Online Child Safety and Sextortion

Actor and filmmaker Joseph Gordon‑Levitt joined Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin on Capitol Hill on Feb. 4, 2026 to endorse the bipartisan Sunset Section 230 Act, which would dismantle the long‑standing liability shield that protects social media and other platforms from being sued over user content. Standing beside parents whose children died after online sextortion or cyberbullying, including South Carolina state Rep. Brandon Guffey, Gordon‑Levitt accused 'amoral' tech companies of hiding behind Section 230 and putting profits over kids’ safety, arguing they would act more aggressively on abuse if they could be sued. Guffey detailed how his 17‑year‑old son Gavin killed himself within 90 minutes of being extorted online, and said Meta removed one profile but left another active, allowing the same predator to extort at least 13 more children despite the company allegedly knowing the account was criminal. The bill aims to force Congress to revisit and rewrite Section 230 rather than leave it in place indefinitely, as lawmakers from both parties increasingly compare Big Tech’s youth‑safety record to the tobacco industry’s denial of harm. The push comes amid mounting public anger over sextortion, deepfake abuse and child‑safety failures online, and if it gains traction it would mark the most radical attempt in decades to rewrite the legal foundation of the modern internet.