U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, an Ohio Republican, sponsored legislation requiring large social media platforms to permit parents to receive real-time safety notifications if their children are engaging in dangerous or risky interactions.

The bipartisan Sammy’s Law — with U.S. Sens. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican, as the two other lead sponsors — is named for Sammy Chapman, a 16-year-old California boy who died in February 2021 when he was approached by a drug dealer through social media who delivered drugs to him at his home laced with a lethal dose of fentanyl.

Husted said, “In Ohio and across the country, criminals are using social media to target our children — selling them dangerous drugs and exploiting them through sextortion while trying to bypass parents and other trusted adults.”

Husted pointed to James Wood, a 17-year-old from Streetsboro who committed suicide in November 2022 after becoming a victim of sextortion through social media.

Husted said, “Parents deserve to know what their kids are exposed to online and have the ability to protect them and save lives. Sammy’s Law would put that authority back where it belongs — with families — and give parents the tools they need to keep their children safe.”

The bill would require social media platforms that either have 100 million monthly active users or garner $1 billion in gross revenue annually to make real-time application programming interfaces accessible to third-party safety software providers registered with the Federal Trade Commission.

Parents of children under the age of 13 or minors at least 13 years of age could authorize those providers to monitor accounts and provide alerts when instances or phrases arise that indicate eating disorders, suicidal feelings, anxiety, depression, violence, substance abuse, fraud, sexual abuse, physical injury, sexual harassment, terrorism and child pornography.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a version of the same bill earlier this month. That bill awaits a vote by the full House.

Husted has introduced other bills designed to increase protections for minors on social media.

In January, he introduced the No Fentanyl on Social Media Act that would direct the FTC to report to Congress on minors’ access to fentanyl through social media with recommendations to address the issue.

In September, Husted introduced the Children Harmed by AI Technology Act that would require owners and operators of artificial intelligence companion chatbots to bar minors from accessing sexually explicit content and implement age verification and safety measures to ensure that minors cannot access chatbots without parental consent.