September 9, 2025 • 33 mins
What happens when a mother's worst nightmare becomes her life's mission? Maurine Molak never imagined that losing her son would transform her into one of the nation’s most powerful advocates for children's online safety in the US. Yet through unimaginable grief, she found purpose in creating change that could prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedies.
KEEPING KIDS SAFE ONLINE
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Next Talk podcast.
We are a nonprofit passionateabout keeping kids safe online.
We're learning together how tonavigate tech, culture and faith
with our kids.
Today on the podcast, we haveMaureen Molak.
She's been here once before,but it was like, oh my gosh,
(00:21):
like eight years ago.
Maureen, welcome back.
Thank you, mandy, it's great tobe back.
You are a mom on a mission.
That's how I describe you topeople.
She's a mom on a mission andthe mission started many years
ago with your son, david, and ifyou could take us back and just
share that story with us, let'sstart there so our listeners
(00:45):
know your heart behind thelegislative work that you're
doing.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, thanks, mandy.
It's a mission that I don'tthink any parent wants to be on,
but I'm just, you know, have apath to try to make sure that no
other parent has to walk in myshoes.
And my sweet David was 16 yearsold when he died by suicide
after months of relentless andthreatening cyberbullying across
(01:11):
many platforms, specificallyInstagram, by a group of
classmates where they werethreatening him, saying things
like put him in a body bag, puthim six feet under.
They were threatening him notto come to school, even to the
point to where we had to moveschools to try to get him away
from his perpetrators.
What we didn't understand atthe time is that cyberbullying
(01:33):
doesn't require geographicproximity, and it ended up
following him to his new school.
But David's story really startedbefore the cyberbullying, about
a year before that.
David was a great basketballplayer.
He was tall and lanky and hewas really good at it, and he
had a serious injury and whilehe was rehabbing, he turned to
(01:54):
social media and online gamingto fill the void and over a
period of about eight, ninemonths, we started to see a real
change in his behavior, wherehe was showing all of the signs
of a behavioral addiction.
He was lying about completinghis homework.
He was angry and aggressivewhen we would try to get him to
stop.
He was sneaking around usinghis devices when they were
(02:15):
supposed to be locked up in thekitchen and then there, towards
the end, he started stealingfrom us in order to purchase
virtual assets, to increase hisplayer power through some of
these gaming platforms.
David spent a lot of time onYouTube watching these
professional gamers.
They were teaching him the tipsand tricks and tactics on how
to circumvent parental controlsand basically how to steal from
(02:36):
your parents without theirknowledge.
David knew he was a smart kidand he knew there was something
wrong with his behavior, but hecould not control himself and he
had this false identity of whohe thought he was online.
And it was at that period oftime when he was really
struggling with his mentalhealth and we were getting him
(02:56):
supports.
I mean, he had a therapist, wewere seeking help through the
medical community, and it was atthat point when the
cyberbullying started and itjust went on and on and on for
months and you know it wasreally the final match on a huge
bonfire that exploded in ourhome and that's when we lost him
(03:16):
.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Man.
I, you know, I have an athlete,a basketball player too, and he
had an injury and going frombeing super active to being
taken out and not being able todo anything, their mental health
.
It is challenging.
And then you add in thetechnology and all of these
(03:39):
things that are luring our kidsin.
It is really difficult tomanage.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
David was the youngest of threebrothers, and so he grew up in
that stage where technologyreally just exploded, and so he
had a much more higher interestin technology because from a
little age he was watching hisolder brothers and so he
(04:09):
developed, I really feel likefrom a very early age, more of a
sensitivity to it and was waymore drawn to technology than
his older brothers were.
So it was.
You know, if I could go back,of course, and do it all over
again, I would do it socompletely different.
I did not know back then what Iknow now, and so what I'm doing
(04:32):
is trying to hopefully, youknow provide a message that
parents can learn from and maybetake some tips from that.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
We have a whole generation of parents that are
like, oh, like we, we didn'tknow, like I'm part of that
generation, you know, like Iwould do things differently with
with how I rolled out a phoneto my kids, all of it because
it's been a big experiment andit came crashing at us and I
feel like that's what AI is nowLike.
We're just now starting to geta handle on social media and now
(05:05):
we have AI crashing, which is awhole new beast.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, and then what's it going to be in 10 years?
I mean, it'll be something elseas quickly as it evolves.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
You're so right.
You're so right.
So, ever since you know theloss of David I know we met back
in, I think, 2016, 2017.
You were the first family thatI knew of a child who you know
had been cyberbullied and lostthis child, and I remember
(05:38):
meeting you for coffee and justhearing your story and crying
Like I just couldn't wrap mymind around that that had
happened to your son.
And then, since then, though,you have really gotten involved
in the legislative side ofthings, because you were saying
there are certain things thatwould have protected my son in
this situation.
(05:59):
So the first thing you did wasDavid's Law in Texas.
Explain to our listeners whatthat law is.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
David's Law is a comprehensive law.
It affects the education code,the civil code and the criminal
code and what we wanted to dowas make sure that we gave tools
to parents, students, educatorsand law enforcement that didn't
exist when we were trying toget help for David at that
period of time.
You know, what we often heardfrom schools was that when it
(06:30):
occurred off campus, they didn'tnecessarily have the authority
to be able to take action onthat.
So we wanted to make sure thatwe gave them the explicit
authority to be able tointervene in those situations
when it impacted a student'seducational opportunities or the
learning environment, which itdid for David, because we had to
end up moving schools to beable to get away from it.
(06:52):
It also affected the otherstudents at his school that were
watching it happen and many ofthose students came to us after
David died and said how sorrythey are.
I mean they were crying andsobbing with their parents
because they had seen it andthey'd gone to their parents
that night and told theirparents you know, look what
they're doing to David and theirparents said don't get involved
(07:13):
, it may turn on you, and thatguilt that they felt, that they
carried with them.
You know the year after Daviddied and I'm sure that some of
them still remember it today.
I occasionally will hear somefrom some of his classmates.
But we did.
We just wanted to make surethat we were trying to do
everything that we could tocover those bases and provide
those tools to be able toaddress cyberbullying and also
(07:37):
to be able to give lawenforcement some additional
teeth.
The criminal code talked aboutfax machines and pagers, and we
just updated it to include cellphones and more of gaming
systems and electronic devices.
