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We Must Stand With These Families
Last year, I attended Social Media Victims & Harms Remembrance Day to stand with survivor parents whose children lost their lives to harms connected to social media platforms.
Looking into the faces of grieving mothers and fathers… hearing the stories behind the photos… seeing children as young as 10 years old memorialized because of suicide, sextortion, cyberbullying, fentanyl poisoning, exploitation, and other digital harms - there is nothing we can say to these parents and grandparents to alleviate their pain.
These are not statistics.
These are sons. These are daughters.
These are bedrooms left empty.
These are parents living every day with unimaginable grief.
The harshest truth of all is this:
Any one of us could become a survivor parent.
If your child has a phone and access to social media, they are being exposed to systems that can influence, exploit, isolate, manipulate, and harm them in ways most parents still do not fully understand.
That is not fearmongering. That is reality.
The Stories Behind the Day
Social Media Victims & Harms Remembrance Day (SMVRD) was created by families who lost children to harms connected to platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and others.
Their Stories
- One boy was relentlessly cyberbullied through anonymous apps until it became too much to bear.
- Another connected with a drug dealer through social media and unknowingly purchased a fentanyl-laced pill that killed him.
- Young girls are taking their lives because they don't know their God-given value.
These are not isolated tragedies. They are warnings.
This is why Sacred Stewardship continues to say:
This is no longer just about screen time.
It is about identity formation, emotional vulnerability, access, exposure, and systems designed for engagement and profit at any cost.
What Struck Me Most
What struck me most was not only the grief. It was the isolation many of these parents still carry and the continued kick in the teeth by Big Tech and political leaders who refuse to step up and pass legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act.
These parents are out on the frontlines fighting for US...
so that WE do not have to bear the unimaginable suffering that they have endured.
My hope for this year is that many more "non-survivor parents" show up because they refuse to wait until tragedy touches their own home before paying attention.
We cannot continue treating these stories as someone else's problem.
It is time for parents, grandparents, churches, schools, and communities to stand with these families now before more children are lost.
✦ Join Me in Washington, DC ✦
Social Media Victims & Harms Remembrance Day
June 23, 2026
Come stand with these families. Come look at the faces. Come hear the stories. Come refuse to look away. Because awareness without action is no longer enough.
This Has to Stop
No Parent
should have to find their child dead in their bedroom because of cyberbullying.
No Teenager
should lose their life after one conversation with a drug dealer on Snapchat.
No Child
should believe suicide is their only escape from humiliation, exploitation, or despair.
We have a sacred responsibility to protect the next generation.
- Not perfectly.
- But courageously.
- Collectively.
- And before it is too late.
If you are able, join me in DC on June 23.
In remembrance of children lost to social media harms · smvrd.org
Because awareness without action is no longer enough
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Now Available - Updated Edition
Sacred Stewardship:
Restoring Moral Clarity in the Digital Age
Sacred Stewardship has been updated:
- New cover
- New industry SME endorsements
- Foreword and Note from Anti-Human Trafficking Expert
- Expanded resources
If you've already read it — thank you.
If it impacted you, a review helps more families find it.
If you haven't — this is your moment.
For parents, grandparents, pastors, and anyone who cares about the next generation.
Get your copy — and one to share:
A Prayer for Families and Children
Heavenly Father, We pray for every family carrying the unbearable grief of losing a child to digital harms. Surround these parents with Your comfort, strength, and peace in moments where words fail. We pray for the children who are struggling silently — those battling anxiety, isolation, bullying, exploitation, addiction, despair, and confusion behind screens. Give parents wisdom. Give churches courage. Give leaders moral clarity. And awaken our communities to the seriousness of what is happening to this generation. Help us not to look away. Help us not to normalize what is harming our children. Help us become protectors, truth-tellers, and restorers. May we reclaim our role in the formation of our children's hearts, minds, and identities. And may every child know that their life has value, purpose, dignity, and hope. In Jesus' name, Amen
