SAN ANTONIO – Maurine Molak lost her son, David, to suicide in 2016. She said he was the target of relentless and devastating cyberbullying that left him feeling helpless and hopeless months before his death.
Since then, she’s co-founded the David’s Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a mission to eliminate cyberbullying and other types of bullying of children and teens through education, legislation and legal action.
With the internet playing an increasingly dominant role in the lives of young people, concerns over the harmful effects of online harassment have reached a boiling point.
Parents are rallying together, urging schools, communities, and policymakers to take concrete steps to protect their children from this digital threat.
Molak has been relentlessly fighting to ensure what happened to her son doesn’t happen to others and has been working with state lawmakers to pass David’s Law in 2017.
“David’s Law is a comprehensive bill that affected the education code, the civil code, and the criminal code, and basically, it gave schools the authority to investigate cyber-bullying that occurred off-campus if it materially affected a student’s ability to be able to learn or go to school,” said Molak.
In 2021, lawmakers passed an additional version of David’s Law.
Molak said David’s Law 2.0 put in some prevention tools for schools, and the Texas Education Agency created rules for schools to follow regarding the lessons and objectives kids need to have every school year.
“Every school in Texas now has to have an anti-bullying committee that is made up of students and parents at the secondary level, and they need to address school culture and bullying in their schools,” said Molak.
Molak said they weren’t able to get social media companies on board seven years ago, but given the data and science that exists that shows the effects social media and gaming have on children, she’s hopeful they’ll do more to protect kids.
“And it’s not just cyberbullying. It is sextortion. It’s sexual exploitation. Our kids are being fed content that is pro-suicide or eating disorders and they end up going down a rabbit trail,” said Molak.
She’s now taking her efforts to the federal level and working on something called KOSA, the Kids Online Safety Act, with other parents across the U.S. whose children have been harmed by social media.
“What we need is the social media companies to have a duty of care to help us prevent and mitigate those harms that children are exposed to online. And without federal regulation, that is not going to happen. And so that’s why we need to get KOSA passed this year,” said Molak.
KOSA aims to limit harmful content minors see online and works to promote transparency from tech companies. It would also provide parental and user controls that allow families to navigate their child’s online experience to protect their privacy.
The legislation would also ensure the strongest, most protective settings are on by default for minors.
“We’re asking parents to contact their senators. That would be Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and let them know that they (should) support KOSA and that we would like for them to get on board and help us get that passed this year,” said Molak.
KOSA is currently in the Senate Commerce Committee, and Molak hopes to hear something this month.
For more information on KOSA, visit www.davidslegacy.org.