Sam Chapman, left, and Jaime Puerta hold pictures of their sons Sammy Chapman and Daniel Puerta-Johnson, who died of fentanyl poisoning from pills purchased on Snapchat. The parents attended a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child safety on Jan. 31, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/AP)
Analysis by Will Oremus with research by Andrea Jiménez
Sammy Chapman was 16 years old when a drug dealer sent him a private message on Snapchat to offer free drugs that turned out to be fentanyl, an addictive and powerful opioid. On Feb. 7, 2021, his younger brother entered Sammy’s room to find him dead on the floor of fentanyl poisoning.
That tragedy spurred the brothers’ parents, Samuel Chapman and television host and relationship therapist Laura Berman, to lobby for laws that might spare other youngsters from similar fates.
Four years later, “Sammy’s Law” might be on the verge of moving ahead in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The law would require large online social platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok to be compatible with software that monitors kids’ interactions for indicators they might be at risk of serious harm and alert their parents. Some companies already offer third-party monitoring tools, but their functionality is limited because many online platforms do not support them.
The draft bill specifies more than a dozen categories of harms that the software can look for, including illegal drugs, firearms, cyberbullying and suicide. It stipulates that monitoring apps would have to be approved by the Federal Trade Commission for platforms to be required to support them.
Chapman said the bill was crafted to appeal to both parties, and that the list of harms was chosen to avoid controversial topics such as abortion, LGBTQ+ content or political speech. He also said he hopes the bill will avoid industry opposition, because it is unlikely to affect their business model or expose them to new liability.
“Kids are literally dying, and this is a way to save lives right away and not get hung up in court,” Chapman told the Tech Brief in a phone interview Friday.
Sammy’s Law is picking up bipartisan support as House Republican leaders look for narrower alternatives to the sweeping Kids Online Safety Act.
Sammy’s Law was first introduced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) and three co-sponsors in 2023 but has until now has taken a back seat to KOSA, an ambitious bill that would require social media companies to take new measures to keep young users safe. The Senate passed KOSA last year, but it stalled in the House, where Republican leaders still see obstacles such as a possible First Amendment challenge.
Hill watchers think that could open up the field for more lightweight bills such as Sammy’s Law to be taken up this fall, perhaps by Rep. Brett Guthrie’s (R-Kentucky) House Committee on Energy and Commerce, as lawmakers look for other ways to protect kids online.
A spokesperson for the committee said they expect a “broader approach to kids’ safety this Congress, looking at several pieces of legislation that include a range of solutions including empowering parents and strengthening privacy protections for minors.”
The six sponsors of Sammy’s Law this term are evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.
“We’re bipartisan now, but we’re ready for a partisan fight on either side,” Chapman said. “Because, as we like to say, the kids don’t have a party.”
In a phone interview with Tech Brief on Monday, Wasserman Schultz said she is “very hopeful that it could move this Congress, because it has very real bipartisan support.”
“Every parent worries about what their kids are seeing on social media,” she said — especially given the prevalence of apps that allow private, disappearing messages. “The bottom line is that parents need to be able to know” when their child is having “dangerous and risky interactions” online.
“If a child is expressing thoughts of suicide via social media, a parent could receive an alert from a third-party safety app,” she said. “We know these alerts have already protected millions of children when they’re made available.
Republicans have made kids’ safety a focus of their tech policy agenda this year.
Among the GOP figures backing Sammy’s Law is Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Georgia).
“Once I heard Sammy’s story, there was no doubt in my mind that we need more social media guardrails to keep children safe and that Sammy’s Law was a step in the right direction,” Carter told the Tech Brief in an emailed statement. “I’m proud to co-lead this important bill, which will alert parents when their children engage with dangerous content online, and am pushing for swift action to get this critical bill to President Trump’s desk.”
Critics say the bill is well-intended but would put children at risk in other ways, by invading their privacy.
“This bill starts with the seeds of a good idea and takes it to a really dark place: surveilling children even more than they already are,” said Matthew Lane, senior policy counsel at the nonprofit Fight for the Future, which campaigns on digital privacy issues.
“Subjecting already vulnerable children to invasive measures by apps that could expose their information or violate their privacy is the opposite of safety,” Lane added. “For LGBTQ young people in particular, access to information online can be a lifeline when you don’t have an affirming household or community. If we want to protect children, we should be fighting for privacy laws, protecting encryption, and learning from Bluesky’s model, where they allow third party algorithmic feeds and moderation tools.”
This story was originally published on The Washington Post
