This week, Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner take listeners to Washington, D.C., following an emotional and powerful Social Media Victims Remembrance Day (SMVRD)—a day dedicated to honoring the children lost to social media harms and the families fighting to prevent more names from being added to the memorial each year.

The episode explores why families, advocates, and lawmakers gathered on Capitol Hill to demand action, and why so many parents believe the burden of protecting children online can no longer rest on families alone. Nicki and Sarah reflect on the growing national awareness of social media harms, the momentum created by the ongoing addiction trials, and the frustration of watching meaningful reform continue to stall.

They also break down two major developments in Washington: reports that tech CEOs may avoid a highly anticipated Senate hearing on social media harms, and the passage of the controversial Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act (KIDS Act), which critics say prioritizes Big Tech interests over child safety.

Later, parent survivor and Alexander Neville Foundation founder Amy Neville joins the show to share why she and Kristen Bride created SMVRD, what this year’s event meant to impacted families, and why keeping courthouse doors open and holding platforms accountable remains critical to protecting future generations.

Plus, Nicki and Sarah discuss the growing global movement to raise the age of social media access, why age-gating alone won’t solve the problem, and the one change experts believe would make the biggest difference: eliminating the addictive features that keep children hooked.

Because remembrance without action isn’t enough.

Here's a letter-writing tool to contact your Senators. Ask them to Vote "No" on the KIDS Act that passed in the House of Representatives. 

The Heat is On is an investigative mini-series by Scrolling 2 Death in partnership with Heat Initiative. Thank you to our expert editor, Jacob Meade.

What really happens when a 13-year-old joins Snapchat?

In this episode, we break down a disturbing new investigation from ParentsTogether Action and Heat Initiative that followed two avatar accounts posing as 7th graders on Snapchat for just one week — and what researchers found is deeply alarming.

The report claims Snapchat recommended hundreds of unsafe videos to the teen accounts, including drug content, sexual material, self-harm videos, violent content, and connections to strangers who appeared to be adults. Researchers say the accounts were shown unsafe content at an average rate of about one video per minute, often without searching for it.

We unpack the most shocking findings:

• Adult strangers recommended as friends
• Sexualized comments on videos featuring children
• Drug sellers and explicit creators suggested to minors
• Content promoting self-harm, violence, and disordered eating
• Concerns around live location sharing for young teens

This episode explores what the report reveals about algorithmic recommendation systems, platform safety promises, and the growing concerns parents are raising about social media and children.

THE REPORT: One Week on Snapchat as a 7th Grader

PETITION: Stop Teen Exploitation & Abuse on Snapchat

Apple wants parents to celebrate its latest parental control updates. But child safety advocates aren't buying the hype.

In this episode, I brought in Titania Jordan of Bark Technologies and Chris McKenna of Protect Young Eyes to separate PR from reality. They discuss why Apple's changes arrived only after mounting lawsuits and legislative pressure, what the company still isn't doing to protect children, and why many of the announced features amount to little more than shifting responsibility back onto parents.

If Apple truly prioritizes child safety, why can children still receive explicit content, easily workaround parental controls and use a device designed primarily for adults?

Before you trust the headlines, listen to what the experts have to say.

Safer options for your child: 

Get the Bark Phone! 

Monitor your child's iPhone with the Bark App.

Get the Bark Watch!

Apple has built its brand on privacy, trust, and innovation. But when it comes to protecting children, has the company done enough?

In this episode of The Heat Is On, hosts Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner examine Apple's long and controversial history with child safety. While Apple recently announced new parental controls and family safety features at WWDC 2026, critics say the company continues to ignore one of the most urgent child protection issues on its platform: the presence of known child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in iCloud.

Sarah shares her decade-long experience pushing Apple to address the problem, including behind-the-scenes conversations with the company, Apple's abandoned 2021 CSAM detection initiative, and the ongoing debate between privacy and child protection. The discussion also explores Apple's role in hosting AI nudify apps, concerns about App Store safety, and the direct-action campaigns that have brought survivors, advocates, and national media attention to Apple's doorstep.