And then we provided a civilremedy for parents to be able to
get an injunction against acyber bully, as well as the
cyber bully's parents, requiringthe parents to make their child
(08:00):
stop the cyber bullying.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
David's Law passed.
What year Was it?
2017?
It was yes, okay so, and thenrecently you've been involved in
all kinds of legislative, butrecently we saw phones being
banned in schools and you alsowere a part of this law, and I
kind of want to understand theheartbeat behind that as well.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
David's cyberbullying actually started on campus
during school lunch and therewere some compromising videos
taken between David's girlfriendand another boy.
And those videos were takenduring lunch and uploaded on
social media.
And students would come up toDavid during passing periods and
(08:44):
shove their phone in his faceand say you cannot protect her.
And this was all part of a plot.
There was a group of boys thatwere very jealous of David and
his girlfriend, and so they weredoing everything that they
possibly could in knowing thathe was in a very vulnerable
state, knowing what they coulddo to try to torment him and
(09:10):
break them up.
So at the time like this was 10years ago the idea of
prohibition of cell phones onschool campuses, they were just
starting to come on schoolcampuses and we didn't really
understand all of the thingsthat those cell phones could do
at the time and how muchharassment could be caused by
(09:32):
them.
And so over the several years Istarted working on that.
But in the back of my mind Ialways knew schools were not a
place for these devices.
Schools were not a place forthese devices.
I knew that David was using hisdevices on school grounds
during class time where he wasplaying video games and he was
(09:53):
doing things that he should nothave been able to do, and the
fact that he had access to thosephones and the ability to be
able to do that I knew was veryproblematic.
So that's really why.
And then, of course, aseverybody knows, the anxious
generation, when it came outwith Jonathan Haidt and we all
(10:14):
learned of his recommendations,of what we could do to help
young people and their screenaddiction, and one of the four
key pieces is phone-free schools, and so I had a lot of other
states who had actually joinedin, and Texas was, I believe,
the 15th state to pass aphone-free school bill.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And what are you hearing about it?
Because I have a senior in highschool, so I've got my own
things I want to say.
But what are you hearing aboutit?
Because I have a senior in highschool, so I've got my own, you
know things I want to say.
But what are you hearing about?
Because we also we had a womanon our podcast last season and
she said you know, the biggestpushback is parents want to get
in touch with their kids in theevent of an emergency.
Sure, that was the biggestpushback of all.
(11:01):
And so how do you answer that?
And what are you hearing aboutwhat people are saying?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah, I mean I can completely relate to that, but
let me just kind of back up alittle bit.
So what the bill is it'sactually gives school districts
the autonomy to decide whetheror not it is a complete ban from
school or that they provide asecure storage method for those
(11:27):
devices during the school day.
So a lot of flexibility thereon how they're going to
implement the fact that studentscan't use their device in
personal devices and thatincludes smartwatches, earbuds,
glasses, ipads and tabletsearbuds, glasses, ipads and
(11:49):
tablets and so we want to makesure is that school districts do
have their.
You know they can make theseindependent policy decisions as
long as they're prohibiting them.
You know we're hearing thatschool districts are adopting
very well to that.
There are ways that kids canget in touch with their parents
through their issued devicesfrom the schools.
Kids are learning how to emailtheir parents from those devices
(12:12):
.
Most of the classrooms, fromwhat I'm hearing, have their own
, either a landline or adedicated cell phone that
students can use in case of anemergency.
They can always go to the schooloffice if they have a personal
emergency to be able to use that.
And then you know from the otherperspective of should there be
(12:34):
something terrible happening onyour school campus, right, we've
all experienced that in variousways and with school shootings.
What we're hearing from thesecurity experts and the FBI and
all of those individuals thatare working in school safety is
that it is really best practicefor those students not to be
(12:55):
distracted by their phones inthese situations, because we
want to make sure that they arelistening to the teacher If they
need to be hiding in asituation, you know, god forbid,
a ding or a light go off with ayou know and you know a school
shooter would be able to seethat go off and be able to find
(13:16):
students that were hiding in thesituation, as well as jamming
the communication.
You know, wi-fi and all of thatstuff that's coming in, where
the law enforcement is trying toget into the school to
understand what is going on.
But I get it.
I was a parent and with kids inK through 12 school I don't
(13:39):
have them anymore, I'll havegrandchildren in the school, so
it is something that I really docare about, but as long as we
are doing everything we can tomake our school safe and that
there is a way for parents to beable to contact their kids.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I think those are all great points I love.
To the autonomy of the schooldistrict.
You know, for my son's schooldistrict they are away bell to
bell right now.
We'll see if it lasts all year.
I'm very hopeful that it'sgoing to.
But they are in their backpacks, like they do have them with
them and so but.
(14:14):
But it is being enforced, youknow, to be to be away all day.
And that has been a change inmy district because we used to
say we're phone free but wereally weren't phone free.
And that's what we were seeing,yeah, and now it's actually
being.
And I think that does actuallymore damage when we say we're
phone free and we're not,because then it's like with
(14:35):
parents do try to have like nophones in bedrooms, or no, it's
like, well, the lines areblurred at school, so they're
going to be blurred here, likewe can't.
So we have to mean what we sayand say what we mean.
Right, it has to be enforced.
It has to be enforced.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And and and really there's no flexibility in in the
actual law.
It says there needs to be aprohibition of use for the
school day and that includespassing periods and lunchtime.
School districts do haveflexibility to increase that
where they could say, okay,during extracurricular
(15:09):
activities or pep rallies orfield trips, those types of
nuances a school district candetermine.
But really, really, from firstbell to last bell, those devices
need to be up, but schooldistricts have the flexibility
to determine if that is acomplete ban or if it's a
storage.
What is that storage, as wellas what are those discipline
(15:33):
measures, measures, and sogiving school districts the
autonomy to be able to decide.
You know what's the firstwarning, second warning, third
warning Is there a grace period,as we're all trying to get used
to this, parents and studentsalike?
So we're seeing a lot ofnuances there.
(15:53):
But I am heartened by the numberof school districts that have
embraced this in a way with thefidelity of the law, reading the
plain language in it, followingthe intent of the law, and I'll
attribute that to the fact thatthose school districts have
really looked into what is thevalue of doing this, what are
(16:18):
the positive outcomes that weare going to see what is the
research showing us and if theyreally dig into that and they're
able to talk to parents andstudents about this is not
punitive.
