On February 7, 2021, 16-year-old Sammy Berman Chapman was quietly killed in his Santa Monica home. The perpetrator: a Pill containing fentanyl The teenager had made a purchase order on social media.
Now his parents Sam Chapman and Laura Berman are fighting to pass SB 1444 within the California state legislature, often known as the Let Parents Choose Protection Act of 2024 – or Sammy's Law. The bill requires all major social media platforms to enable integration with third-party monitoring software that may notify Parents in case of danger– comparable to drug and firearm sales, mobbing or suicidal thoughts – show up on their children’s accounts.
“If Sammy's Law had been in effect, Sammy would still be alive today,” Laura Berman said, fighting back tears during a committee hearing in Sacramento on Tuesday, April 23. “It won't save Sammy's life, but it won't save my other children. We must die because of the risks of social media and the dangers, the predators and the drug dealers that our children face.”
Sammy's parents had no idea the teenager was talking to 1 Drug dealer on Snapchat and wished they might have monitored his account.
“He (the dealer) delivered a lethal dose of fentanyl to our house after we were asleep like he was delivering pizza,” Chapman said. “Our boy didn’t even have to leave his front yard to get the dose that killed him.”
SB 1444 was authored by state Sen. Henry Stern, D-Calabasas, and approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday afternoon, bringing it one step closer to becoming law. Stern didn’t attend the meeting because he was celebrating the Passover holiday, so state Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, introduced the bill on his behalf.
“The level of distress that social media causes among children is persistent, pervasive and severe,” Min said. “Although awareness of these harms has increased in recent years and various legislative efforts have been made, the risk to the Children's health and well-being through social media use. Third-party security software is a proven solution to quickly increase security for young adult social media users.”
Third-party parental control software can already be used on platforms like Reddit and Tumblr. However, most of the most important social media firms – comparable to TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat – don’t allow this software to be integrated into their platforms.
Marc Berkman, CEO of the Organization for Social Media Safety, said that's because major players fear that in the event that they voluntarily allow parental monitoring, their users will migrate to other platforms.
“The problem is that there is a conflict of interest with business motives and security,” he said. “If we create a level playing field, we can give parents access to all the platforms their children use.”
The bill faces opposition from technology industry advocacy groups TechNet and the Computer and Communications Industry Association, in addition to the nonprofit civil rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation.
These groups expressed concerns that third-party monitoring platforms could violate children's privacy and put their data in danger.
“This bill provides very little protection for user data,” TechNet representative Dylan Hoffman said, adding that the bill would require platforms to share minors’ data with “third parties that have not been properly vetted or approved.”
Hoffman also shared concerns that the software would enable invasive surveillance and expose children in unsupportive families to danger from their parents.
Min explained that the bill has already incorporated several guardrails and amendments in response to those concerns.
For example, the monitoring software may not provide parents with details about their children's reproductive decisions or the gender and sexual identity. The bill also requires minors to learn if their parents resolve to make use of this software.
Finally, any third-party monitoring software must register with the Attorney General's Office, submit audits for review by the Attorney General's Office, and lose its right to do business within the state if it inappropriately discloses a minor's information.
“The writer’s office wanted me to emphasize that it remains committed to working with the committee, its staff and the opposition to address any concerns about children’s privacy and data security,” Min said.
Chapman and Berman are also advocating for a federal version of Sammy's Law, H.R. 5778, authored by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz of Florida. Earlier this yr, they joined a gaggle of 20 grieving parents who traveled to D.C. to advocate on social media for the law and other bills to guard children.
If the federal version of Sammy's Law fails, Chapman hopes the California bill will prevail and have far-reaching impact.
“We hope that when you vote at the state level, it will be harder for the platforms to function with a patchwork of government protections — they can't tell who's in California and who's in Nevada — and so they have to make the choice.” “We will adopt the most restrictive law and apply it across the country,” Chapman said.
Chapman isn’t naïve in believing that a state law could spur national change. Stricter consumer and environmental regulations enacted in California have often led to firms adopting these standards across America.
In fact, this phenomenon is so common that political scientists have given it a reputation: the “California Effect.”
SB 1444 will now move to the Senate Appropriations Committee after which, if approved, to a 3rd vote within the Senate after which to the Assembly for a final vote.
“I would fall to my knees,” Sam Chapman said, describing how he would feel if the bill became law. “Just the thought of it chokes me up. I mean it would protect millions of children.”
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