{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/icymiphotos-and-videoicymi-blumenthal_blackburn-hold-roundtable-with-grieving-parents-to-discuss-kids-online-safety", "***ICYMI***Photos & Video***ICYMI: Blumenthal & Blackburn Hold Roundtable with Grieving Parents to Discuss Kids Online Safety", "2023-10-27", "2023", "2023-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "CT", "Richard Blumenthal", "B001277", "www.blumenthal.senate.gov", "blumenthal", "https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press", "scraper", "[WASHINGTON, D.C.] \u2013 This week, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led a roundtable discussion with parents whose children fell victim to the dangers of social media to discuss the importance of the Kids Online Safety Act and holding Big Tech accountable for their addictive features that intentionally target kids and teens.\n\nMore photos are available here & video is available here.\n\n\u201cThank you for your persistence and for continuing to share your stories. I think it means more than you will ever know,\u201d said Senator Blackburn. \u201cBeing able to get this passed \u2014 get KOSA passed \u2014 and putting in place the protections that you all want to see so that you have those tools, just like you\u2019re saying, to protect kids, and putting that responsibility on social media, that duty of care, is so important. I am so grateful that you all are here.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re making a difference, have no doubt that you\u2019re making a difference. You\u2019re helping others to avoid what you went through,\u201d said Senator Blumenthal. \u201cWhen the product design kills people, and they know it kills people, they ought to be held accountable.\u201d\n\nSharing their stories with the senators were parents whose children died or were severely impacted by cyberbullying, online extortion attempts, social media challenges, eating disorders, racially-motivated attacks, drug deals, and more \u2014 all of which were facilitated via social media platforms.\n\n\u201cAnonymous apps have always, when they\u2019re marketed to teens, led to cyberbullying because there\u2019s no accountability in a suicide,\u201d said Kristin Bride, mother to Carson who took his own life after receiving tormenting messages from classmates who hid their online identities. \u201cThese dangerous designs just keep coming and coming because there is no duty of care and that\u2019s why I\u2019m doing this work. I don't want to see other kids die and go through what our family has had to endure.\u201d\n\n\u201cRiley died by suicide on March 30, 2021 after he was targeted through Facebook messenger by a sextortionist that got him to send compromising images, and then blackmailed him,\u201d said Mary Rodee, mother to Riley who was lost to suicide. \u201cWe\u2019d had lots of talks about safety\u2026and still, this person from across the world was able to scare my Riley to death. This is not something that teachers or police officers or parents can fight\u2026we really need that duty of care that could have saved my baby.\u201d\n\n\u201cI get online, every week, I re-traumatize myself, and I search for the Choking Challenge,\u201d said Joann Bogard, mother to Mason who died after attempting an online challenge encouraging kids to choke themselves. \u201cI find the videos, I report them with the system that the platforms put in place, and very, very seldom do they take any of them down\u2026It doesn\u2019t go away, and it\u2019s not going away.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen social media companies say that kids are searching for this content\u2026they are lying and they know it,\u201d said Meg Stuhmer, mother to Carly, who was seriously injured in a 2021 car accident that claimed the life of another teen. \u201cThere\u2019s an algorithm for us as adults, and there\u2019s an algorithm for kids and they are targeting our kids...This is the only [industry] that\u2019s not regulated. It needs to happen, and it should have already happened...KOSA needs to pass.\u201d\n\n\u201cI found out that she had communicated with a gentleman she had met on Instagram who\u2019s a drug dealer,\u201d said Julianna Arnold, mother to Coco who was poisoned by fentanyl in a drug deal that was arranged via social media. \u201cThe social media companies know what\u2019s going on. They are distributing the drugs for the cartels\u2026It would not be possible, and they would not be killing our kids the way they are if they did not have complete access to our young people through these social media channels. KOSA is very important because of the protections and accountability it can place on these social media companies.\u201d\n\n\u201cI firmly believe in KOSA. My daughter survived this, and I\u2019m just thankful for that, but I have a moral responsibility to be here with these parents and fight for KOSA,\u201d said LaQuinta Hernandez, mother to Jasmine who experienced severe online harassment and racist cyberbullying. \u201cUs as parents, there\u2019s only so much we can do. We\u2019re taking on these Big Tech companies, and we need help.\u201d\n\nSenators Blackburn and Blumenthal first introduced the Kids Online Safety Act in February 2022 following reporting and after spearheading a series of five subcommittee hearings with social media companies and advocates on the repeated failures by tech giants to protect kids on their platforms and about the dangers kids face online.\n\nMore photos and videos are available here.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T00:49:26Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/icymiphotos-and-videoicymi-blumenthal_blackburn-hold-roundtable-with-grieving-parents-to-discuss-kids-online-safety"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3802049215883017, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}