You know we're not doing thisto be the bad guy.
This is because we care aboutyou.
We want you to have a six and ahalf seven hour distracted,
(16:40):
free, disruption free day,because we have your mental
health and well-being at top ofmind here and we know that if
that is not in a good spot thenyou can't learn and we're going
to provide the best learningenvironment for our young people
.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Well, I mean, how many good teachers are we losing
because the behavior of kids isout of control and a lot of
that is phone use.
Immediately when I saw the lawpassed, I thought of David,
because I knew there were videosof him taking during lunch.
I know with my own kids they'vebeen exposed to things by other
people's phones at lunch.
So when I was like bell to bellyes, this is it, because this
(17:22):
is going to help people delayphones, kids not get exposed on
school grounds, the bullyingaspect, and even like we've
helped people that, liketeachers, are being recorded and
made fun of, and so teachersdeserve to be able to walk into
school and not be afraid thattheir students are going to
video them and make fun of themall night on social media.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I completely agree.
I mean, we're hearing thatteachers that are in schools and
the policies are strongpolicies and they are enforced.
Those teachers have a muchhigher level of satisfaction
than those schools who are onlyadopting instruction only you
(18:07):
know classroom time and not youknow, because, if you think
about it, those kids that mayget their device during a
passing period, the last fiveminutes of class, they're
thinking what app am I going toopen first when I get out of
class, when I can turn my phoneback on?
We're also seeing that there'sa lot more tardies in those
(18:29):
schools that allow or don't havea serious enforcement mechanism
.
Maybe they have a policy butthey're not enforcing it during
classroom period.
We're also seeing that duringlunchtime kids are way more
engaged.
Schools are providing ping pongtables and foosball tables and
games for kids to play.
(18:49):
They're seeing much bettersocial interaction among
students.
Rates of cyberbullying, vapingand fighting are down in school
districts when they areenforcing strong policies.
So it really is.
It's a win-win for those schooldistricts that are really going
(19:11):
above and beyond and followingthe fidelity and the spirit of
the bill.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Well, honestly, I think a lot of school districts
wanted to ban it, and they triedto by saying we're going to try
this, but then it wasn'tenforced.
And when it was enforced by theschool district, parents got
mad and yelled at the school.
So then we had an issue whereparents and school admin were
fighting back and forth aboutthe phones.
(19:36):
Right, I mean, that's what washappening.
And so what I love about thelaw is it just kind of gives an
excuse.
Nope, this is a law now.
It's the law.
We're going to do this andwe're going to see how this
works.
We did a shout out on socialmedia like just tell us what you
think about it.
You know, like, what do youthink about this new law?
And the responses were so coolbecause parents were like I
(20:01):
taught my kid how to fold an 80snote and and you know, my kids
are writing notes now and theycome home from school and
they're more engaged inconversation, like they're
looking at me more, and I'm like, wow, this is really positive
feedback.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah, I even heard a story about a school district
that was putting in oldfashioned phone booths for kids
to be able to call their parentsif they needed to.
I mean, schools are embracingit, lots of schools, and that's
what really is, you know,special, because this is a gift
to these kids to be able to goto school, you know, and not
(20:40):
have those distractions anddisruptions.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
There's just so much pressure that I don't think we
can understand that comes from aphone constantly being recorded
.
I mean, I can't tell you howmany families we've helped where
somebody has inadvertently beentaking a picture of or video in
a locker room while they'rechanging and they thought they
were private, but it's caught inthe background of just selfies
all the time, and so I've beenshouting for a decade we at
(21:05):
least have to get these phonesout of locker rooms and
bathrooms.
It's really dangerous.
I love that this encompassesall of that.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, for sure.
And the anxiety.
What I was hearing a lot wasthe anxiety around kids feeling
like they were going to be apicture snapped of them in a
compromising picture anduploaded, or a video taken of
them and so just being able toremove that.
We're seeing also the rates ofdepression and anxiety in the
school day going down.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Well, and I don't even think some of the kids who
are walking through itunderstand how positive it is
right now, like I think they'lllook back, you know, after the
school year is over.
I mean, we went to our firstFriday high school football game
and I told my husband I waslike, look around, none of these
kids are on their phones.
They're all like talking toeach other.
(21:57):
That's great.
And I was like, is this becauseof the new law?
Because typically you wouldjust see this at a football game
and it just felt like a normalfootball game, less people on
their phones, people talking.
It just was an exciting time tobe there, right?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
We just need kids, we want them to be kids.
You know, we want the childhoodback for kids and it's just,
and we can do that and we'remaking a good, good step with
this bill of it.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
For some reason, God has put you on this legislative
path.
You're in DC all the time, soyou've helped with these two
laws big balls in Texas thathave really impacted our kids.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
But you also working on the federal side, I have,
yeah, for the last three years.
You know I started advocatingfor the Kids Online Safety Act
and you know that's a bill thatbasically holds social media
companies accountable for theirdesign features that harm kids.
So the mental health harms, sothose features like infinite
scroll and the auto feeds of thevideos and make, like you know,
(23:17):
counts of the videos and make,like you know, counts, and those
types of things that areimpacting young people's mental
health, as well as thosephysical harms, which are things
like drug dealers that areusing social media to contact
kids and sell them drugs, andsome of those drugs are laced
with fentanyl.
We've had a lot of familiesthat I've been in communication
(23:39):
with that have died, as well aseating disorders and sextortion.
I know that you've had BrianMontgomery on your show a couple
of times and he's part of ourgroup that's advocating for the
Kids Online Safety Act and we'vebeen doing this for about three
years.
But a year ago I started Parentsfor Safe Online Spaces, which
(24:02):
is Parents SOS, and we're agroup of 20 parents who have all
lost children to online harms,and we're a core group that goes
to DC and advocates for thisbill.
It's basically what we'reasking for is safety by design
and safety by default.
So making sure that thoseparental tools, all of them, are
(24:23):
on the highest level of safetywhen that app is first, when
that child first logs into thatapp.
So the parent it's not on theparent to go in there and turn
on those safety guards, that.
It's actually the platform'sresponsibility to do that when
they have a young person ontheir platform, and so it's a
very common sense.
(24:43):
It was bipartisan.
