Mother testifies about 'Kids over Clicks' social media bills in Michigan

on March 08, 2026

A mother is advocating for change after her 12-year-old daughter committed suicide in 2024.

Charay Gadd testified March 4 before the Michigan Senate Committee on Insurance, Finance and Consumer Protection, which is considering four bills aimed at protecting children online. The bills would prevent social media companies from showing addictive feeds or targeted ads to anyone under 16, regulate potentially harmful AI chatbots, mandate stricter data privacy and safety settings for minors, and give parents more control over their children's online accounts.

The legislative package, called Kids Over Clicks, includes Senate Bills 757 through 760. It was introduced by Sens. Darrin Camilleri, Kevin Hertel and Dayna Polehanki.

They were joined by legal, health and technology experts, as well as youth and parent advocates, to testify about the need for the legislation.

Gadd, an Ovid resident, shared a firsthand account of her 12-year-old daughter London, who died by suicide Aug. 1, 2024. As she spoke, her daughter Charleigh Gadd held a picture of London.

Gadd said London, who was preparing to enter the seventh grade at Ovid-Elsie Middle School, was exposed to harmful content on social media that contributed to her death.

She previously told The Argus-Press that online algorithms pushed self-harm and suicide-related content to her daughter, even when she was searching for something completely unrelated and harmless, such as alligator skin boots.

"What parents cannot see is what the algorithm chooses to deliver," Gadd said. "Platforms exploited her data and escalated what came next. Harmful design features took her down a rabbit hole to darker content … What do we believe happens to children whose frontal lobes are still developing when algorithms repeat and reinforce harmful content directly into their hands? This is algorithmic psychological conditioning and it's happening in bedrooms across the world."

Gadd said as a parent, she had social media rules and took London's phone at night. "And still the addictive algorithm found her."

At the time of her death, London had been in counseling, was taking medication and seemed to be doing better, Gadd said.

After the hearing, Gadd told The Argus-Press she felt it went well.

"I had two of the senators in tears," Gadd said. "I felt like my testimony was impactful. I teared up a few times. I tell people I didn't hide my love for her and I'm not going to hide my grief."

"For far too long, big tech has profited off of our kids and exposed them to harmful content," Camilleri said during the hearing. "Their privacy, safety and wellbeing has not been a priority of these social media platforms."

Senate Bill 757, called the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation Act, would prohibit social media companies from showing an addictive feed to a child without parental consent. It would also prevent social media companies from sending notifications to kids at night or during school hours from September to June. The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act (S7694A/A8148A) for New York was signed into law in 2024, restricts social media platforms from showing algorithmic, addictive feeds to users under 18 without parental consent.

"You see this on various platforms where you find an interest in one particular item on your social media feed, whether that's sports or music … It can continue to give you that type of material that you're looking for and send you down that rabbit hole for hours on end," Camilleri said. "We want to be in a place where we're curbing that addiction to the best of our ability."

Senate Bills 758 and 759, known as the Kids Code Act, would prohibit targeted ads or promotions of harmful products to children. They also would require social media companies to verify the age of users before showing such content.

"Together these two bills seek to strengthen data privacy protection for minors and require safer default settings on digital platforms while also putting parents back in the driver seat," Hertel said. "Giving them the power to protect their kids online just as they do in the real world … I'm here today as a parent as well. My wife and I constantly talk about how to approach the issue of technology and social media with our two boys. But this dilemma of if and when to introduce technology and social media into a child's life is one that parents all across our state are facing today."

Senate Bill 760, called the Leading Ethical AI Development Act, would prevent social media companies from providing artificial intelligence chatbots to children.

Several witnesses, including Bartlett Cleland of NetChoice, which represents several tech companies including X, Meta and YouTube, raised concerns that the bills violate the First Amendment.

"(Bill) 758 is unconstitutional and will expose Michigan taxpayers to costly litigation and frankly will never go into effect as it is written," Cleland said. "Laws with identical constitutional defects have already been challenged in federal court and they're all losing."

The committee did not take action March 4. If approved at a later date, the bills would move to the full Senate for debate and a vote before heading to the Michigan House of Representatives.

Gadd is also pushing for London's Law, a proposed bill that seeks to protect children before psychiatric medications are prescribed. The law would require clear, easy-to-understand consent forms, mandatory biological and genetic testing, and a trial of non-drug treatments such as therapy, exercise and family supports. It also calls for transparency through warnings on medication bottles and stricter reporting of adverse events.

The bill, currently in draft form, is sponsored by Rep. Brian BeGole and will need a committee evaluation before moving to the full Senate for a vote.

"It takes some time to get a committee hearing from what I'm hearing," Gadd said. "But I'm a very patient person. If we're getting change, no matter the time, it's a victory for all of us."

The Gadd family is one of more than 300 involved in a lawsuit over social media's effect on children — the same case in which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified last month. Gadd said she plans to travel to California to appear in Los Angeles County Superior Court with other survivor parents.