“The day that Riley died, we did not go to school because he was getting braces on his teeth,” said Mary Rodee, a member of the Canton Central Teachers Association. After the orthodontist appointment, Rodee dropped her 15-year-old son at his dad’s house with a milkshake and ibuprofen, took a quick photo of his new silver smile, and headed to work.
“I said goodbye to him at 10 a.m. The next time I saw him, he was in a body bag,” she said.
Riley died from suicide after being sexually extorted on Facebook. “I think he knew how much we loved him, but he just couldn’t access that part of his brain in that moment,” Rodee said.
Social media and digital spaces are giving anonymous predators unprecedented access to our children, and instead of punishing perpetrators, Rodee said, the laws seem designed to protect them. “Even as I talk to you, they’re doing this to other kids because no one is stopping them.”
To protect our country’s most vulnerable citizens, Rodee and other educators are calling for the passage of the Kids Online Safety Act.
The bipartisan federal bill would limit the ability of adults who don’t know them to contact children or access their private information. The bill would also hold platform manufacturers accountable for user safety through a duty of care provision, just like automobile manufacturers or toy companies have, she said.
KOSA would also require platform manufacturers to make it easier for users to report inappropriate content and to be transparent about how often this happens to kids.
“If the public heard that two million 11-to-14-year-old girls were sent genital pictures last week, they would be in an uproar,” Rodee said.
Earlier this year, New York educators rallied around two state bills, the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act and the New York Child Data Protection Act — and won. The bills were signed into law in late June.
NYSUT President Melinda Person noted that the laws, which prohibit kids from being exposed to addictive feeds and prevent their personal data from being collected, mark a first-in-the-nation move to curb the damaging effects of social media.
“Protecting children online in the midst of a mental health crisis is common sense, and we are proud that New York is leading the way,” said Person. Now educators are hoping to make those same substantial changes at the federal level.
“We know we need less screen time, but we also know we need to hold the social media companies accountable,” said Randy Freiman, president of the Massena Federation of Teachers. Last year, Freiman took a consulting position with Fairplay for Kids, a nonprofit organization leading the movement to get KOSA passed.
Concerned that tech was making education too transactional, Freiman has leaned into in-person lectures in his own classroom and hands-on experiments to reinforce his lessons. “You can’t take the human out of the equation,” he said.
In June, the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called for a warning label on social media platforms, including and urged Congress to pass legislation to safeguard children. “Legislation from Congress should shield young people from online harassment, abuse and exploitation and from exposure to extreme violence and sexual content that too often appears in algorithm-driven feeds,” he wrote. Murthy also suggested schools become phone-free environments for children.
Many educators are ahead of that curve. Eight years ago, Christopher Kazim, president of the Port Chester TA, banned cellphones in his classroom and the results have been dramatic. “I’ve seen less distraction, more motivation and engagement, students talking to one another again,” Kazim said. “They’re more focused and ready to learn.”
Every day, Kazim sees evidence that excessive cellphone use is impacting his students’ brain development. “They spend less time building communication and interpersonal skills,” he said. “Even though they’re always connected, it’s almost like they’re more isolated than they were before.”
Kazim says state and federal legislation is critical for student safety. “The dialogue is happening, but it’s going to take legislation to make this shift happen,” he said.
Still, he’s optimistic. “Forty years ago, we didn’t make people wear seatbelts. We didn’t use air bags. Now we do.”
This is the second installment in our “Disconnected” series. In the first installment, we investigated the impact digital devices and social media have on students’ health and wellbeing.