We almost passed it last year.
It came out of the Senate 91 to3, which is basically unheard
of in Congress.
You don't have that kind ofbipartisan support and it just
got stalled in the House and wewere very disappointed by year
end.
But it's been reintroduced.
(25:04):
We're waiting still waiting ontext from the House, but we're
hoping that we're going to havethat soon and we'll be back in
DC continuing to advocate forthat, as long as what we get is
a strong bill.
There's nothing worse than abill that either is, you know,
doesn't do anything or is moreharmful to young people.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Well, I remember when I met Brian and we had him on
our show and the first thing Ithought was he has to know
Maureen, because nobody canspeak into this like a mom who's
been through this right.
I remember connecting you guysand you said I said, maureen, he
needs you, like their familyneeds you right now.
(25:46):
And you were like this is asupport group.
Nobody wants to be in, yeah,and and you guys have this 20
families that have come togetherand kind of devoted your life
now, uh, to to making changes sothat our kids can be safer
online.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
It's a path that nobody wants to be on, but we
know what the risks are.
We know if these social mediacompanies are not accountable
for it's basically the designfeature.
I mean the business model,right?
So engagement is what drivestheir profits.
(26:28):
And how do you get engagements?
It's the most damaging.
The most theatrical,drama-driven, horrific content
is what kids are going to like,get their eyes glued on that,
and so if they can't be heldresponsible for those features,
(26:49):
like the algorithm that isfeeding that content to young
people even when they're notsearching for it, you know,
that's the one thing about COSAis it's not.
It's not based on content.
It's based on those designfeatures that are putting,
forcing that content on youngpeople in order to drive their
profits up.
So that's what we want to do.
We want to make sure that thereare just some common sense
(27:12):
guardrails in place to protectwould have protect Walker,
brian's son.
Would have protect David, myson, and the hundreds and
hundreds thousands of otherchildren that have died from
online harms, as well as thehundreds of thousands of
students if not in millions ofstudents that are being impacted
(27:33):
by it every day.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
You know, here at Next Talk, we focus on the
parents, you know, gettinginvolved and being the solution.
And what I love about whatyou're doing is you're saying
we've got to come alongsideparents.
Parents need help.
We're not saying parentsshouldn't be doing all these
things, but but but parents needhelp with this, because right
now, we just have this machineout here filling an algorithm
(27:58):
when a when a kid enters a birthdate, when they know they're,
they're not an adult, andthey're feeding certain
algorithm to that.
That must stop.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Parents aren't asking for apass, we're just asking for help
.
I mean, as soon as you figureout you know one app, you know
how many more pop up, and thenyou're actually it could be a
full-time job.
It's just to figure out how allof these apps work and what are
all the safeguards on each ofthese individual apps.
(28:28):
What COSA would do is say youknow each one of those, it has
to be on the highest safeguardand if a parent wants to go in
there and relax those safeguards, they have the authority to be
able to do that.
But parents are strugglingright now not only with just
daily life and holding theirfamilies together, and, adding
(28:49):
this to it, it is a huge burdento parents.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Well and, like you said, all of our laws are
outdated.
I mean we don't even talk aboutphone use in most of our laws,
so a lot of it is just updatingwith the technology part and the
access that we have today.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
A lot of it is just updating with the technology
part and the access that we havetoday, right, absolutely.
And you know, like I said inDavid's law, we had to update it
from fax machines and pagers.
I say that to kids today andthey're just like well, what is
that?
Nobody even knows what that is.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
So yeah, we're just so outdated and I hate to think
about the laws in AI.
Just it is just evolvingquickly where we need to, where
we really need to be in tune toour kids and their phones and
what they're doing, because itis evolving faster than when we
can keep up with.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It is very scary out there and we're hearing story
after story of kids who haveengaged with these chatbots and,
as far as I'm concerned, nochild should have access to a
chatbot period.
There should be a strict lawabout that, because a child
(29:55):
getting information from amachine when they think it's an
adult human interaction is nothealthy, and we need to make
sure that we're trying to putsome guardrails in place to
protect kids.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, I had a pastor on one time and he said Pastor
Ed Newton from CBC, he said AIdoes not have a soul.
And when he said that I waslike that's so true, and kids
are asking it advice, like itwould give moral advice.
And it's not, it's a machine.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Right and they're building these relationships
with them when they're searchingfor something else in life, and
that chatbot is reinforcingeverything that that child is
saying.
Instead of giving you know,telling them they need to be
talking to a trusted human adult, a parent, you know, somebody
(30:47):
who cares about them.
Instead it just keepsreinforcing that negative
behavior that that child isdiscussing between this machine
and themselves and they justthey don't understand that, yeah
, it's just.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
it's never been so important to get educated about
what's going on, understand whatour laws are, what they aren't,
and be able to fill in the gapsfor your family.
Yeah, is there anything elseyou would like to share with our
parents, maureen?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I would just like to encourage them to go to
parentssosorg, read the stories,read the 20 stories of the
families and the children whohave been harmed online and
these parent survivors who aremy heroes, that I work with on a
daily basis that are reallytrying to make the world a
better place for every singlechild out there, and then join
(31:40):
our movement.
Sign up to get more informationabout the work that we're doing
in Congress to try to put somecommon sense safeguards in place
to protect kids online.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
I know that parents don't want to read these stories
because they're hard andthey're scary, but I always push
parents into that because, likeyou, brian, who I've gotten to
know over the years, you guysare good families.
Yeah, and it happened to you.
So I always tell parents likewe can never say never in our
(32:10):
home, and so awareness is key.
We can't put our head in thesand and say that's too hard to
even grasp that that happened.
We have to get educated andlook it in the face and deal
with it Like that is just key.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, thank you for being hereand thank you for all the work
that you do.
Maureen, I know you tirelesslywork on these laws and you
(32:32):
testify and you're knocking ondoors in DC and you're saying we
need to talk about this andnobody ever knows the work that
you have put into this, and sothank you for all the work that
you do and just know that we arepraying for you and cheering
you on.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Thank you, mandy, it was a pleasure.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Next Talk is a 501c3 nonprofit keeping kids safe
online.
To support our work, make adonation at nexttalkorg.
Next Talk resources are notintended to replace the advice
of a trained healthcare or legalprofessional, or to diagnose,
treat or otherwise render expertadvice regarding any type of
medical, psychological, legal,financial or other problem.
