‘Big Tech or families?’ Parents head to Washington to reignite fight for online safety laws

By Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — A group of parents and advocates gathered on Capitol Hill on Tuesday in a renewed push for online safety legislation, hoping to build on the momentum of court wins against social media companies last month. With the Capitol building as a backdrop, they were surrounded by 150 roses — representing children who they say died because of online harms.

Around 60 parents who say their children were harmed or died because of tech platforms traveled from around the country to hold a vigil and speaking event on the Capitol’s west lawn. They also aim to meet with individual lawmakers to advocate for federal legislation that would force tech companies to change their platforms to better protect minors.

Parents used the opportunity to call on President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and House Republican leaders Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise to help push this legislation forward.

“What I am asking of the first lady is this: Sit with your husband, the most powerful man in the world, and hear the voices of the families here today,” said Toney Roberts, who said social media contributed to the suicide death of his 14-year-old daughter, Englyn.

Roberts — who, like Scalise and Johnson, is from Louisiana — began his comments with “here we go again,” underscoring how frequently parents have made similar appeals in recent years.

Tuesday’s event included parents who say they’ve experienced the risks of social media firsthand, as well as youth advocates and parents who say AI tools harmed their children. That includes Alicia Shamblin, who is suing OpenAI after ChatGPT allegedly encouraged her 23-year-old son Zane to die by suicide. (In response to that lawsuit, still in its early stages, OpenAI previously it was studying the details of the case and working with mental health professionals to improve its chatbot.)

“It’s time for lawmakers to choose: Are they going to side with kids and the safety of our children, or with Big Tech?” Todd Minor told CNN ahead of the event. Minor’s son Matthew died at age 12 after participating in the “choking challenge,” which Minor says he learned about on social media.

Minor is one of many parents and online safety advocates who have spent years pushing for greater federal online child safety protections. While lawmakers have grilled tech executives and whistleblowers in public hearings, legislative efforts have repeatedly stalled.

“It’s like throwing your body up against a brick wall,” said Ava Smithing, founding partner at the advocacy group TheAttentionStudio. Smithing, 25, was inspired to become an advocate after she was served extreme dieting content on social media as a teenager and developed an eating disorder.

Two juries in March found that social media companies knowingly harmed young people, and advocates hope those verdicts will finally persuade lawmakers to act. A New Mexico jury found Meta liable for enabling child sexual abuse on its platforms, and a California jury found Meta and YouTube liable for knowingly addicting and harming a young woman.

Meta and YouTube parent company Google have said they will appeal the verdicts, arguing their platforms are not addictive. YouTube and Meta declined to comment for this story.

Parents say evidence uncovered during the trials reinforce their personal experiences. They plan to display and distribute copies of the companies’ internal documents that were released as evidence, which suggest the firms knew that features such as beauty filters and endlessly scrolling feeds could harm young people.

“We are not going to back down, and now we have evidence which backs up the stories we have been bringing to Congress for years now,” Parents RISE! Founder Julianna Arnold told CNN ahead of the event. “We don’t want any more hearings.”

Advocates want federal lawmakers to pass online safety laws around social media and AI tools without preempting states’ ability to regulate.

Lawmakers have, for example, been at odds over the Kids Online Safety Act after House Republicans introduced a version of the bill that would preempt related state laws, which advocates say would undermine the protections they’ve fought for at the state level. And late last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order blocking state AI regulations, despite the lack of an extensive federal AI policy.

“How many more children have to be harmed or die before meaningful legislation is passed?” Roberts said Tuesday.

“Speaker Johnson, Steve Scalise, it’s time for you to do the right thing — bring the Senate version of KOSA to the House floor for a vote,” he said, referring to the Kids Online Safety Act.

Roberts also asked Johnson to sit down with parents, adding that “we’ve been trying for a while now.” Johnson met with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shortly after the March trial decisions.

“As a father himself, Speaker Johnson has been a longtime champion for the rights of parents and the protection of children,” a spokesperson for Johnson told CNN in a statement. “That is exactly why the House is working through legislative solutions that protect kids online while defending the free speech rights of all Americans.”

CNN has also reached out to representatives for Scalise for comment.

While states have passed social media and AI youth safety legislation, “at the federal level, we have very few, if not any, bills that are there to protect and provide guardrails,” Arnold said. “Everyone has to stop shielding Big Tech.”

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This story has been updated with additional content.