finally tonight one South Brunswick mom's personal fight to end cyber bullying Erin Popolo has spent the last three years meeting with elected leaders traveling to DC and advocating for children like her daughter Emily who died by suicide in 2021 at the age of 16 after Relentless bullying from peers who took to social media to Target her Aaron's mission is to prevent other kids from the same online harms working tirelessly alongside other parents in getting Congress to pass the kids Online safety act or KOSA which Advocates say would give families the tools and safeguards they need to protect against threats to kids health and well-being online Erin Popolo is with me now in the studio to share more Erin I'm so happy to get a chance to sit down with you since that time you've created Emily's Champions a foundation a nonprofit created a kindness fair you've met with uh folks in DC is it the advocacy work that keeps you going yes um it that it's helps Channel my grief into being something productive um otherwise I could kind of at the beginning after Emily died I was a bit big advocate for her to begin with because she was a special education student so my my advocacy was part of my identity so even at so when Emily died I kind of lost that whole part of my identity and I needed needed something to channel my grief because I could just it was like you literally your life gets shattered I mean and you've met countless other families and parents at this point who have lived a very similar experience yes yes and it's it's crazy but there there's a whole underworld of of bereaved parents that no one ever hears about um and we all seem to find each other so when you meet with folks let's say in DC Congress members and you're talking about this Online safety act I mean of course there's been a lot more attention on this and on these tech companies in the last couple of years I mean what's the message that you give them well essentially the the parents that I traveled to DC with we all um have lost a child to something related to social media so Emily was Cyber Bullied um I know parents who their children have died by um a taking a you know a social media challenge or you know picking up drugs that were laced with fentanyl through snapchat or Instagram so um we all have been our children have been harmed by something online and so we are focusing on making social media social media is not going anywhere but we need to make it safer for these kids to navigate because right now it is a free-for-all and you know it they just cannot navigate it by themselves um we really want the the um the social media companies to be a little bit more you know responsible for what's being on put put up on their platform right now the the KOSA Act it's been passed in the Senate it has not yet been posted for a full vote in the house although it made it through Frank Pallone uh committee for markups it did what do you want to say to those long makers who are not posting this bill um honestly I want to say that you know if it was their child that had been harmed I'm sure it would have been out for a full full you know for a floor vote already but it's not because I you know there's you know Tech has spent $51 million just this year in lobbying against us I mean we're 20 parents who go to DC you know and you know we talk to law lawmakers and tell them our horrific stories and these tech companies are coming in with all this money behind them we you know it's we're it's hard to fight that you know it's really it's not about red or blue it is about you know the kids this is about keeping our children safe I already paid the ultimate price for putting my child on social media you know I don't want anyone else to have to walk this this path because it's terrible it you know it is life shattering it Alters your entire life and I don't you know you have a young child I don't want you to have to worry about this 10 years from now I want there to be things in place so that you know when you get there that this is something that is you know in that you know is manageable for these kids uh Erin thank you for sharing your story um and of course for keeping Emily's memory alive in the advocacy work that you're doing thank you so much thank you I appreciate it