You are advised to consult aqualified expert for your
(33:15):
personal treatment plan.
Welcome to the Next Talk podcast.
We are a nonprofit passionateabout keeping kids safe online.
We're learning together how tonavigate tech, culture and faith
with our kids.
Today on the podcast, we haveMaureen Molak.
She's been here once before,but it was like, oh my gosh,
(00:21):
like eight years ago.
Maureen, welcome back.
Thank you, mandy, it's great tobe back.
You are a mom on a mission.
That's how I describe you topeople.
She's a mom on a mission andthe mission started many years
ago with your son, david, and ifyou could take us back and just
share that story with us, let'sstart there so our listeners
(00:45):
know your heart behind thelegislative work that you're
doing.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, thanks, mandy.
It's a mission that I don'tthink any parent wants to be on,
but I'm just, you know, have apath to try to make sure that no
other parent has to walk in myshoes.
And my sweet David was 16 yearsold when he died by suicide
after months of relentless andthreatening cyberbullying across
(01:11):
many platforms, specificallyInstagram, by a group of
classmates where they werethreatening him, saying things
like put him in a body bag, puthim six feet under.
They were threatening him notto come to school, even to the
point to where we had to moveschools to try to get him away
from his perpetrators.
What we didn't understand atthe time is that cyberbullying
(01:33):
doesn't require geographicproximity, and it ended up
following him to his new school.
But David's story really startedbefore the cyberbullying, about
a year before that.
David was a great basketballplayer.
He was tall and lanky and hewas really good at it, and he
had a serious injury and whilehe was rehabbing, he turned to
(01:54):
social media and online gamingto fill the void and over a
period of about eight, ninemonths, we started to see a real
change in his behavior, wherehe was showing all of the signs
of a behavioral addiction.
He was lying about completinghis homework.
He was angry and aggressivewhen we would try to get him to
stop.
He was sneaking around usinghis devices when they were
(02:15):
supposed to be locked up in thekitchen and then there, towards
the end, he started stealingfrom us in order to purchase
virtual assets, to increase hisplayer power through some of
these gaming platforms.
David spent a lot of time onYouTube watching these
professional gamers.
They were teaching him the tipsand tricks and tactics on how
to circumvent parental controlsand basically how to steal from
(02:36):
your parents without theirknowledge.
David knew he was a smart kidand he knew there was something
wrong with his behavior, but hecould not control himself and he
had this false identity of whohe thought he was online.
And it was at that period oftime when he was really
struggling with his mentalhealth and we were getting him
(02:56):
supports.
I mean, he had a therapist, wewere seeking help through the
medical community, and it was atthat point when the
cyberbullying started and itjust went on and on and on for
months and you know it wasreally the final match on a huge
bonfire that exploded in ourhome and that's when we lost him
(03:16):
.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Man.
I, you know, I have an athlete,a basketball player too, and he
had an injury and going frombeing super active to being
taken out and not being able todo anything, their mental health
.
It is challenging.
And then you add in thetechnology and all of these
(03:39):
things that are luring our kidsin.
It is really difficult tomanage.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
David was the youngest of threebrothers, and so he grew up in
that stage where technologyreally just exploded, and so he
had a much more higher interestin technology because from a
little age he was watching hisolder brothers and so he
(04:09):
developed, I really feel likefrom a very early age, more of a
sensitivity to it and was waymore drawn to technology than
his older brothers were.
So it was.
You know, if I could go back,of course, and do it all over
again, I would do it socompletely different.
I did not know back then what Iknow now, and so what I'm doing
(04:32):
is trying to hopefully, youknow provide a message that
parents can learn from and maybetake some tips from that.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
We have a whole generation of parents that are
like, oh, like we, we didn'tknow, like I'm part of that
generation, you know, like Iwould do things differently with
with how I rolled out a phoneto my kids, all of it because
it's been a big experiment andit came crashing at us and I
feel like that's what AI is nowLike.
We're just now starting to geta handle on social media and now
(05:05):
we have AI crashing, which is awhole new beast.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, and then what's it going to be in 10 years?
I mean, it'll be something elseas quickly as it evolves.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
You're so right.
You're so right.
So, ever since you know theloss of David I know we met back
in, I think, 2016, 2017.
You were the first family thatI knew of a child who you know
had been cyberbullied and lostthis child, and I remember
(05:38):
meeting you for coffee and justhearing your story and crying
Like I just couldn't wrap mymind around that that had
happened to your son.
And then, since then, though,you have really gotten involved
in the legislative side ofthings, because you were saying
there are certain things thatwould have protected my son in
this situation.
(05:59):
So the first thing you did wasDavid's Law in Texas.
Explain to our listeners whatthat law is.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
David's Law is a comprehensive law.
It affects the education code,the civil code and the criminal
code and what we wanted to dowas make sure that we gave tools
to parents, students, educatorsand law enforcement that didn't
exist when we were trying toget help for David at that
period of time.
You know, what we often heardfrom schools was that when it
(06:30):
occurred off campus, they didn'tnecessarily have the authority
to be able to take action onthat.
So we wanted to make sure thatwe gave them the explicit
authority to be able tointervene in those situations
when it impacted a student'seducational opportunities or the
learning environment, which itdid for David, because we had to
end up moving schools to beable to get away from it.
(06:52):
It also affected the otherstudents at his school that were
watching it happen and many ofthose students came to us after
David died and said how sorrythey are.
I mean they were crying andsobbing with their parents
because they had seen it andthey'd gone to their parents
that night and told theirparents you know, look what
they're doing to David and theirparents said don't get involved
(07:13):
, it may turn on you, and thatguilt that they felt, that they
carried with them.
You know the year after Daviddied and I'm sure that some of
them still remember it today.
I occasionally will hear somefrom some of his classmates.
But we did.
We just wanted to make surethat we were trying to do
everything that we could tocover those bases and provide
those tools to be able toaddress cyberbullying and also
(07:37):
to be able to give lawenforcement some additional
teeth.
The criminal code talked aboutfax machines and pagers, and we
just updated it to include cellphones and more of gaming
systems and electronic devices.
And then we provided a civilremedy for parents to be able to
get an injunction against acyber bully, as well as the
cyber bully's parents, requiringthe parents to make their child
(08:00):
stop the cyber bullying.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
David's Law passed.
