On June 23, 2026, posters were displayed on the lawn of Upper Senate Park in front of the United States Capitol depicting the hundreds of children and newborn adults who have lost their lives to social media-related harm. The show was part of a larger event organized on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Social Media. (Photo: Amelia Twyman/States Newsroom)
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WASHINGTON – On Tuesday evening, posters were displayed on the lawn of Upper Senate Park at the U.S. Capitol with 272 names, each with a photo and age of a child or newborn adult who lost their life to what their families call social media-related causes.
Scattered among the signs were dozens of grieving families, friends, lawmakers and supporters from across the country and both sides of the political spectrum, uniting to remember those who died and calling for legislation to make social media safer for children.
Founded in 2023 by two mothers whose sons died on the same morning, Day of Remembrance for Victims of Social Media commemorates newborn victims of online threats such as cyberbullying, blackmail, drug trafficking, viral challenges and addictive algorithms.
According to organizers, Tuesday’s public memorial – the largest ever for children affected by social media – included speeches from U.S. Democratic and Republican senators working to pass legislation that would, among other things, boost technology companies’ liability for a range of harms caused by their platforms.
As soon as they took the stage, the rain that had been falling on Washington all day stopped and sunlight broke through the clouds, illuminating the crowd and the posters swaying gently in the wind around them, which Senator Amy Klobuchar used as a metaphor for the issue.
“I think we need more light on what’s going on here, more transparency and people understanding how bad the situation really is,” the Minnesota Democrat told the families sitting before her.
Sens also spoke at Tuesday’s memorial. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, and Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri.
Day of Remembrance for Victims of Social Media
Mothers Kristin Bride and Amy Neville created Social Media Victims Remembrance Day to honor the memory of their overdue sons Carson Bride and Alexander Neville, who died in social media-related accidents on June 23, 2020.
Carson Bride from California was 16 years vintage when he committed suicide after being cyberbullied through anonymous integrated apps on Snapchat. Fourteen-year-old Alexander Neville from Arizona lost his life the same morning after taking a counterfeit fentanyl prescription pill he bought from a drug dealer, also on Snapchat.
For Neville, organizing a Day of Remembrance for Victims of Social Media was a way for her to express her “feelings on a large scale.”
This day also gives her a chance to connect with other parents who have experienced similar tragedies.
“It’s a strange feeling to be in the world among people who don’t know what you’ve experienced,” she said in an interview with Bride on Tuesday. “Being together with people who know, people who have similar experiences, makes us feel normal. Being together like this is special.”
Bride saw Social Media Victims Memorial Day as an opportunity to “make a difference,” she said.
“I really feel like the way we can reach out to social media companies is through education and raising awareness of what this event does,” she added. “Carson always wanted to make the world a better place. And I feel like on this day we could grieve alone or we could be together with many other families.”
Big Tech or families?
Bride and Neville held the first Social Media Victims Memorial Day event of 2023 at the Orange County Victims of Crime Memorial, a memorial located in front of the district attorney’s office.
Then, after a year’s hiatus, they decided to move the celebration to the nation’s capital last year because they wanted to raise awareness among lawmakers about the dangers of youth using social media.
“We want them to make a decision: Is it Big Tech or is it American families?” Said the bride. “Because unfortunately this monument is still growing.”
Over the past year, efforts to protect children online and hold Big Tech companies accountable for social media harm have continued to grow, with U.S. lawmakers in both the House and Senate pushing regulatory legislation and parents taking a legal stand.
Tuesday’s event comes three months after a California jury found Meta and YouTube liable for: groundbreaking trial on social media addictionone of the first in a long line of lawsuits blaming tech companies for personal injury and recklessness. The New Mexico jury trial had taken place just a few days earlier found that Meta violated state law in a separate child sexual abuse case.
Social media platforms have rejected claims that their products are responsible for harming newborn users.
In a statement responding to the California verdict, Meta said the case was much more complicated than the jury believed.
“Teen mental health is incredibly complex and cannot be tied to a single app,” a company spokesperson said he wrote on X
Congress action
On Monday, Republican and Democratic Party leaders sit on the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced on which they reached cross-party agreement Bill aimed at making the social media environment safer for children and holding parent companies accountable.
“If you make a defective toaster and it explodes in someone’s house, that person will be held liable,” Blumenthal said Tuesday. “When Big Tech produces products that addict and kill young people, they should be held accountable under a clear and effective duty of care.”
Blumenthal was one of the senators who introduced the measure in February 2022. The bill ultimately passed the Senate by a 91-3 majority, but failed to receive a vote in the House because social media platforms opposed it.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, a Republican, and top Democrat Frank Pallone of New Jersey reached an agreement this year to include the bill in a broader legislative package titled Children on the Internet and digital safetyor KIDS, Act.
“By empowering parents, establishing safety by default, strengthening the privacy of children and teens, increasing transparency around data brokers, and holding Big Tech accountable, the KIDS Act provides the 21st century protections that parents are demanding and that our children deserve,” Guthrie and Pallone said in their report press release.
Policy reported last week that Meta has withdrawn its opposition to the security measures because the package also includes provisions regarding the company’s artificial intelligence.
Hawley on Tuesday accused the companies of putting profits over the well-being of children.
“We are here today to say that there is no amount of profit that justifies the exploitation of our children,” Hawley said. “But that’s what these companies do and they know what they’re doing.”
