Polls
Families Demand Accountability for Social Media Dangers
Liberty Check
- Parents and advocates rallied outside a Los Angeles federal courthouse over alleged social media harms to children.
- Major platforms face hundreds of lawsuits accusing them of designing addictive features that endanger youth.
- The trial is examining whether platform features directly contribute to teen mental-health crises and impede law enforcement.
Parents and advocates rallied outside a Los Angeles federal courthouse, honoring children they claim lost their lives due to the unchecked influence of social media giants.
Major platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, Meta, and Alphabet face hundreds of lawsuits nationwide for knowingly designing addictive products that jeopardize youth safety and well-being.
- The ongoing trial in Los Angeles focuses on whether platform features directly contribute to mental health crises and exploitation of teens.
- Samuel Chapman revealed his son Sammy died after being targeted by drug dealers via Snapchat during lockdown, exposing dangerous failures in platform policing.
- Parents testified that tech companies routinely ignore law enforcement requests and subpoenas, stonewalling justice while profiting from vulnerable users.
“A counterfeit drug was delivered to our house like a pizza. A drug dealer reached out to him over the internet during lockdown when all the kids were locked in their rooms and online in our homes, what we thought were the safest place in the world.”
“But it turns out that if you put your child on the internet, it’s like dropping them off in the worst drug-filled neighborhood and hoping they do well for themselves.”
Chapman said.
“Sammy was found by his little brother on the floor in his room after the drug dealer networked through his school and presented a colorful drug menu, giving him something for free in an effort to get him addicted because fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and horribly addictive, and he would have had him as a customer for life if it didn’t kill him.”
Chapman added.
“But according to the DEA, the average online pill has 5 milligrams of fentanyl in it, and it only takes 2 milligrams to kill a child or someone who hasn’t taken it before.”
“So Jackson, his brother, found him there, called out for us, came in and tried to resuscitate Sammy and failed.”
“The firemen showed up, and they tried to bring him back, and they failed.”
Chapman noted police told him they
“wouldn’t bother reaching out anymore because they don’t return the calls of the police.”
“Parents have been having a horrible time after they go to court and they do the work to find out what’s on their child’s device, and they present a subpoena to the platform, and the platforms don’t reply, or they hold it up, or they say they’re too busy or understaffed.”
Chapman told the DCNF.
“I had PTSD for two years from trying to resuscitate my son and failing.”
“His brother has anxiety and depression, and it took him a long time to feel better at all.”
Chapman stated.
“We’re now pushing for Sammy’s Law in Congress, named after him, which will require all social media and gaming platforms with children as users to open a link to third-party safety software that will give parents a warning if anything dangerous or illegal, like drug dealing or suicide or sex trafficking, happens on their devices.”
Victoria Hinks described her daughter Alexandra’s struggles, laying blame on platforms that exploited her vulnerabilities and pressured her into self-doubt.
“She was a beautiful girl inside and out. People would describe, if people could use one word to describe her, it was kind.”
Hinks explained.
“She was just a kind person in a very unkind world, both online and otherwise in real life.”
“She was just a joy. She was a wonderful kid.”
“She just got sucked into these dark algorithms that these platforms served up to her. These social media platforms, they know everything about our kids.”
“She was a guinea pig in this first cohort of kids that these companies started doing this social experiment on. We see now that they’re hooked and addicted, and they can’t get off and they don’t know how.”
Hinks added.
“We did everything. We took her phone.”
“We tried to take her phone away at night. We had to take her door off.”
“We turned her into someone we didn’t recognize. She was a sweet, happy kid.”
“But social media, we watched this downward spiral, knowing that it was just for profit.”
Hinks warned that these platforms purposefully create features like SnapScore and SnapMap to keep children endlessly engaged and vulnerable to manipulation.
Big Tech is evading responsibility while families and children pay the price. Americans must demand transparency, accountability, and respect for parental rights to keep our next generation safe.
The Constitution must be defended.