What year Was it?
2017?
It was yes, okay so, and thenrecently you've been involved in
all kinds of legislative, butrecently we saw phones being
banned in schools and you alsowere a part of this law, and I
kind of want to understand theheartbeat behind that as well.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
David's cyberbullying actually started on campus
during school lunch and therewere some compromising videos
taken between David's girlfriendand another boy.
And those videos were takenduring lunch and uploaded on
social media.
And students would come up toDavid during passing periods and
(08:44):
shove their phone in his faceand say you cannot protect her.
And this was all part of a plot.
There was a group of boys thatwere very jealous of David and
his girlfriend, and so they weredoing everything that they
possibly could in knowing thathe was in a very vulnerable
state, knowing what they coulddo to try to torment him and
(09:10):
break them up.
So at the time like this was 10years ago the idea of
prohibition of cell phones onschool campuses, they were just
starting to come on schoolcampuses and we didn't really
understand all of the thingsthat those cell phones could do
at the time and how muchharassment could be caused by
(09:32):
them.
And so over the several years Istarted working on that.
But in the back of my mind Ialways knew schools were not a
place for these devices.
Schools were not a place forthese devices.
I knew that David was using hisdevices on school grounds
during class time where he wasplaying video games and he was
(09:53):
doing things that he should nothave been able to do, and the
fact that he had access to thosephones and the ability to be
able to do that I knew was veryproblematic.
So that's really why.
And then, of course, aseverybody knows, the anxious
generation, when it came outwith Jonathan Haidt and we all
(10:14):
learned of his recommendations,of what we could do to help
young people and their screenaddiction, and one of the four
key pieces is phone-free schools, and so I had a lot of other
states who had actually joinedin, and Texas was, I believe,
the 15th state to pass aphone-free school bill.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And what are you hearing about it?
Because I have a senior in highschool, so I've got my own
things I want to say.
But what are you hearing aboutit?
Because I have a senior in highschool, so I've got my own, you
know things I want to say.
But what are you hearing about?
Because we also we had a womanon our podcast last season and
she said you know, the biggestpushback is parents want to get
in touch with their kids in theevent of an emergency.
Sure, that was the biggestpushback of all.
(11:01):
And so how do you answer that?
And what are you hearing aboutwhat people are saying?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah, I mean I can completely relate to that, but
let me just kind of back up alittle bit.
So what the bill is it'sactually gives school districts
the autonomy to decide whetheror not it is a complete ban from
school or that they provide asecure storage method for those
(11:27):
devices during the school day.
So a lot of flexibility thereon how they're going to
implement the fact that studentscan't use their device in
personal devices and thatincludes smartwatches, earbuds,
glasses, ipads and tabletsearbuds, glasses, ipads and
(11:49):
tablets and so we want to makesure is that school districts do
have their.
You know they can make theseindependent policy decisions as
long as they're prohibiting them.
You know we're hearing thatschool districts are adopting
very well to that.
There are ways that kids canget in touch with their parents
through their issued devicesfrom the schools.
Kids are learning how to emailtheir parents from those devices
(12:12):
.
Most of the classrooms, fromwhat I'm hearing, have their own
, either a landline or adedicated cell phone that
students can use in case of anemergency.
They can always go to the schooloffice if they have a personal
emergency to be able to use that.
And then you know from the otherperspective of should there be
(12:34):
something terrible happening onyour school campus, right, we've
all experienced that in variousways and with school shootings.
What we're hearing from thesecurity experts and the FBI and
all of those individuals thatare working in school safety is
that it is really best practicefor those students not to be
(12:55):
distracted by their phones inthese situations, because we
want to make sure that they arelistening to the teacher If they
need to be hiding in asituation, you know, god forbid,
a ding or a light go off with ayou know and you know a school
shooter would be able to seethat go off and be able to find
(13:16):
students that were hiding in thesituation, as well as jamming
the communication.
You know, wi-fi and all of thatstuff that's coming in, where
the law enforcement is trying toget into the school to
understand what is going on.
But I get it.
I was a parent and with kids inK through 12 school I don't
(13:39):
have them anymore, I'll havegrandchildren in the school, so
it is something that I really docare about, but as long as we
are doing everything we can tomake our school safe and that
there is a way for parents to beable to contact their kids.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I think those are all great points I love.
To the autonomy of the schooldistrict.
You know, for my son's schooldistrict they are away bell to
bell right now.
We'll see if it lasts all year.
I'm very hopeful that it'sgoing to.
But they are in their backpacks, like they do have them with
them and so but.
(14:14):
But it is being enforced, youknow, to be to be away all day.
And that has been a change inmy district because we used to
say we're phone free but wereally weren't phone free.
And that's what we were seeing,yeah, and now it's actually
being.
And I think that does actuallymore damage when we say we're
phone free and we're not,because then it's like with
(14:35):
parents do try to have like nophones in bedrooms, or no, it's
like, well, the lines areblurred at school, so they're
going to be blurred here, likewe can't.
So we have to mean what we sayand say what we mean.
Right, it has to be enforced.
It has to be enforced.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And and and really there's no flexibility in in the
actual law.
It says there needs to be aprohibition of use for the
school day and that includespassing periods and lunchtime.
School districts do haveflexibility to increase that
where they could say, okay,during extracurricular
(15:09):
activities or pep rallies orfield trips, those types of
nuances a school district candetermine.
But really, really, from firstbell to last bell, those devices
need to be up, but schooldistricts have the flexibility
to determine if that is acomplete ban or if it's a
storage.
What is that storage, as wellas what are those discipline
(15:33):
measures, measures, and sogiving school districts the
autonomy to be able to decide.
You know what's the firstwarning, second warning, third
warning Is there a grace period,as we're all trying to get used
to this, parents and studentsalike?
So we're seeing a lot ofnuances there.
(15:53):
But I am heartened by the numberof school districts that have
embraced this in a way with thefidelity of the law, reading the
plain language in it, followingthe intent of the law, and I'll
attribute that to the fact thatthose school districts have
really looked into what is thevalue of doing this, what are
(16:18):
the positive outcomes that weare going to see what is the
research showing us and if theyreally dig into that and they're
able to talk to parents andstudents about this is not
punitive.
You know we're not doing thisto be the bad guy.
