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Hundreds of households who blame social media for the deaths of their youngsters, teenagers and younger adults penned a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday, demanding he use his affect to go laws generally known as the Kids Online Safety Act to set necessities for Big Tech firms to guard minors from on-line hurt.
“We have paid the ultimate price for Congress’s failure to regulate social media,” the letter says.
It comes greater than per week after the CEOs of Discord, Snap, TikTok, X and Meta testified earlier than a Senate Judiciary Committee listening to to debate on-line child safety.
“Our children have died from social media harms,” the households wrote. “Platforms have done everything and anything to maximize young people’s engagement – including designing products that invite our kids down dangerous and deadly rabbit holes of pro-suicide and eating disorder content; enticing them to attempt dangerous challenges; facilitating sextortion schemes; and implementing design features that leave children more vulnerable to predation, drug dealers, and cyberbullying.”
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Family members maintain up photographs of their family members earlier than the begin of a Senate Judiciary Committee listening to with the heads of social media platforms on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, to debate child safety. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
“These are not isolated incidents but rather a harrowing reflection of a broader, systemic mental health crisis that demands immediate legislative action,” the letter says. “Last week, many of us traveled to Washington to witness first-hand the historic hearing with social media CEOs. That hearing made clear for the American people what we understand all too well: Unregulated social media has been a disaster for young people’s privacy, safety and wellbeing. Platforms will never make meaningful changes unless Congress forces them to. The urgency of this matter cannot be overstated. If the status quo continues, more children will die from preventable causes and from social media platforms’ greed. We respectfully ask you to leverage your considerable influence and leadership to prioritize the safety of American children and bring the Kids Online Safety Act to a vote in the U.S. Senate.”
Notably, the first of tons of of signatories on the letter is South Carolina state Rep. Brandon Guffey, who’s suing Instagram after his 17-year-old son Gavin died by suicide after falling sufferer to an extortion group from Nigeria working by means of the Meta-owned app. Referencing Guffrey’s case at the Jan. 31 listening to, Ranking Member Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., instructed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “You have blood on your hands.” Later, at the urging of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Zuckerberg stood mid-hearing and apologized to these seated in the gallery whose relations unknowingly purchased fentanyl off social media and died or had been victims of consuming problems, self-harm and suicide as a result of of dangerous social media content material.
The youngest sufferer whose kin signed the letter to Schumer was 8-year-old Lalani Erika Walton, of Texas. Her parents are suing TikTok and father or mother firm, ByteDance, alleging the lady died of self-strangulation whereas collaborating in the viral “Blackout Challenge,” which inspired customers to choke themselves with belts, purse strings or different comparable objects till passing out.
Discord CEO Jason Citron, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, X CEO Linda Yaccarino and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are sworn in throughout a Senate Judiciary Committee listening to on Jan. 31, 2024, to debate child safety. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Republican and Democratic senators got here collectively in a uncommon present of settlement all through the listening to, although it isn’t but clear if this will probably be sufficient to go laws resembling the Kids Online Safety Act or different proposed measures supposed to guard children from on-line harms.
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Schumer is now coping with the fallout after Senate Republicans resisted approving a bipartisan border invoice Wednesday, and afterward, the Majority Leader tried to push forward to an important take a look at vote on a $95 billion bundle for Ukraine, Israel and different U.S. allies — a modified bundle with the border portion stripped out.
After the Jan. 31 listening to, a spokesperson for Schumer targeted on efforts to “pass the supplemental and keep the government funded in the coming weeks,” whereas promising the Majority Leader “will continue to work with the sponsors of the online safety bills to ensure the necessary support,” The Hill reported.
With all that on his plate, it’s unclear if efforts to carry Big Tech accountable have once more fallen to different priorities in the higher chamber.
The Senate flooring settled into an hours-long stall Wednesday night time as Republicans huddled to see if they may acquire the votes essential to push it by means of the chamber. Schumer then closed the flooring, saying he would “give our Republican colleagues the night to figure themselves out” forward of an important take a look at vote Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., talks to reporters as he walks to his workplace at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 7, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the Kids Online Safety Act would require social media platforms to supply minors with choices to guard their info, disable addictive product options and decide out of personalised algorithmic suggestions. The bipartisan invoice would additionally create a authorized obligation for Big Tech firms to stop the promotion of content material about sure subjects, resembling suicide, consuming problems and self-harm.
According to The Hill, an up to date model superior out of the Senate Commerce Committee in July with practically half of all senators signing on as sponsors. Yet, the invoice has not been referred to as for a flooring vote this session or final session. Before final week’s listening to, Blumenthal and Blackburn instructed reporters they had been working with stakeholders on some of the invoice’s provisions.
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The model that superior in July narrowed the definition of obligation of care to appease advocates who feared the legislative proposal would do an excessive amount of to stifle info for teenagers about sexuality, gender id and reproductive well being care.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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