Wisconsin has made real progress protecting teens from sextortion. But there's one critical bill that didn't make it — and families are still fighting to pass it.

Assembly Bill 962 would require social media platforms to verify the age of their users before allowing them to create accounts. It passed the Wisconsin Assembly. Then it stalled in the Senate, blocked by concerns about privacy rights. Meanwhile, the children these platforms can't identify as minors keep getting targeted.

Sextortion — the crime of blackmailing someone with explicit images — has exploded in Wisconsin. The state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received 650 tips related to sextortion in 2025, nearly triple the 230 tips received in 2024. At least 36 teenage boys nationally died by suicide as a result of sextortion that year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Luke and Brittney Bird lost their 15-year-old son Bradyn in 2025 after he was sextorted. They traveled to Madison and testified in support of AB 962. Their son's death already helped make sextortion a felony in Wisconsin under Bradyn's Law. Now they're asking the Wisconsin Senate to finish the job.

Age verification isn't a perfect solution. But it is a barrier — and barriers matter. When criminals create fake teen profiles to target minors on Instagram or Snapchat, they depend on platforms that ask no questions. Requiring platforms to verify age before granting access makes it harder to deceive young users and gives parents more confidence about who their children are actually talking to online.

The families asking for this bill aren't lobbyists. They're parents who have already lost children. Sign this petition to tell the Wisconsin Senate: pass AB 962 and require social media platforms to know who they're letting in.