Buckets Over Bullying hosted a free Social Media Safety Rally in Chicago on November 5, 2022 for teens and their parents. The objective was to educate the community about the importance of never using their digital devices as a weapon – a weapon that is killing kids across the U.S.
A coalition of local elected officials, experts, school administrators and impacted parents joined forces to help raise awareness about the dangers social media poses to our children. Tuesday, October 3, 2023 was proclaimed Social Media Safety Day in the city of Chicago and Cook County. Buckets Over Bullying founders, Rose and Rob Bronstein, urged parents, educators and legislators to disrupt the status quo by implementing common sense policies such as mandating cyber safety training for students and administrators.
NAMI Chicago (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and Advocates Pursue “Mental Health for All” at community walk. The annual NAMIWalks 2023 fundraising event was organized to support free educational programs, power advocacy efforts and strengthen outreach to the community.
May of 2023 marked the fourth time that survivor parents marched to Snapchat’s Santa Monica headquarters as part of the ‘Gone in a Snap’ demonstration. These parents share similar stories and a common goal: to hold Snap Inc. accountable for what they view as complicity in their children’s deaths and to advocate for more safety measures and controls on the platform.
Buckets Over Bullying attended the Rally to Save Our Youth: Gone in a Snap March outside Snapchat HQ in Santa Monica in partnership with VOID and the Alexander Neville Foundation. The rally sought to put increased pressure on Snapchat to agree to a duty of care & 3rd party auditing and to bring continued awareness to how easy it is for exploitation to happen via Snapchat and other social media platforms.
You can read more about the “Gone in a Snap’ protest below.
Hoopbus, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit aiming to empower, rebuild, and amplify communities through basketball, partnered with Buckets Over Bullying, a Chicago-based non-profit fighting to stop cyberbullying of children and teens through education, lawmaking, and legal action, hosted three local events to educate Los Angeles area children on cyberbullying. The events brought together people of all ages through their love of basketball while encouraging kids to pledge to “never use their device as a weapon.”
The Organization fo Social Media Safety Gala honored social media heroes for their work to make social media safer for teens. Buckets Over Bullying founders, Rose and Rob Bronstein, were awarded the Sammy Chapman Memorial Award for their advocacy work to protect families from the devastating consequences of cyberbullying.
Buckets Over Bullying joined with the Chicago Public League for the CPL High School Basketball Championships in 2023 and 2024 to help stop cyberbullying of children and teens through education. Buckets Over Bullying was featured throughout CPL Basketball Championship Week with in-arena messaging.
“Take the Pledge,” a cyberbullying program presentation, was shared during both the girls and boys championship finals.
Buckets Over Bullying was joined by the renowned Chicago-based Jesse White Tumblers troupe and social media basketball trick shot sensation Tristan Jass, a.k.a. TJass, for halftime festivities.
Buckets Over Bullying has held rallies at the following schools to educate students and faculty about social media safety:
Walter Payton High School
St. Helen School
Oscar Mayer School
DePaul Basketball Game, March 2024
Buckets Over Bullying has employed community engagement strategies to amplify their message about the dangers and devastating consequences of cyberbullying and to bring awareness to the unsatisfactory response to Nate Bronstein’s cyberbullying report and request for help to make it stop.
Buckets Over Bullying presented their cyberbullying message in front of The Latin School of Chicago.
Buckets Over Bullying organized a protest at The Latin School of Chicago fundraiser to highlight the devastating consequences of cyberbullying and to bring awareness to the unsatisfactory response to Nate Bronstein’s cyberbullying report and request for help to make it stop.
Buckets Over Bullying founding board member and survivor parent, Rose Bronstein, joined survivor parents who have lost children to suicide after they were relentlessly cyberbullied in Washington D.C. on Feb. 14, 2023 for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on “Protecting Our Children Online.”
During the hearing, survivor parent, Kristin Bride told the bipartisan committee chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin, D- Ill: “It is so difficult to tell our stories of the very worst day of our lives over and over and over again, and then not see change. We’re done with the hearings; we’re done with the stories. We are looking to you all for action. And I am confident that you can all come together and do this for us and for America’s children.”
Buckets Over Bullying founders attended a Senate Judiciary Hearing where the CEOs of major social media companies testified before Congress to answer questions on the topic of their companies and the online child exploitation crisis.
The founders joined other parents of children harmed by social media and sat in the audience holding photos of their children. After the hearing, Rose Bronstein spoke with Martha MacCallum of Fox News about the social media and online dangers facing children.
Buckets Over Bullying strongly supports the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Lawmakers have been debating the “sunsetting” of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in order to force Congress to re-legislate the protections provided to social media companies for what is posted on their platforms.
You can read more about the Communications Decency Act and the move to sunset Section 230 below.
The Brady Hunter Foundation has partnered with OFSMS and Buckets Over Bullying to bring social media safety curriculum to Miami’s students and parents. The curriculum addresses cyberbullying, suicide, depression, and more. You can read about the Brady Hunter Foundation below.
