Online safety act can protect families from tragedy like ours |Opinion
A ‘woman’ made him feel comfortable, seen — liked.
Then she asked if he wanted to see her unclothed. She exposed herself. She asked him to do the same.
Teenage boys are losing their lives to financial sextortion scams
Teenage boys are getting blackmailed online and it’s costing some their lives. Here’s what their parents want you to know.
- Tamia Woods advocates for online safety reform after her 17-year-old son died by suicide following a “sextortion” scam.
- The Kids Online Safety Act is a bipartisan bill in Congress aimed at protecting children from online predators and exploitation.
This column discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
Tamia Woods is the mother of James Woods, forever 17.
Kids here in Ohio and around the nation are being groomed, bullied and lured into sending sexual photos which are then used for blackmail and extortion.
I know this firsthand.
Since my beautiful 17-year-old son, James, took his own life after merciless online torture, I’ve heard hundreds of stories like his and have met parents like me.
What happened to my son could be happening to your child as you read this.
A day that started for my family with laughter, college plans, and joy, ended with us finding our child dead in our home.
James had everything to live for, but in those final moments, he felt he had no other choice.
Criminals bombarded him for nearly 20 hours with almost 200 messages attacking, threatening, and terrorizing him. He begged to be left alone.
Their response: “I am more determined to rot your life than to make it a waste, a trash can, a shame, a dishonor, a hell, a real disaster, a hell on earth.” And: “You should just kill yourself.”
Commonsense bill vs big money
Parents all over the country are begging for a way to protect their kids from these and other predators online. Meta and other social media companies could do a lot to stop this behavior.
Instead, they’ve spent millions trying to stop popular bipartisan solutions because it would disrupt their enormously profitable business model.
And they have so far succeeded in blocking Congress from acting to protect kids, even though it has a well-vetted piece of legislation that addresses these threats ready for approval.
The Kids Online Safety Act, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), has the support of more than 70 senators, my fellow survivor parents, and a broad coalition of child welfare advocates.
It’s a commonsense bill that could be approved quickly and would effect real change.
But there’s a lot of money at stake, and social media companies are intent on preserving their nearly unlimited ability to manipulate our children and sell their attention to advertisers.
The addictive nature of these platforms is key to their profits, and it’s now well-documented that social media companies have repeatedly turned a blind eye to kids’ safety issues, even going so far as to manipulate and delete damning data raised by their own employees.
Rather than make the kind of fundamental changes needed to prevent the exploitation of children, they make empty promises to parents by promoting teen accounts with “safety features” that are easily circumvented.
These companies have spent millions on Capitol Hill to maintain their grip on our children.
They are now trying to kill the bill by promoting a weak substitute for it.
A new bill in the House of Representatives strips the Kids Online Safety Act of crucial safety features and stops states from passing and enforcing their own laws to hold technology companies accountable for exploiting children.
Parents and kids deserve real reform, not lip service.
Meta’s Instagram allowed my son to be tortured for profit
My son James was the victim of financial sextortion.
A “woman” befriended James on Instagram. She contacted him shortly after 7 p.m. on Friday, November 18, 2022.
She created what every predator knows how to build: a safe space. She made him feel comfortable, seen — liked.
Then she asked if he wanted to see her unclothed. She exposed herself. She asked him to do the same. And like most any 17-year-old boy who liked a girl and saw no danger — he did.
This girl turned out to be one of James’ attackers and was accompanied by at least three other men from the Ivory Coast.
They threatened to send his image to friends and family, telling him that he’d be labeled a pedophile, he would be expelled from school, he wouldn’t get into college, he wouldn’t be able to get a job, his friends and family wouldn’t love him. They demanded money.
These murderers in the Ivory Coast hoped for and received financial gain off my son’s death, and Meta allowed it to happen because it too gains financially from the volume of kids’ time spent online. Almost half of all teens in the U.S. have been cyberbullied.
Bullying can impact a child or teen’s academic performance and increase their likelihood of depression, anxiety, sleep problems, and adulthood substance abuse.
We live in misery
James was the best thing to ever happen to us.
He was independent, strong-willed, and determined. We assumed we would watch him go to college and get a law degree.
With James no longer here, we live in misery. Every day, we are angry, sorrowful, depressed, and grieving. Our only child was taken from us by people whose only goal was to torture victims into giving them money.
We need Congress to make it stop by passing the Kids Online Safety Act in its strongest form and stop allowing Meta and other social media platforms to police themselves.
So, I urge you to contact your representatives and senators and push them to pass the Senate version of the act.
Children cannot wait, families cannot keep losing loved ones, and accountability cannot be delayed. We need to protect our kids and make online safety a priority today.
Tamia Woods is the mother of James Woods, forever 17. After the loss of her son, she and her husband, Timothy, founded the Do It For James Foundation, which aims to protect children from online dangers and exploitation.