Zuckerberg and Others Face Senate Grilling Over Child Safety

Tech CEOs will testify in a Senate hearing on online child safety. California braces for floods and snowfall. And an innocent question from Elmo sets off a wave of trauma.

Here’s what to know today.

Five tech leaders are set to testify today before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing to address concerns about how platforms are considering their impact on children.

 The CEOs scheduled to testify are X’s Linda Yaccarino, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, Discord’s Jason Citron, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. 

Efforts to regulate social media are ramping up amid concerns from parents that platforms don’t do enough to keep their kids safe online. Past committee hearings with tech CEOs have been adversarial, and this hearing is expected to be no different. 

Many of the tech companies involved in today’s hearing have already said they don’t tolerate child sexual exploitation on their platforms, and they point to various tools they already offer as examples of their proactive methods. However, they have been slow to advocate for legislation that would create regulation in their industry.

Today, the CEOs will offer rare policy commitments and regulatory endorsements, representatives from some of the companies said. For example, Yaccarino is expected to offer support for the SHIELD Act, which criminalizes the transmission of nonconsensual intimate images and sexualized depictions of children. Last week Snap became one of the first social media platforms to stand behind the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, which would create a “duty of care” for social media companies that recommend content to minors. 

Here’s what else to expect at today’s hearing. Our reporters will also be live blogging throughout the event. Follow along at NBCNews.com.