Dear Friend –

I’m emailing you all with some great news. Since I last shared my daughter Grace’s story, we’ve seen the Maryland Kids Code signed into law, and legislators in Vermont unanimously passed the Vermont Kids Code. Exciting momentum is on our side, and we’re seeing it at the national level with the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Recently bereaved moms from Parents for Safe Online Spaces visited Capitol Hill again and met with Senate Majority Leader Schumer who committed to bringing KOSA to a vote.

With 70 co-sponsors in the Senate, it's time! I’m so thrilled that 14,714 of you have already sent emails to your senators, urging them to support and advance this legislation. But now, we need to escalate our pressure with calls to your senators.

I know, I know… making a call takes time and might be something new for you. But these calls make a huge difference as Senate offices track and tally incoming calls and report those numbers to senators. We need a strong show of support here.

I made a video showing you how easy it is to make a call using this cool tool that Accountable Tech’s team put together.

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is a crucial step towards protecting our children from the harms of Big Tech.

Let's prevent tragedies like my daughter Grace's and so many others from happening again. Together, we can push social media companies to make real changes and ensure our children's safety. Join me in making a phone call today.

Thanks for advocating,

Christine McComas
Parent advocate for social media reform
Mother of Grace McComas, forever 15

P.S. Follow Grace McComas Memorial on Facebook and Remember G.R.A.C.E. by Giving Respect And Compassion to Everyone!

---------- previous message ----------

Content Warning: This email includes mention of suicide

Hi Friend –

My name is Christine McComas. My husband and I are lifelong Maryland residents, where we raised our four daughters, including Grace McComas. Maryland’s Anti-Cyberbullying criminal statute, Grace’s Law, bears her name.

Accountable Tech invited me to reach out to you today and share our story. I was glad to take the opportunity to make clear why we need to do more to hold Big Tech accountable, especially when it comes to protecting our children.

This week marks the 12-year anniversary of my daughter Grace’s death by suicide after repeated online cyberbullying attacks. Grace was a funny, wonderfully kind, and well-loved human being. She had big blue eyes, a bubbly laugh, and was full of joy. She made us laugh every single day. She was a bright, communicative teen active in music, sports, and community service and had been selected for a school leadership program the year prior to her death.

We knew what was happening and tried desperately for months to get help before it was too late. We got mental health support for her; we shared the screenshots of the abuse with multiple public agencies and literally begged for assistance to make it stop. We did everything we could do. The truth is that there are huge, undeniable and unmitigated risks on these platforms that remain and are even worse today. You might sleep better in the false belief that the consequences could never happen to your family … but I’m here to tell you that they can.

What we all need to understand is that it’s just not possible for us to parent our way out of this problem. Big Tech companies like Meta hire top engineers to design these apps to be highly addictive and manipulative – and they’re making enormous profits from hooking our kids while collecting their data, while ignoring the terrible consequences.

Big Tech is bigger than all of us, so we need to come together and fight this – for the sake of this entire generation of young people. We must demand better from our legislators when it comes to holding social media companies accountable and forcing them to design kids' safety features into their products.

I shared my story with the Maryland State Senate as they debated the Maryland Kids Code, which thankfully has now passed both chambers unanimously and is headed to Governor Wes Moore’s desk for a signature. [1] The Maryland Kids Code requires tech companies to design their products with the safety of children front and center. It includes limiting data collection, prohibiting the sale of kids’ data, turning off geolocation, and making privacy the default so parents don’t have to go searching for privacy settings.

If you’re in one of the states where Kids Code legislation is advancing — like Minnesota and Vermont — visit their websites to get involved today, so we can protect more young people with this proven framework. And if you, like me, are in Maryland, you can contact Governor Moore to ask him to sign the MD Kids Code into law with urgency.

The passage of the Maryland Kids Code gives me hope. It makes me believe that more can be done at the national level, like passing the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). For years, Big Tech companies have quietly preyed on young people online – harvesting and collecting their intimate data for profit and designing platforms to keep them clicking regardless of the threats to their health, privacy, and safety. KOSA needs to pass soon before more kids suffer the consequences. If you haven’t already, please sign the petition to your U.S. Senators in support of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

I don’t want to see the tragedy of what happened to my daughter Grace happen to ANYONE else. She should still be here, and our family will never be the same.

I know that by working together, we can force social media companies to change their ways and keep our kids a lot safer than they are today. So I hope you’ll join me in this fight.

Thanks for reading,

Christine McComas
Parent advocate for social media reform
Mother of Grace McComas, forever 15

P.S. Follow Grace McComas Memorial on Facebook and Remember G.R.A.C.E. by Giving Respect And Compassion to Everyone!

1. New York Times: Maryland Passes 2 Major Privacy Bills, Despite Tech Industry Pushback

Chip in to support our work holding Big Tech accountable: CHIP IN

Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Accountable Tech, please click here.