This is because we care aboutyou.
We want you to have a six and ahalf seven hour distracted,
(16:40):
free, disruption free day,because we have your mental
health and well-being at top ofmind here and we know that if
that is not in a good spot thenyou can't learn and we're going
to provide the best learningenvironment for our young people
.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Well, I mean, how many good teachers are we losing
because the behavior of kids isout of control and a lot of
that is phone use.
Immediately when I saw the lawpassed, I thought of David,
because I knew there were videosof him taking during lunch.
I know with my own kids they'vebeen exposed to things by other
people's phones at lunch.
So when I was like bell to bellyes, this is it, because this
(17:22):
is going to help people delayphones, kids not get exposed on
school grounds, the bullyingaspect, and even like we've
helped people that, liketeachers, are being recorded and
made fun of, and so teachersdeserve to be able to walk into
school and not be afraid thattheir students are going to
video them and make fun of themall night on social media.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I completely agree.
I mean, we're hearing thatteachers that are in schools and
the policies are strongpolicies and they are enforced.
Those teachers have a muchhigher level of satisfaction
than those schools who are onlyadopting instruction only you
(18:07):
know classroom time and not youknow, because, if you think
about it, those kids that mayget their device during a
passing period, the last fiveminutes of class, they're
thinking what app am I going toopen first when I get out of
class, when I can turn my phoneback on?
We're also seeing that there'sa lot more tardies in those
(18:29):
schools that allow or don't havea serious enforcement mechanism
.
Maybe they have a policy butthey're not enforcing it during
classroom period.
We're also seeing that duringlunchtime kids are way more
engaged.
Schools are providing ping pongtables and foosball tables and
games for kids to play.
(18:49):
They're seeing much bettersocial interaction among
students.
Rates of cyberbullying, vapingand fighting are down in school
districts when they areenforcing strong policies.
So it really is.
It's a win-win for those schooldistricts that are really going
(19:11):
above and beyond and followingthe fidelity and the spirit of
the bill.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Well, honestly, I think a lot of school districts
wanted to ban it, and they triedto by saying we're going to try
this, but then it wasn'tenforced.
And when it was enforced by theschool district, parents got
mad and yelled at the school.
So then we had an issue whereparents and school admin were
fighting back and forth aboutthe phones.
(19:36):
Right, I mean, that's what washappening.
And so what I love about thelaw is it just kind of gives an
excuse.
Nope, this is a law now.
It's the law.
We're going to do this andwe're going to see how this
works.
We did a shout out on socialmedia like just tell us what you
think about it.
You know, like, what do youthink about this new law?
And the responses were so coolbecause parents were like I
(20:01):
taught my kid how to fold an 80snote and and you know, my kids
are writing notes now and theycome home from school and
they're more engaged inconversation, like they're
looking at me more, and I'm like, wow, this is really positive
feedback.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah, I even heard a story about a school district
that was putting in oldfashioned phone booths for kids
to be able to call their parentsif they needed to.
I mean, schools are embracingit, lots of schools, and that's
what really is, you know,special, because this is a gift
to these kids to be able to goto school, you know, and not
(20:40):
have those distractions anddisruptions.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
There's just so much pressure that I don't think we
can understand that comes from aphone constantly being recorded
.
I mean, I can't tell you howmany families we've helped where
somebody has inadvertently beentaking a picture of or video in
a locker room while they'rechanging and they thought they
were private, but it's caught inthe background of just selfies
all the time, and so I've beenshouting for a decade we at
(21:05):
least have to get these phonesout of locker rooms and
bathrooms.
It's really dangerous.
I love that this encompassesall of that.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, for sure.
And the anxiety.
What I was hearing a lot wasthe anxiety around kids feeling
like they were going to be apicture snapped of them in a
compromising picture anduploaded, or a video taken of
them and so just being able toremove that.
We're seeing also the rates ofdepression and anxiety in the
school day going down.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Well, and I don't even think some of the kids who
are walking through itunderstand how positive it is
right now, like I think they'lllook back, you know, after the
school year is over.
I mean, we went to our firstFriday high school football game
and I told my husband I waslike, look around, none of these
kids are on their phones.
They're all like talking toeach other.
(21:57):
That's great.
And I was like, is this becauseof the new law?
Because typically you wouldjust see this at a football game
and it just felt like a normalfootball game, less people on
their phones, people talking.
It just was an exciting time tobe there, right?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
We just need kids, we want them to be kids.
You know, we want the childhoodback for kids and it's just,
and we can do that and we'remaking a good, good step with
this bill of it.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
For some reason, God has put you on this legislative
path.
You're in DC all the time, soyou've helped with these two
laws big balls in Texas thathave really impacted our kids.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
But you also working on the federal side, I have,
yeah, for the last three years.
You know I started advocatingfor the Kids Online Safety Act
and you know that's a bill thatbasically holds social media
companies accountable for theirdesign features that harm kids.
So the mental health harms, sothose features like infinite
scroll and the auto feeds of thevideos and make, like you know,
(23:17):
counts of the videos and make,like you know, counts, and those
types of things that areimpacting young people's mental
health, as well as thosephysical harms, which are things
like drug dealers that areusing social media to contact
kids and sell them drugs, andsome of those drugs are laced
with fentanyl.
We've had a lot of familiesthat I've been in communication
(23:39):
with that have died, as well aseating disorders and sextortion.
I know that you've had BrianMontgomery on your show a couple
of times and he's part of ourgroup that's advocating for the
Kids Online Safety Act and we'vebeen doing this for about three
years.
But a year ago I started Parentsfor Safe Online Spaces, which
(24:02):
is Parents SOS, and we're agroup of 20 parents who have all
lost children to online harms,and we're a core group that goes
to DC and advocates for thisbill.
It's basically what we'reasking for is safety by design
and safety by default.
So making sure that thoseparental tools, all of them, are
(24:23):
on the highest level of safetywhen that app is first, when
that child first logs into thatapp.
So the parent it's not on theparent to go in there and turn
on those safety guards, that.
It's actually the platform'sresponsibility to do that when
they have a young person ontheir platform, and so it's a
very common sense.
(24:43):
It was bipartisan.
We almost passed it last year.
It came out of the Senate 91 to3, which is basically unheard
of in Congress.
