(NewsNation) — A hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill brought the CEOs of America’s top social media companies face-to-face with angry lawmakers representing American people who are fed up with the negative effects of popular apps on children, including sexual exploitation and dangerous challenges.
There was a moment in which Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pushed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to apologize to families whose children died as a result of online hate and harm.
It didn’t come as genuine in the eyes of Joann Bogard.
“The apology was forced, and it was shallow,” Bogard said Wednesday on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” “The only way that we’re going to move forward with any of this is through … the Senate passing the Kids Online Safety Act.”
Bogard’s son Mason died in 2019 after attempting an online challenge that encourages kids to choke themselves. He was just 15 years old. Bogard now works with lawmakers and other parents to pass legislation and encourage social media education in schools.
Kristin Bride was also at Wednesday’s hearing and described the apology as “powerful” and “unexpected.”
“So often as a parent who’s lost their child to social media harms, you envisioned that moment of being able to face the CEO that is responsible for creating a product that has killed your child,” Bride said. “But in the end, it is not the apologies that we’re looking for— it is Congress to act.”
Bride’s son Carson died by suicide after receiving a flood of online harassment while using Snapchat. Bride attempted to sue the company and is now helping the effort to hold to them accountable.
Both women called on Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act. Co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Martha Blackburn, R-Tenn., it would require social media companies to create more safeguards for minors.
“That will put so many protections in place for so many children,” Bogard said.
Zuckerberg said during the hearing that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, continues to invest and work on “industrywide efforts” to protect children.
But time and time again, children’s advocates and parents have stressed that none of the companies are doing enough.
“I had all of the safety features turned on, watchdog apps in place; they still fed that harmful contact to him,” Bogard said. “These harms are happening to normal, average kids overnight, and parents don’t even have a chance to educate them on the harms that are out there because there’s so many.”
Bride also had no idea her son was enduring online hate.
“He received over a hundred harassing sexually explicit messages by his high school classmates who were using (the app) YOLO, which had been integrated into Snapchat, to hide their identities and to torment him,” Bride said. “It is incredibly tragic, and it didn’t need to happen because anonymous apps have a very long history of leading to teen cyberbullying and suicides.”
