Why It Will Take All Of Us In The Fight to Protect Kids From Online Harms
Education, Litigation, Legislation and Collective Action
When you’ve been in online safety work this long you know that it is going to take all of us to protect kids and teens from online harms. We are up against the most powerful forces who are targeting young users and we must work together toward this collective goal for our children. Don’t let Big Tech set the narrative to pit parents and the public against one another. The neglect to build a consumer product that is safe for minors is on this industry. Let’s finally place the burden where it belongs. A foundational truth is that every other industry who markets and sells to minors is subject to safety standards and technology should be no different. We are talking about life or death. Here’s why we need all the pieces working together to save lives.
Education Saves Lives
If I reach even one parent in the audience, or empower one student to speak up, to TALK MORE openly about what they are experiencing, then I have done my work. There has never been a more urgent moment to provide online safety education. As the founder of Talk More. Tech Less. a digital wellness and safety organization which trains communities on how to #TechResponsibly, I know that education is harm prevention.
The harms facing children and adolescents online are extensive and escalating. Teen boys are being targeted by organized sextortion schemes. Drug sales on platforms like Snapchat have contributed to fentanyl-related deaths. Self-harm content is algorithmically amplified. Dangerous viral challenges circulate unchecked on TikTok. AI chatbots giving harmful advice. These are not isolated incidents; they are systemic failures.
As Brian Montgomery, the bereaved father of Walker Montgomery, a victim of sextortion, said to me, “The biggest thing I want parents to understand is that they need to TALK MORE with their kids about these harms. Let them know that they can come to you with anything, no matter what.”
Sextortion is a form of online blackmail in which scammers coerce victims into sending money or more explicit content by threatening to release the victim’s private images or videos, often obtained through deception, manipulation or AI deepfakes. Terrified victims are isolated and cruelly harassed by these criminals, some to point of tragically ending their lives.
Tamia Woods, the bereaved mother of James Woods, a victim of sextortion said at her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Dec. 9, 2025, “The advice I would give parents is to talk to your children about sextortion. I knew nothing about it. Every parent today has a privilege that I did not have: information. It is free—let’s talk about it. Let’s educate our children. And to children, I would say this: be vulnerable one more time. You matter, even through your mistakes. Speak up. Say something. Stand up for yourself, because we will have your back. I would give anything to have James back.”
I’m grateful for the courage of parents speaking up. Many of the harms online are crimes and until Congress addresses the criminal exploitation of children online, those of us working on the front lines will continue to educate, to TALK MORE to save lives.
Litigation and Legislation Save Lives
I serve as co-chair of the Online Harms Prevention group with FairPlay, alongside survivor parents who have lost children to online harms and child safety advocates committed to protecting minors in digital spaces. On January 31, 2024 many of us went to Washington DCand attended the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis," where CEOs from Meta, TikTok, X, Snap, and Discord were questioned by Congress. More than two years later, meaningful legislative action has yet to follow. In 2024 the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support, only to stall in the House of Representatives. In 2025 the bill was significantly weakened, with critical protections stripped away. Many have pointed to the influence of the technology industry’s lobbying efforts in shaping this outcome.
Online safety discourse often shifts responsibility entirely onto parents. However, after more than a decade of working directly with families and students and being a mother of teens myself, that framing does not reflect reality. Parents are asking for help. We recognize that online harms translate directly into real-world consequences. Many of the harms online that parents are trying to protect their children from are criminal in every other context. Yet, through the broad protections in the outdated Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, they remain effectively tolerated on digital platforms, while Congress has failed to intervene. It’s been almost 30 years since meaningful federal online safety legislation has been passed.
Families bear the consequences. Technology companies continue to profit. Those profits, in turn, help maintain political influence at the expense of children and the health of our society.
While the technology industry has successfully advanced a narrative that places blame solely on parents: that better parenting would have prevented these harms, this narrative is contradicted by the companies’ own internal research. This all came to surface in the Landmark Social Media Addiction trial in LA, California. A Big Tobacco moment for social media where the verdict confirmed that the industry was negligent and harmful with their design.
It was a sobering and emotional moment to be sitting in the courtroom next to survivor parents this past February for opening statements presented by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Mark Lanier who is revealing how these companies addicted his client. Internal documents revealed these statements from the company’s own researchers:
“Oh my gosh yall IG is a drug…We’re basically pushers… We are causing Reward Deficit Disorder bc people are binging on IG so much they can’t feel reward anymore…”
“Teens talk of Instagram in terms of an ‘addicts narrative’ spending too much time indulging in a compulsive behavior that they know is negative but feel powerless to resist.”
“Teens are hooked despite how it makes them feel. Instagram is addictive, and time-spend on platform is having a negative impact on mental health.”
“These companies are prioritizing profits over people, while children and families pay the price.” - Laura Marquez-Garrett, Social Media Victims Law Center.
Former Meta employee and whistleblower Arturo Bejar said to me in DC last year, “The gaslighting of parents by these companies is reprehensible.”
Too often, parents internalize this blame, shifting responsibility onto themselves and even onto their children. When we do so, we absolve the entities that design, market, and profit from products that cause foreseeable harm. Every other industry that targets children is subject to safety standards, warning labels, age restrictions, and a legal duty of care. Technology platforms should be no different. These are health-harming products and must be regulated accordingly.
Collective Action Saves Lives
Legal experts, survivor parents, law enforcement, and child safety advocates have spent years supporting the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act. The weakened House versionrepresents a significant step backward. As Representative Castor described it, the current proposal is a “gift to Big Tech.
”This is not inevitable. The power to change course can still rest with the public.
Contact your members of Congress. Demand the passage of the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act. Demand that children’s lives take precedence over corporate profit. If we remember that real power belongs to the people, we honor the principles on which this country was founded.
Speak up.
Talk more.
Our children deserve nothing less.
-Dawn Wible, Founder Talk More. Tech Less.
Contact dawn@talkmoretechless.com