My daughter’s suicide was linked to online bullying. This is the solution

Editor’s Note: This story contains a suicide discussion. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, help is available. You can call or text 988 to connect to the Suicide and Crisis Helpline. At the bottom of this story, additional resources are listed.

The world can become a dangerous place. So, lock the door, wear a seat belt and protect your password at night. Still, most of us, and most children, spend hours a day on social media where the risk of online harm, including various forms of sexual harassment and assault, is growing and growing.

Tragically, I learned this lesson the worst. My daughter, McKenna, or Kennabear, died of suicide almost three years ago after merciless cyber upset over texting, Snapchat, Instagram and Tiktok.

In her freshman year, her best friend got an inappropriate photo of McKenna. Photos were shared on text and social media. It spread throughout schools, the community and the hockey circles in Florida. McKenna worked hard to continue her life and put ughs behind her. She was once again athletic, socially, academically.

Then, a few days before her fourth grade began, cyber bullying destroyed her. A group of four friends/teammates/classmates harassed her and shared a screen capture of text conversations with other friends and teammates. The conversation was very personal. Screen capture revealed that McKenna was a rape survivor and had been sexually assaulted by one of her older brothers when she was 13 years old. The group had promised her “embarrassment” and “everyone else knows.” They were also using multiple social media apps to “cancel” her.

After her freshman year, McKenna knew how quickly this would reach her peers via social media and texting. Within a day, McKenna succumbed cruelly. She chose to take her life. She’s shy about her 17th birthday. She worked hard once to overcome her ugly, but the second time was more than she could endure.

McKenna was a star athlete (a skilled ice hockey player). Her losses have devastated our family and the pain of her absence remains constant. The only way I found out I would survive it is to advocate for better online safety measures for other children. So I always speak up over and over again. This is because children and parents must understand the dangerous and very realistic link between social media use and sexual violence. They must also understand that if Congress better protects children in an online space and passes the Children’s Online Safety Act (KOSA), it will escape McKenna, who is suffering thousands of other children and teens, endure.

To be clear, all sexual acts are considered sexual assault without the consent of the victim. For McKenna, she included ways in which her supposed friends would be embarrassed and embarrassed about her online inappropriate image, and she included ways to share her inappropriate image. Revealing that she was a former victim of rape is also a form of harassment. McKenna told me about this trauma two days before she passed away. She confided in me and confessed to me that having such sensitive information publicly shared against her wishes caused her deep distress.

Sadly, McKenna’s experiences of social media-fueled sexual harassment and violence are not uncommon. A study from 2022 found that 16% of young adults aged 18 to 28 experienced at least one type of sexual abuse online before turning 18.

According to a 2024 survey, about 7% of 10-18 children treated for sexual assault at a California hospital between 2018 and 2023 reported that they communicated with the perpetrator via social media. In cases of sexual assault in which children had no connection to the perpetrator, 12% said these communications led to violence. The average age of the victims was 13 years old, with the majority being female, but most of the perpetrators were adult males. The lead author of the study subsequently conducted a follow-up study to find an increase in sexual assault in children by people connected on social media platforms.

What is clear from McKenna’s story and all of this data is that sexual predators increasingly use social media to meet children and identify their next victim.

But we don’t have to sit down and allow all these children helplessly to get injured. Bills like Kosa were first introduced more than two years ago and would pass the Senate with a critical bipartisan 91-3 votes last July, providing important safeguards. And that will be the first part of the law in over 25 years. The Senate just reintroduced the Kosa last month, and now they need a home to comply with the lawsuit.

Last year, the bill was led in the House by lawmakers Gus Bilirakis and Kathy Castor, two Tampa Bay Area members. This year we need to continue to show strong leadership by introducing a strong version of Kosa that resists industry pressure to water bills.

There is a severe lack of technical effort to protect children. For example, the new “teen accounts” in the meta and the recent introduction of an educational curriculum on online exploitation of children that this is true is a technical version of Greenwashing, in order for this giant to keep themselves safe, rather than creating a safer product. It’s practically thin smart marketing. And it doesn’t do anything valuable to protect your children online.

The Kosa is different. The bill requires social media platforms to change the design and algorithms that send children they have never asked for in the first place to toxic and addictive content. Content that drives children into dangerous rabbit holes will glue to screens for hours and become vulnerable to online predators. Kosa includes “duty of care.” This requires social media companies to prevent and mitigate known harm to children, such as cyberbullying, sexual abuse and sexual analytics, eating disorders, substance abuse, depression and more.

Importantly, and unlike misleading claims from some critics, it is not just content that mitigates the behavior of social media platforms. This is not a censorship bill. None of these excludes the ability of children to search for information they want or need. In fact, the bill has a very specific language, and it protects just that. And all of these are really no different to the regulations the government places on automakers, toy companies, food producers and more. Why is Big Tech so different? Especially when there is increasing evidence that you know enough how harmful social media platforms are to minors. Even previous surgeon generals in these apps are labelled in the same way as those found in cigarette packs.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in four girls in the country and one in one boy suffer from child sexual abuse. This is already a trend in the US and is exacerbating social media. Anyone who loves a child is almost everyone, but you need to step up and say. Taking responsibility for the big technology for the safety of their products is one way to do that. Because children’s lives are certainly more valuable than the bottom line.

Still, I know that my battle to protect other children from the pain McKenna has experienced and the unimaginable sadness that my family lives together every day is a difficult battle. But McKenna’s death is not in vain so I won’t stop until something changes. Her life and her losses are lessons for all of us, and Kosa is one of our teachings. I hope Congressional lawmakers do their homework this year and create this bill law.

McKenna Brown’s mother, Cheryl McCormick Brown, is a member of the parents of a safe online space (Parentssos) and a powerful advocate for social media reform. She lives in Tampa.