To the President of the United States, Members of Congress, and State Legislators, 

I am calling for urgent, meaningful action to protect children and teenagers from exploitation, manipulation, and harm online.

Children today grow up in a digital world they did not choose and often do not fully understand. Many are exposed to social media, content platforms, and online communities long before they are developmentally prepared to recognize danger. This includes risks such as grooming, exploitation, harassment, privacy violations, and long-term digital exposure that can follow them into adulthood.

Children and teens do not always understand that not everyone online is who they claim to be. Predators and bad actors take advantage of this vulnerability. At the same time, platforms often prioritize engagement and profit over safety and meaningful protection.

This is not a small issue—it affects real families, real children, and long-term mental health and safety.

Based on these concerns, I respectfully urge lawmakers to consider the following protections:

Stronger federal laws protecting minors’ privacy online

Mandatory, enforceable age verification systems for social media and content platforms

Strict limits on the monetization of content featuring minors

Legal requirements for platforms to prioritize child safety over engagement algorithms

Stronger penalties for online grooming, exploitation, and harassment of minors

Clear legal rights for individuals to remove content posted about them as children once they become adults

Financial protections ensuring children featured in monetized content have safeguarded earnings

Increased transparency from platforms about how minors’ data is collected and used

My personal experiences have shown me how deeply online exposure and exploitation can affect children and families. What is shared online does not disappear—it can follow a child for years and shape their emotional well-being, relationships, and sense of safety.

This petition is not about removing opportunity or isolating children from the modern world. It is about ensuring that children are protected while they grow, so they can safely learn, connect, and develop without being exploited or permanently harmed in the process.

Protecting children online should not be optional, delayed, or treated as secondary to profit. It should be a national priority.

I respectfully ask our leaders to act now to ensure that children’s safety, dignity, and privacy are protected in the digital age.

Every child deserves a safe childhood—both offline and online.

 

This issue is personal to me.

My family has experienced firsthand how quickly the internet can turn a child’s life into public content without them truly understanding what that means. The emotional impact, the loss of privacy, and the long-term effects do not disappear when the videos or posts stop circulating. They stay with the children involved as they grow up.

Seeing how deeply it affected my own children changed how I view online safety forever. It made me realize that children cannot be left to navigate these spaces alone, and that stronger protections are not optional—they are necessary.

I am speaking up now not just for my family, but for every child who deserves to grow up without being exposed, exploited, or permanently documented before they are old enough to fully understand the consequences.