Online child safety advocates urge California lawmakers to increase protections
SACRAMENTO — Julianna Arnold wasn’t alarmed when her teen daughter first joined Instagram.
Many people her age were using it. And her daughter Coco had a social life and other hobbies, like track and gymnastics, to balance out her time online.
“It was music and dancing videos and it seemed innocent,” said Arnold, who resides in Los Angeles, explaining that she would look over the content Coco watched.
But Arnold said a man used Instagram to target her daughter while they were living in New York in 2022, sending private messages and acting like a “big brother” to earn her trust. Two weeks after her 17th birthday, Coco met him near her home — and died after taking a fentanyl-laced fake Percocet that he provided.