News Investigation

Keep It Digitally Safe Campaign Inspires State Legislation to Keep Kids Safer on Social Media

Mar 2025 🇺🇸 ABC13 / KTRK-TV Houston

Suicide and self-harm are complex and never caused by one factor alone. Problematic screen use, cyberbullying, harmful content, and online exploitation may increase risk or intensify existing distress. If someone is in immediate danger or emotional crisis in the United States, call or text 988.

Outside the U.S.? Find your local helpline at findahelpline.com.

This ABC13 Houston (KTRK-TV) news report by Briana Conner follows Maurine Molak to Austin as she met with Texas state legislators to support House Bill 499's proposed social-media warning-label requirement. The report recaps Molak's founding of David's Legacy Foundation after her son David's death by suicide nine years earlier, which the article associates with cyberbullying he experienced, and describes the foundation's pro bono legal assistance to what the report says are hundreds of families a year dealing with cyberbullying cases. TechKids Foundation cites this as a 2025 example of Molak's advocacy extending from federal to state-level legislation; the report describes in-person meetings with lawmakers rather than sworn committee testimony, and this entry does not claim otherwise.

Hundreds of families assisted annually

ABC13 reports that David's Legacy Foundation provides pro bono legal assistance to what it describes as hundreds of families a year dealing with cyberbullying cases.

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CITATION

Conner, Briana. "Keep It Digitally Safe Campaign Inspires State Legislation to Keep Kids Safer on Social Media." ABC13 Eyewitness News (KTRK-TV Houston), March 28, 2025. https://abc13.com/post/keep-digitally-safe-campaign-inspires-texas-state-legislation-kids-safer-social-media/16091618/

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