The mothers of three children whose lives were severely impacted due to the negligent effects of social media stared down the billionaire CEOs of the tech companies at an emotional Senate panel hearing on Wednesday. Mariam Fawzi was a high school athlete before being airlifted to a hospital due to severe anorexia after watching pro-eating disorder content on TikTok and Facebook.
The parents have channeled their anguish into pushing for legislation aimed at putting an end to the abuse. Dick Durbin β has been maddeningly slow. As the executives entered the packed Senate Judiciary Committee Chamber, an audible hiss was heard from the crowd, which included many parents who held up photographs of their children who either died or had their lives upended, allegedly due to a lack of safety guardrails on social media platforms.
With limited gym options available during the lockdown, Neveen said Mariam began searching social media for workout videos to help maintain her conditioning until school sports resumed. Within months, Mariam began experiencing heart problems.
But Riley shot himself in after being targeted in a sexual extortion scheme by an overseas Facebook catfish who posed as an attractive girl and solicited him and several of his schoolmates with friend requests on the platform. Mary said her late son was baited into exchanging sexually explicit images with the adult, who then immediately turned around and attempted to extort the teenager. Please provide a valid email address.
By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. However, when Riley and Mary answered honestly about his age while setting up an account, he was prohibited from using the marketplace, which restricts users under Mary expressed fears that the public attention being paid to the teen victims would be short-lived and that the problem would only get worse without a serious and prolonged campaign aimed at fixing it.