Sign the petition asking Apple to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse material.

The hosts break down Apple's latest child safety announcements, what they could mean for families, and why advocates say parents should wait for independent testing before assuming the new protections will work as promised.

If one of the world's most powerful technology companies can't find a way to protect both privacy and children, what does that mean for the rest of the tech industry?

In this episode:

• Apple's history of refusing to detect known CSAM in iCloud
• Why child safety advocates supported Apple's abandoned 2021 detection plan
• The scale of online child sexual abuse material and its impact on survivors
• Apple's App Store, AI nudify apps, and deepfake child exploitation concerns
• The direct-action campaigns pressuring Apple to change
• A breakdown of Apple's newly announced parental controls and safety features
• What parents should know before trusting Big Tech's safety promises

The Heat is On is a Scrolling 2 Death production in partnership with Heat Initiative.

Editing provided by Jacob Meade. 

When schools hand children Chromebooks, iPads, Google accounts, and Microsoft Teams access, what’s really happening behind the screen?

In this eye-opening conversation, Titania Jordan joins Nicki Petrossi to reveal alarming new data from Bark Technologies’s monitoring of school-issued technology used by millions of students across the U.S.

The findings are staggering:

• 12% of children encountered cyberbullying 
• 3.74% encountered instances of depression
• 7.46% encountered discussion or content related to suicidal ideation, imminent suicide or self-harm
• 39.83% of students encountered violent content
• 22% were exposed to drug-related content
• 10.77% encountered sexual content
• 11.64% encountered medically-concerning content
• 2.69% encountered hate speech
• 0.23% encountered body image content
• 1.79% encountered anxiety-related content

They discuss how students are using Google Docs like disappearing-message apps, why schools are struggling to keep up, and what parents can do right now to better protect their children.

This episode is a wake-up call for parents, educators, school administrators, and policymakers about the unintended consequences of putting addictive, poorly protected technology into children’s hands.

Get Bark for Schools (for free!)

Get the Bark Phone

Parents Templates and Resources at Tech-Safe Learning

Legendary trial attorney Mark Lanier joins Nicki and Sarah for an emotional, behind-the-scenes look at the landmark social media addiction trial that ended in a jury verdict against Meta and YouTube.

For nearly two months, we sat inside the Los Angeles courtroom documenting every moment — filling 589 pages of notes as grieving parents, advocates, reporters, jurors, and teams of attorneys battled over one central question: did these platforms knowingly build products that addict children, like Kaley?

In this deeply personal interview, Mark breaks down exactly how the case was won, why Snapchat and TikTok settled just before trial, and what the jury ultimately decided about Kaley, the young woman at the center of the case. He also reveals shocking moments the public never saw — defense witnesses backing out, chaos inside the courthouse, the strategy behind avoiding a billion-dollar “runaway verdict,” and the cross-examinations that changed everything.

The episode also revisits some of the most unforgettable lines from the trial, responding directly to claims made in court by executives and attorneys from Meta and YouTube.

But this conversation is bigger than one verdict. It’s about children, addiction, grief, corporate power, and the parents fighting back against trillion-dollar tech companies. Mark shares what he believes this case means for the future of Big Tech accountability, why he calls it a defining trial of the 21st century, and the message he hopes families around the world take away from Kaley's story.

The episode closes with a powerful discussion about parenting, love, and why human connection may be the strongest defense families have against platforms designed to exploit vulnerability.

If you followed this trial in real time — or if you’re just beginning to understand what these platforms are doing to children — this is an episode you won’t forget.

Here's a link to the actual verdict forms that the jury completed.

Video Editing expertly provided by Jacob Meade.

When parents log into Canvas, they expect homework assignments and grades — not ransom notes.

In this urgent episode, I spoke with attorney Andrew Liddell about the massive alleged breach involving Instructure and its learning management platform, Canvas, reportedly affecting thousands of schools and millions of students, teachers, and college faculty worldwide.

