the Do It For James Foundation to raise awareness.

From her perspective as a grieving parent, the delay in action is baffling.

“I guess I’m coming from a mom and a naive stance, I don’t understand why it’s so hard to pass laws,” she said.

“I just don’t understand how hard [it] is to protect our children. We won’t have a world without them.”

Her voice cracking with emotion, Woods urged any child watching who might be a victim to speak up, no matter the shame.

“I would give anything to have my son back,” she said. “And if they have to learn, if they have to see James’ face, if they have to see my tears, I’m going to make sure that it happens if it means that I can save your grandchildren. I’m going to do it.”

Why Current Laws Fall Short—and What Lawmakers Are Proposing Now

Former federal prosecutor Jessica Lieber Smolar laid out the legal gaps clearly.

She explained that “existing statutes do not adequately address the full scope or severe harm” of sextortion, and there are “no federal statutes that adequately criminalize the coercive conduct of 764 and similar groups.”

As a result, “right now, when we charge crimes like sextortion or 764, across the country we all charge them differently,” Smolar said.

“Sometimes we charge them as online threats, sometimes if we’re lucky we find [child pornography] and we charge them that way.

There’s no consistency that allows us to properly address the specific harm that these actors are committing.”

She pointed to a frustrating example: Cases where offenders abroad face charges in their countries, but U.S. laws don’t allow the same here.

“We should be able to charge these offenders, hold them accountable, and deter them from continuing to hurt our children,” Smolar urged.

In response, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., introduced three new bills on Tuesday.

One would make it a federal crime to intentionally coerce minors into self-harm or harming others, with penalties up to life in prison for actions leading to death or attempted suicide.

Another, the Stop Sextortion Act, would criminalize threats to share explicit images of minors to intimidate or cause distress.

The third aims to update sentencing guidelines for online sextortion threats against children.

Bipartisan Frustration, But Will Anything Change This Time?

The hearing showed rare bipartisan agreement on the need for action—frustration that years of talks haven’t led to real protections.Yet history offers caution.

The Kids Online Safety Act sailed through the Senate last year with a 93-1 vote but stalled in the House over free speech concerns.

As experts and families plead for change, the question lingers: Will these new proposals break the cycle, or become just another hearing in a long line of them?

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