Colorado mom pushes for more social media safety in Washington

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Lori Schott lost her daughter, Annalee, to suicide. She joined other parents in Washington, D.C. this week to advocate for stricter social media controls.

COLORADO, USA — A mom from northeastern Colorado joined a group of parents who traveled to the nation’s capital this week to participate in a Senate hearing and other advocacy work, facing down the CEOs of several major social media sites and pushing them to make changes they hope will save lives.

All week, Lori Schott shared stories of her 18-year old daughter, Annalee.

“She was wonderful. She was a tiny little powerhouse. And quite an old soul, her happiest place was on her farm. With her critters and us. It was just joy to everything around her. And we miss her pretty bad,” Schott said.

Annalee, or Anna, died by suicide in November of 2020. It wasn’t until after her death that her family discovered the troubling content she had consumed on social media. That was also when her parents started to learn more about complaints against social media companies, including former employees, like the documents shared by a whistleblower at Facebook.

“It was at that time I got the courage to go down into her room and look through her journals, which was a hellacious day. And find things she quoted from social media – about pro-suicide, anxiety, depression,” Schott said. “And then after that, we were able to get access to her phone, and learned a lot of content about how powerful these algorithms are, we as parents didn’t know about dangers that lurk online – how quickly these algorithms can take children into a deep rabbit hole of emotions and self-destruction.”

Like so many other parents who attended Wednesday’s Senate hearing, Schott brought a photo of her child. She was featured prominently in the images captured during the hearing, as the leaders of multiple technology companies fielded questions — and great criticism — from lawmakers.

“They need to be held accountable. Whether it’s litigation or legislation, they need to be held accountable,” Schott said.

At one point in the hearing, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) suggested Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg turn around to face the parents in the room, and apologize. Zuckerberg offered a few words to the group, telling them, “I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through… It’s terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.”

“That’s pretty powerful, but his response was pretty hollow,” Schott said. “He’s a billionaire. [Runs] one of the most powerful companies. But he was held accountable that day, and he had to look at us and those children, and I don’t see how anybody could not take a stance with us to stop this from happening.”

Parents like Lori are pushing lawmakers to pass legislation that better protects children online, like the bipartisan “Kids Online Safety Act.” That would, among other things, add strict default privacy controls for minors and an opt-out of algorithm recommendations.

For parents like Schott, this week was a chance to find a community among the families who have suffered the loss of a child and have people in power hear their stories and be motivated to take action. Now these parents are working together, hoping to spare other families the same kind of pain.

“It’s a moment in time where maybe God is bringing us all together to power through this as one. There’s a bigger voice when we’re all together, than there is individually,” she said. “I will fight for what happened to Anna so it doesn’t happen to any other children.”