Cyberbullying has had tragic real-world consequences for too many families.

From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Megan McCarty Carino. There seems to be growing momentum recently for efforts to protect kids from online harms.

In June, the U.S. Surgeon General called for a warning label on social media for kids, and last month the Senate passed the Kids

Online Safety Act or Cosa with bipartisan support. On the show we've heard from

lobbyists and advocates on different sides of the issue.

Today we speak with Kristen Bride, a mother for whom the debate is personal.

And a warning this segment contains content that could be disturbing.

In 2020, Bride's 16 year old son Carson died by suicide after experiencing

cyberbullying on the social media platform Snapchat.

Since then Kristen Bride has become a vocal advocate for social media reform because she says even

the most vigilant parents can't always protect their kids.

We waited until Carson was through middle school to give him his first phone,

but when he got to high school he begged

for Snapchat because that was the way all the kids were connecting. What we didn't

know is that Snapchat had allowed anonymous apps on the back end of their product.

And so he received over a hundred negative harassing threatening messages in the weeks leading to his suicide over YOLO and

LMLK, the two anonymous apps.

He had a private account, so he knew that these were from his high school classmates and the last search on his phone before he ended his life was for hacks to find out who was doing this to him.

Were you aware at all that there was a problem?

We were not and that is the thing that is different about cyberbullying.

Many of the kids who are victims believe that they can handle it themselves.

And Carson was doing his best to try to find out who was doing this to him,

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