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Two Wisconsin mothers who lost children to social media-related deaths said a settlement with Meta Platforms is a small step forward, but they are among a growing number of parents who say legislation is needed to better protect kids from social media harms.
Late last month, Meta agreed to settle a multistate lawsuit that included Wisconsin. The company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, will pay the states a total of roughly $17.1 billion and make changes to how kids use its platforms. Wisconsin could receive up to $313 million in the settlement.
Madison mom Annie McGrath said the settlement is monumental, largely because of the non-monetary changes Meta plans to make. But for McGrath, whose 13-year-old son, Griffin, died in 2018 after participating in an online “choking” challenge, much more is needed.
McGrath said she’s glad the settlement requires Meta to make changes that “actually have a little impact. But it’s too little too late, and we still need the regulation in line, because that’s what will really change things.”
Annie McGrath of Madison, pictured here with her family, said a settlement with Meta is a step in the right direction but that lawmakers need to do more to protect kids online.
McGrath is a member of Parents for Safe Online Spaces, an advocacy group calling for more digital safeguards for children. She also is part of a lawsuit against YouTube. A U.S. District Court judge in California dismissed the lawsuit in 2025, but McGrath said she and the others who filed the suit plan to appeal that decision.
Carrie Baeten of Green Bay has also become an advocate for changes to social media after her 18-year-old son, Jack McDonough, died from a fentanyl overdose after buying what he believed was a Percocet pill over Facebook. Baeten, who also was part of a lawsuit against several social media companies including Meta, similarly said the tech giant’s settlement is only a starting place.
“There’s still no accountability. They haven’t taken any accountability for any of the harms. So just write a check and that’ll take care of everything. Everybody will forget all of the deaths and the tragedy that is associated with (their) platform,” Baeten said.
Both McGrath and Baeten have been advocating for a federal bill known as the Kids Online Safety Act, also known as KOSA. The bill would establish a “duty of care” for social media companies, requiring them to take reasonable measures to ensure their platforms don’t cause harm to minors.
“When they’re developing the algorithm, they actually have to think about kids. Like car dealerships do; you know, you need car seats in the car, they have to have back seat airbags and things like that to keep kids safe,” McGrath said. “Every other product has it. Every restaurant has a duty to care for their people. Every nursing home. And I don’t know why social media gets away with never having it all these years.”
Madison mother Annie McGrath, shown with her son Griffin who died at age 13, said “all kids are getting hurt by social media” and that more parents like her are beginning to call for stronger protections.
The bill would also require social media companies to conduct an annual audit of the possible harms its platforms caused to children, and they would be required to install more safeguards for minors, more parental controls, and create an improved system to report any harmful content.
KOSA passed the U.S. Senate in 2024 but didn’t advance any further, largely because some House members wanted a different version of the bill that excluded the “duty of care” element. The legislation was introduced again this session and was approved by a Senate committee last month, teeing it up for another vote from the full Senate this fall. Advocates like McGrath and Baeten are hopeful the legislation can be passed by the end of the year.
Both of Wisconsin’s senators, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, and Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican, voted in favor of the KOSA bill in 2024.
Similar bills have been proposed in Wisconsin’s Legislature but haven’t made it very far. State Rep. Joy Goeben, R-Hobart, introduced two bills this session that would have changed age verification requirements for certain apps and banned social media platforms from targeting minors with addictive features. Both of those bills passed the state Assembly earlier this year but did not receive a vote in the Senate.
‘Something real’
Both Baeten and McGrath said they have seen more parents join their causes in recent years as the harms of social media become more evident.
After Griffin McGrath, 13, died in 2018 after participating in a social media challenge, his mom Annie McGrath started advocating for stronger online protections for children.
“That piece of it was very healing, just because you have a community that understands what you’re going through,” Baeten said, saying she felt alone with the stigma around her son Jack’s death, and that not everyone at that time believed social media was causing any harm. “But just to see all the parents kind of come together and validate that this is a thing and it’s a much larger, malicious death machine.”
Jack’s death has raised awareness about the negative effects of social media, she said, calling it a “cobweb” that spread to her extended family and friends.
Baeten said she wants “something real” to come out of the Meta settlement money that Wisconsin will receive.
Wisconsin will receive annual installments of its settlement money from Meta starting in January. The state’s Department of Justice gets to decide how to spend the money, and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul said he wants to use it to support youth mental health initiatives like medical provider training and grants for schools.
McGrath and Baeten agree the money should go to support kids and their mental health.
“I think kids just need help,” McGrath said. “I can’t imagine growing up with social media, and I think we need some help for the kids, some counseling, and then we need some more education in schools.
“And then we need this federal law to pass so that … this isn’t so dangerous anymore,” McGrath said.