Here's a full list of the 8,000+ schools which were affected.

Andy breaks down:

• What Canvas is and why it’s used in so many schools
• How enormous amounts of student data are collected and shared
• What allegedly happened in the breach
• Why hackers targeted this information
• What exposed school data could mean for families long-term
• Why schools are becoming “soft targets” for cyberattacks
• What parents should do right now if their child’s school uses Canvas

The conversation also goes beyond this single breach and explores a larger question: Have schools quietly normalized mass surveillance of children through EdTech?

Andy explains why privacy isn’t just about secrecy — it’s about childhood itself.

“Privacy is the soil in which we grow.”

This episode is essential listening for parents, teachers, school administrators, and anyone concerned about the growing role of Big Tech in education.

Contact Andy's team at edtech.law to find out more about this lawsuit and others. Here's a direct link to their lawsuit against Instructure.

When kids are harmed online, the first question people ask is: “Where were the parents?”

In this episode of Scrolling 2 Death, we challenge that instinct—and expose why it is doing more harm than good.

Scrolling 2 Death host Nicki Petrossi is joined by Glen Pounder, Executive Vice President and Chief Safeguarding Officer at Scouting America, to unpack one of the most persistent myths in child safety: that better parenting can prevent online harm.

Drawing from his 30-year career combating crimes against children—and his recent article “The Comfort of Blame – and the Limits of Even the Best Parenting”—Glen shares what he’s seen firsthand: families who did everything right… and still had children targeted, groomed, and exploited online.

This conversation goes beyond surface-level advice and into the uncomfortable truth:

• Why parent blame is so appealing—and so dangerous
• How exploitation actually happens, even in attentive households
• The hidden cost of shame, silence, and misplaced responsibility
• And why this is not a parenting failure—it’s a systems failure

In the wake of major legal battles involving Meta and YouTube, this episode asks a harder question:

Who really benefits when we keep blaming parents instead of holding platforms accountable?

Because while families are being told to “do more,” tech companies continue to design environments that make harm easier—and harder to detect.

If we want to actually protect kids, we have to move beyond blame… and start demanding better systems.

#MyFriendToo Resource for Youth

In this eye-opening conversation, Nicki Petrossi sits down with neuroscientist Jared Cooney-Horvath to unpack the claims behind i-Ready—one of the most widely used EdTech tools in U.S. classrooms. What starts as a discussion of Nicki’s data privacy lawsuit quickly expands into a deeper investigation: does i-Ready actually help kids learn?

Jared breaks down the startling lack of credible, peer-reviewed research supporting i-Ready’s effectiveness, explaining how most claims rely on weak comparisons or company-backed studies. He reveals why “time on task” can be misleading, how EdTech companies shape persuasive narratives without solid evidence, and why human-led instruction consistently outperforms digital tools when it comes to real learning.

Together, they connect the dots between data privacy concerns and academic outcomes—arguing that if a product isn’t meaningfully improving learning, schools must question why it’s being used at all. The episode also explores the growing national momentum among parents, teachers, and districts pushing back on excessive screen time and demanding accountability from EdTech companies.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s really behind the tools your child is required to use in school, this conversation gives you the data—and the questions—you need to start pushing for answers.

Jared's Substack: i-Ready: 13 Million Students, Zero Meaningful Evidence

Parent-Teacher i-Ready Resource

In this mini-episode of Scrolling 2 Death, Nicki brought in Lila Byock to break down a major victory: the Los Angeles Unified School District has unanimously passed a sweeping new technology policy that limits screen use for students. After months of relentless advocacy from parents and teachers, the district is eliminating devices for its youngest learners, restricting platforms like YouTube, and setting clear screen time boundaries. They discuss what passed and how this moment could spark a nationwide shift in how schools use technology—and how you can bring these changes to your own district.

LAUSD's new policy linked here

Sign up at Schools Beyond Screens