By Annie McGrath
Co-Founder, ParentsSOS
Mother of Griffin, Forever 13
If you’ve been following the news this week, you’ve probably heard about the two major verdicts against social media companies. Many words have already been written about what these rulings mean. But I’m writing to you now to share my perspective as a mother. A mother who lost her son to online harms. A mother who has fought to hold Big Tech accountable. And a mother who has waited for this moment for many years.
To tell you the story properly, I have to take you back in time to the worst moment of my life. In February 2018, my son, Griffin, died. He was just 13 years old. “Bubba,” as we called him, was the kind of kid you never had to worry about. He had good grades, good friends, and a good heart. Just two weeks before his death, he placed third in the National Science Bowl competition. I was so proud!
But Bubba’s love of science and experiments led him to frequently look at YouTube. It was there that something called “The Pass-Out Challenge,” which dares kids to stop breathing until they pass out, was fed to him. One night, while FaceTiming with his friends, my son tried this challenge. And just like that, he was gone.
There are no words that can truly describe the wound that comes from losing a child. But that wound has only been deepened by the fact that the companies responsible for endangering my son and so many other children through their dangerous algorithms and deadly business model have been allowed to carry on with business as usual for all these years. This week, that finally changed.
As you’ve probably heard by now, on Wednesday, a jury in Los Angeles held YouTube and Meta liable in a landmark trial on social media addiction and kids. And just the day before, a jury in New Mexico ruled that Meta violated state law in a case focused on child sexual exploitation, and ordered the company to pay $375 million in damages.
These are two huge rulings. People like us have known all this time that Big Tech companies design their products to keep kids hooked to their screens. We know their own internal documents show the harm they’re causing young people. And we know they’ve ignored that evidence and continued to put profits ahead of children’s lives. But now, two juries have reviewed the evidence — and held the companies accountable.
While these rulings are a breakthrough for our movement, we still have a long way to go. There are many more cases against Big Tech companies that are expected to go to trial in the near future. And our fight to pass legislation to protect children online must move forward.
I was proud to attend the trial in Los Angeles with fellow members of ParentsSOS, the network of survivor parents co-founded by Fairplay. Like me, the other moms and dads in this group have lost their sons and daughters to online harms. Together, we have fought for years to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a historic piece of legislation that would force Big Tech companies to change how they design their products so that they are no longer addicting and harming kids.
The Senate version of KOSA is the gold standard of children’s online safety legislation. It has bipartisan support from over 3/4s of Senators. We must do everything we can to make sure it advances.
This week has certainly been one that I will never forget. The past few days have proven that our movement can make a difference: We can take on the biggest, most powerful companies in the world, and we can beat them. These two trials were just the start.
I look forward to continuing to work with you to make sure that no more of our children are lost to Big Tech’s greed.