My son Avery was sixteen years old when he died after taking poisoned drugs purchased from a 33-year-old dealer on Snapchat.
Within 24 hours of arriving at his mother’s house in Washington last Christmas, Avery had connected with a local drug dealer through Snapchat. The transaction at his home in Olympia was as casual as ordering food through Doordash: a quick search revealed a dealer openly selling drugs who delivered them directly to Avery. Within hours, my son was dead.
I later learned that Snapchat had received a subpoena for the dealer’s account records two months before he was allowed to deal drugs to my son. They knew about him and did nothing, allowing a known dealer to keep selling drugs to kids using their platform.
If Snapchat had enforced their own rules, which they claim keep kids on their platform safe, my son would still be alive. Now, a new bill on its way to Governor Jared Polis’ desk could spare other families from this kind of completely preventable tragedy.
There is just one problem: Gov. Polis is threatening to veto it – siding with billion dollar tech companies instead of parents, kids, law enforcement, and an overwhelming bipartisan consensus.
If signed into law, Senate Bill 86 would require social media platforms to permanently remove users found to be engaging in narrowly defined, egregious criminal activity that disproportionately impacts children: illegal drug sales, firearm sales that violate state or federal law, and child trafficking.
It would also require social media companies to respond to warrants from Colorado law enforcement in a timely manner, which is a tragically necessary measure given these companies’ track record of stonewalling investigations. When I testified in favor of this legislation earlier this year, I sat next to a Colorado mother named Chelsea Congdon.
When she lost her son Miles to fentanyl poisoning after he purchased what he thought was pain medication on Snapchat, the company simply never responded to the ensuing police investigation. No one was ever held accountable for Miles’ death.
This crisis threatening our kids goes beyond drugs. Colorado’s youth violence intervention groups report that firearms are easily purchased by teens through social media in violation of state and federal law, and often find their way into our schools. This illegal gun trade is directly enabled by lax enforcement policies by social media companies (for example, Facebook prohibits gun sales on its platform, but buyers and sellers can violate the rule 10 times before they are kicked off the social network).
America’s most popular social media sites have also become hotbeds for unspeakable crimes like child sex trafficking.
It must be emphasized that these companies are not just enabling hideous criminal activity, but directly profiting from it. Social media platforms happily accept payment for ads that boost illegal gun and drug dealers into the feeds of children. In one of their many investigations into the top tech platforms, the Tech Transparency Project revealed over 450 paid advertisements openly selling drugs on Instagram and Facebook in just three months of 2024. These weren’t coded messages – they showed explicit photos of pills and powders.
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Former congressman Greg Lopez announces third run for Colorado governor Michael Bennet should resign his U.S. Senate seat to run for governor (Denver Post editorial) Colorado wants to solve its insurance crisis. But homeowners would have to pay. Skeptical Gov. Jared Polis signs law blocking more grocery stores from selling hard liquor U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet jumps into governor’s race, saying he wants “to forge a better politics”A bill to put an end to this insanity in the state of Colorado has already passed both chambers of the state legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support. Senate Bill 86 also has the support of every district attorney in the state – democrat and republican – and was developed in partnership with Attorney General Phil Weiser.
The only people who seem to have a problem with this bill are lobbyists for social media companies, and Gov. Jared Polis. The arguments Gov. Polis’ office has offered in opposition to this bill, which cite concerns about “free speech” and “protecting innovation,” are absurd and offensive. Preventing a drug dealer from offering fentanyl to a child is not a “free speech violation.” Enabling illegal gun sales and child sex trafficking is not “innovation.” These half-baked arguments make a mockery of the heartbroken parents who have been advocating for commonsense reforms for years.
SB 86 will land on Gov. Polis’ desk within the next few days. I urge him to do the right thing, drop his nonsensical opposition, and sign it into law without delay. Parents in every corner of our nation will be watching
Aaron Ping has joined parents across the nation to fight for regulation of social media companies to protect children from illegal activities.
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