In January, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee pressed leaders of popular social media platforms on issues faced by young users of their products including addiction, eating disorders, bullying and sextortion.

When asked to address affected parents from across the country, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg turned to parents in the gallery, including the Bronsteins, who silently held up photos of their dead children and said, “I’m sorry for everything you have all been through.” He said his company continues to work on “industrywide efforts” to protect children.

Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, a Glenview Democrat, is author of the Sammy’s Law bill in Illinois and said she hopes that its passage would pressure the federal government to take similar action.

“What I have seen is states being more successful in getting bills passed, and I think there is a standard that’s being set at the state level that will hopefully be an impetus for more federal action moving forward,” she said in a recent interview.

Versions of Sammy’s Law have also been introduced in the California legislature and in Congress, though neither bill has moved out of committee. Illinois’ version, which currently has 19 sponsors, was unanimously passed by the House Consumer Protection Committee on March 20.

State Attorney General Kwame Raoul, whose office would be responsible for holding platforms accountable under Sammy’s Law, is also backing the bill. In a recent interview, Raoul said “a lot of these platforms have been unable to police themselves,” warranting such government intervention.

Among those opposing the bill are progressive social groups who express concerns that expanded use of third-party safety software could expose LGBTQ+ children or children seeking reproductive health care living in unsupportive households. On April 4, a coalition made up of Equality Illinois, Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, Advocates of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, and the ACLU of Illinois sent Gong-Gershowitz a letter laying out the issues they have with Illinois’ version of Sammy’s law.

“We know that connecting via social media is one of the primary ways that young people have access to information, especially when other limitations like book bans are happening across the country,” Equality Illinois Deputy Director Mony Ruiz-Velasco said in a recent interview. “So we are concerned about the chilling effect it’ll have on people, and particularly young people, having access to resources and communities.”

Proponents have called these worries unfounded, saying the language limits the information third-party safety apps release to parents within the context of specific threats.

“Parents don’t get access to everything — they’re not reading every text message,” Gong-Gershowitz said in a recent interview. “It’s sort of like sending up a signal flare, right when there is a serious danger so that a parent could intervene at a critical moment.”

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