Dr. Laura Berman and her husband Sam Chapman recently opened up about the introduction of Sammy's Law, a new bill that is named after their 16-year-old son who died of fentanyl poisoning. In an interview with ABC News' Nightline, the couple recalled the horrifying events that led to Sammy's death when he was a high school junior in 2021.
The teen had taken a fentanyl-laced pill that he bought off someone via Snapchat. The new bill would require social media companies to provide parents with access to data about their child's social media interactions if they could be potentially dangerous.
Though the introduction of the bill helps Laura feel she got a little bit of justice, nothing can make up for the loss of her son. "There can't be justice for our 16-year-old child being murdered. There is no justice that will make that OK," she said.
"If we could change the laws, or we could somehow convince social media to do the right thing," she continued, "then I will feel the closest thing to justice that I probably can feel." Since her son's death, the therapist has been trying to figure out the role social media played.
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"I had no idea that drug dealers were reaching out to my son, accessing my son and connecting with my son through Snapchat," she explained at a press conference on December 5 in Washington. "We're doing this to save other children from Sammy's fate and to save other families from the devastation that we have to live with every day."
The new bill would require social media companies to allow third-party software to monitor the social media accounts of children and flag parents if any concerning behavior arises. "It would require any social media platform with children on it to allow for parent monitoring software integration from the outside, not just their own, it has to be across devices and across platforms," Sam said.
"The very technology that we have in our homes and our pockets today may be part of the problem," Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said at the press conference. "But with this bill, we're trying to bring these devices in as part of the solution. And I'm proud to be part of that bipartisan solution."
The proposal of the law is only in its initial stages of the legislative process right now. It still has to be voted on by both chambers of Congress and signed into law before it can be enacted.
"This legislation would create a parental right to know about dangerous or concerning interactions children under the age of 17 may have online," the bill's sponsors said. "Social media companies would be required to provide access to data pertaining to a parent’s child through registered third-party safety apps."
Laura and Sam are also part of a handful of other parents who filed a lawsuit against Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, alleging that the platform enables drug dealers to contact minors and young adults. Snapchat released a statement in 2021, saying, "We have no higher priority than keeping Snapchat a safe environment and we will continue to invest in protecting our community."