You don't have that kind ofbipartisan support and it just
got stalled in the House and wewere very disappointed by year
end.
But it's been reintroduced.
(25:04):
We're waiting still waiting ontext from the House, but we're
hoping that we're going to havethat soon and we'll be back in
DC continuing to advocate forthat, as long as what we get is
a strong bill.
There's nothing worse than abill that either is, you know,
doesn't do anything or is moreharmful to young people.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Well, I remember when I met Brian and we had him on
our show and the first thing Ithought was he has to know
Maureen, because nobody canspeak into this like a mom who's
been through this right.
I remember connecting you guysand you said I said, maureen, he
needs you, like their familyneeds you right now.
(25:46):
And you were like this is asupport group.
Nobody wants to be in, yeah,and and you guys have this 20
families that have come togetherand kind of devoted your life
now, uh, to to making changes sothat our kids can be safer
online.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
It's a path that nobody wants to be on, but we
know what the risks are.
We know if these social mediacompanies are not accountable
for it's basically the designfeature.
I mean the business model,right?
So engagement is what drivestheir profits.
(26:28):
And how do you get engagements?
It's the most damaging.
The most theatrical,drama-driven, horrific content
is what kids are going to like,get their eyes glued on that,
and so if they can't be heldresponsible for those features,
(26:49):
like the algorithm that isfeeding that content to young
people even when they're notsearching for it, you know,
that's the one thing about COSAis it's not.
It's not based on content.
It's based on those designfeatures that are putting,
forcing that content on youngpeople in order to drive their
profits up.
So that's what we want to do.
We want to make sure that thereare just some common sense
(27:12):
guardrails in place to protectwould have protect Walker,
brian's son.
Would have protect David, myson, and the hundreds and
hundreds thousands of otherchildren that have died from
online harms, as well as thehundreds of thousands of
students if not in millions ofstudents that are being impacted
(27:33):
by it every day.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
You know, here at Next Talk, we focus on the
parents, you know, gettinginvolved and being the solution.
And what I love about whatyou're doing is you're saying
we've got to come alongsideparents.
Parents need help.
We're not saying parentsshouldn't be doing all these
things, but but but parents needhelp with this, because right
now, we just have this machineout here filling an algorithm
(27:58):
when a when a kid enters a birthdate, when they know they're,
they're not an adult, andthey're feeding certain
algorithm to that.
That must stop.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Parents aren't asking for apass, we're just asking for help
.
I mean, as soon as you figureout you know one app, you know
how many more pop up, and thenyou're actually it could be a
full-time job.
It's just to figure out how allof these apps work and what are
all the safeguards on each ofthese individual apps.
(28:28):
What COSA would do is say youknow each one of those, it has
to be on the highest safeguardand if a parent wants to go in
there and relax those safeguards, they have the authority to be
able to do that.
But parents are strugglingright now not only with just
daily life and holding theirfamilies together, and, adding
(28:49):
this to it, it is a huge burdento parents.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Well and, like you said, all of our laws are
outdated.
I mean we don't even talk aboutphone use in most of our laws,
so a lot of it is just updatingwith the technology part and the
access that we have today.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
A lot of it is just updating with the technology
part and the access that we havetoday, right, absolutely.
And you know, like I said inDavid's law, we had to update it
from fax machines and pagers.
I say that to kids today andthey're just like well, what is
that?
Nobody even knows what that is.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
So yeah, we're just so outdated and I hate to think
about the laws in AI.
Just it is just evolvingquickly where we need to, where
we really need to be in tune toour kids and their phones and
what they're doing, because itis evolving faster than when we
can keep up with.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
It is very scary out there and we're hearing story
after story of kids who haveengaged with these chatbots and,
as far as I'm concerned, nochild should have access to a
chatbot period.
There should be a strict lawabout that, because a child
(29:55):
getting information from amachine when they think it's an
adult human interaction is nothealthy, and we need to make
sure that we're trying to putsome guardrails in place to
protect kids.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, I had a pastor on one time and he said Pastor
Ed Newton from CBC, he said AIdoes not have a soul.
And when he said that I waslike that's so true, and kids
are asking it advice, like itwould give moral advice.
And it's not, it's a machine.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Right and they're building these relationships
with them when they're searchingfor something else in life, and
that chatbot is reinforcingeverything that that child is
saying.
Instead of giving you know,telling them they need to be
talking to a trusted human adult, a parent, you know, somebody
(30:47):
who cares about them.
Instead it just keepsreinforcing that negative
behavior that that child isdiscussing between this machine
and themselves and they justthey don't understand that, yeah
, it's just.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
it's never been so important to get educated about
what's going on, understand whatour laws are, what they aren't,
and be able to fill in the gapsfor your family.
Yeah, is there anything elseyou would like to share with our
parents, maureen?
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I would just like to encourage them to go to
parentssosorg, read the stories,read the 20 stories of the
families and the children whohave been harmed online and
these parent survivors who aremy heroes, that I work with on a
daily basis that are reallytrying to make the world a
better place for every singlechild out there, and then join
(31:40):
our movement.
Sign up to get more informationabout the work that we're doing
in Congress to try to put somecommon sense safeguards in place
to protect kids online.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
I know that parents don't want to read these stories
because they're hard andthey're scary, but I always push
parents into that because, likeyou, brian, who I've gotten to
know over the years, you guysare good families.
Yeah, and it happened to you.
So I always tell parents likewe can never say never in our
(32:10):
home, and so awareness is key.
We can't put our head in thesand and say that's too hard to
even grasp that that happened.
We have to get educated andlook it in the face and deal
with it Like that is just key.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, thank you for being hereand thank you for all the work
that you do.
Maureen, I know you tirelesslywork on these laws and you
(32:32):
testify and you're knocking ondoors in DC and you're saying we
need to talk about this andnobody ever knows the work that
you have put into this, and sothank you for all the work that
you do and just know that we arepraying for you and cheering
you on.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Thank you, mandy, it was a pleasure.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Next Talk is a 501c3 nonprofit keeping kids safe
online.
To support our work, make adonation at nexttalkorg.
Next Talk resources are notintended to replace the advice
of a trained healthcare or legalprofessional, or to diagnose,
treat or otherwise render expertadvice regarding any type of
medical, psychological, legal,financial or other problem.
You are advised to consult aqualified expert for your
(33:15):
personal treatment plan.
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