‘How Many Children Have To Die?’ Parents Protest Outside Snapchat HQ
SANTA MONICA, CA — After the death of her 13-year-old son Luca, Amanda Faith began to carry around his childhood stuffed toy husky with a heart-shaped urn containing his ashes stitched inside.
Faith said the idea to put the urn inside the stuffed dog named Rusty, which was Luca’s first toy as a child, stems from a time she and her son needed to patch a rip on its arm when Luca was very young. Faith said when performing the “surgery” she took off one of her heart-shaped earrings and sewed it up inside the stuffing. “Luca was so excited and he said ‘Now Rusty is going to live forever,'” Faith said. “When Luca died, I cut open Rusty’s chest, and there’s a heart-shaped urn in here containing Luca so that he’ll live forever.”
Faith was one of many parents who lost a child to gather outside Snapchat Headquarters in Santa Monica Friday afternoon to protest and bring awareness to the dangers of the app. According to Faith, her son was able to get easy access to drug dealers on Snapchat, where he connected with a person who started off selling cannabis to the young boy. Faith said her son was eventually able to acquire counterfeit Percocet pills that turned out to be pure fentanyl. They killed her son.”I only ever started advocating because I didn’t want any more mothers to feel like me,” Faith said. “It’s not about the money and suing Snapchat. We want to change it so that I don’t have to see another 13-year-old die.” Many parents shared similar stories about their children at the “Gone In a Snap” rally. The goal of the rally, which was the fourth held in Santa Monica in two years, was to put pressure on Snapchat to change its policies and allow third-party parental controls for the app. Many of the parents said Snapchat played a role in the deaths of their children. Lawyer Glenn Draper said that more than 65 families are seeking litigation against Snap Inc. because the unique user interface puts young children at risk. Draper cited features such as disappearing messages and location sharing as part of the danger to children. Last year, Snap Inc. launched a public awareness advertising campaign to educate parents and young people about the dangers on the app, including the presence of predatory drug dealers on the app.
“We have worked tirelessly to eradicate drug dealers from Snapchat while partnering closely with parents, expert organizations, and law enforcement to better understand how we can fight this national crisis,” said Jennifer Stout, VP of Global Public Policy at Snap, Inc. However, according to parents, their efforts to reach executives at Snapchat are often ignored or dismissed. Some said they were told that the company has its hands tied due to privacy laws protecting the app’s users. Drug concerns weren’t the only ones highlighted at the rally, Rose Bronstein shared the story of her 16-year-old son Nathan who lost his life to relentless cyberbullying from classmates at the Latin School of Chicago. Bronstein said Nate killed himself after being aggressively bullied by people on Snapchat.
“The post spread like wildfire through various Chicago school communities having been posted and reposted causing Nate extreme humiliation because he could not make it stop,” Bronstein said. “He received a separate Snapchat message from a teammate that read ‘Go kill yourself. And on January 13, 2022, that is exactly what our son did.” Going forward, the parents and their lawyers said their goal isn’t to get money from Snap Inc. What they want is for the company to make changes to curtail drug deals and cyberbullying that threaten the lives of children on Snapchat.
One such proposed law that has congressional support is’ Sammy’s Law’ or the ‘Let Parents Choose Protection Act,’ which aims to give parents greater oversight of what their children do online. Until the law is passed, the parents said they will keep returning to the Santa Monica Snapchat Headquarters.
“How many more children have to die? And how many more parents and families have to suffer the relentless grief and life sentences inflicted upon us because Snapchat uses profits over safety,” Bronstein said.