Help Put Sammy’s Law Into Action!
Wednesday, March 20 is an important day in Illinois, as we have the opportunity to pass legislation that would give parents the ability to protect their children online – the first state to do so. But we need your help. Please copy and paste the email below to the 9 state representatives listed to make your voice heard – and potentially save lives.
Sammy’s Law
From Rose Bronstein, founder, Buckets Over Bullying:
This could not be more important to me personally or to millions of parents and families. We have the opportunity to make Illinois the first state in the country to pass legislation that would give parents the ability to protect their kids from many of the harms they are exposed to on social media platforms.
HB5380 (Sammy’s Law) would require social media platforms to provide access to the use of third-party safety software. Third party software will serve as a seat belt for children who use social media. When a child receives harmful or dangerous content through a platform or when they are searching for dangerous content online, parents will receive an alert that their child is in danger – from cyberbullying, drug sales, sextortion, predators and suicide-related content. A bill is in front of the Consumer Protection Committee on Tuesday and it is critical that legislators understand how important this is and how many people care about the bill being passed.
We are asking for two action items, each of which will take less than two minutes.
FIRST – We need to let the committee members know the importance of this bill. Please cut and paste the message below and send it to the email addresses below. You can put the email addresses in the bcc line so you only need to send this email one time.
staterepsue@gmail.com
staterepdebbiemm@gmail.com
weber@ilhousegop.org
rephammond@macomb.com
office@repehernandez.com
office@reptheresamah.com
info@repjoycemason.com
60thDistrict@gmail.com
niemerg@ilhousegop.org
In the Subject line, put: Vote YES on HB5380 to let parents protect their kids online!
Dear Representative,
I’m writing to respectfully ask you to support HB5380 (Sammy’s Law) which is before you in the Consumer Protection Committee on Tuesday, March 20th. There is endless research showing that the use of social media platforms by kids has led to a dramatic rise in cases of depression, suicide, eating disorders and drug overdoses among other harmful effects. All too often, parents don’t find out about the dangerous interactions or activities of their children until the damage is done. HB5380 would give parents the ability to be warned of potential harm to their children through the use of already-existing third-party software apps and to take steps to protect their children – before it’s too late. These apps have been proven to have saved thousands of children and prevented at least 16 school shootings but they can only be used if allowed by the social media companies.
This is common sense legislation that puts no meaningful burden on these companies and in fact a number of providers allow these apps to be used to a limited extent although some, such as TikTok and Snapchat, refuse to allow them at all. To these companies, our kids are just a means to make money. To parents, our kids are everything. To let social media platforms use our kids’ data to generate ad revenue while denying parents access to the same data that could save their child’s life is simply wrong.
PLEASE stand with parents and give them the ability to protect their children. Please vote YES on HB5380. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
XXX
SECOND – Please fill out the witness slip (link below) this witness slip goes to the committee which puts you on the record as somebody who supports the bill.
- In Section 1, all you need to do is fill out your name, address, etc.
- Section 2 is left blank;
- Section 3 simply click the box for ‘Proponent’
- Section 4, just click the box for Record of Appearance only
- Check “I agree to the ILGA terms of agreement”
- Click on the right hand side on the bottom “Create Slip”