A Pennsylvania mom turns grief into a call to regulate social media and protect kids from online predators

“Right now we require standards for toys, car seats, food, but the platforms and devices that our children spend hours a day on have literally no standards.”

Thirteen-year-old Levi Maciejewski knew exactly who he wanted to be.

He was “a talented, curious, athletic, intelligent, sassy young man” who had already mapped out his future: career and tech school for a trade like carpentry or HVAC, then ROTC or an athletic scholarship to pay for college and finally business school so he could “run the operations while still knowing the trade,” his mother, Tricia said. 

Levi planned to stay in his Cumberland County community, work hard, and “live his best life.” He never got the chance.

After just a day and a half on social media as a brand new Instagram user, Levi was targeted in an online sextortion scheme. Hours later, he was gone.

“My son died as the victim of a crime he didn’t likely know existed, and neither did I,” Tricia said. “But the social media companies know.”

Tricia said she’s told Levi’s story many times, and she loves to talk about him, describing him as a boy who was hilarious, magnetic, and kind.

“He could relate to anyone and meet them on their level and make them feel heard and valued,” Tricia said. “He was my sidekick. He is missed in every moment that he didn’t get.” 

What changed their lives forever was not a long‑running secret life online, but a tiny window of vulnerability on a platform that had no meaningful guardrails for a new 13‑year‑old user. 

“He had social media for one and a half days,” Tricia said. “We had parental controls. He was under the age of 14, so he had to ask me just to put something on his phone. You heard me correctly, he had social media for less than two days of his life.”

What is sextortion?

When Levi passed away, Tricia had never heard the word sextortion.

“I learned the term sextortion five days after my son died,” Tricia said. “The education I received was not by choice.” 

Sextortion is a form of sexual exploitation in which a perpetrator blackmails or threatens to share a person’s private, nude, or sexual images. The FBI has warned that financially motivated sextortion targeting minors has exploded over the past few years, driven largely by online platforms that allow anonymous adults to reach minors instantly. 

The FBI has documented thousands of reports of sextortion involving minors and has directly tied multiple deaths to these schemes. 

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children receives millions of reports of suspected child sexual exploitation annually through its CyberTipline and has flagged a sharp rise in sextortion cases, particularly involving boys. 

According to the FBI, sextortion crimes thrive in the same dark corners of mainstream apps where Levi’s extortionists found him: places with minimal age checks, powerful recommendation systems, and almost no safety‑by‑design requirements.

What can be done?

This is not a parenting failure, Tricia said.

“Yes, we had parental controls in place,” she said. “Yes, we have device guidelines, they’re hanging on the fridge, but those things aren’t enough when the platforms and the devices are not designed to be safe. They are harmful in themselves.” 

In a report co-led by the former director of Facebook’s Protect and Care team, who has since become a whistleblower, several cybersecurity organizations across the US analyzed the effectiveness of social media’s safety features.

Researchers found that Instagram actively encourages teen users to enable “Disappearing Messages” through onscreen prompts and gamifies rewards for doing so. Once messages disappear, there is no recourse to report abuse.

Even with Teen Accounts set to the most restrictive sensitive content controls, algorithms showed them graphic sexual descriptions, cartoons depicting demeaning sexual acts, and nudity; reels showing people hit by cars, falling to their deaths, and graphically breaking bones; suicide and self-injury materials; and content feeding negative body image ideologies. Hitting the “Not Interested” button was completely ineffective.

Content showing teens engaging in risky sexualized behaviors was incentivized by the algorithms, and led to deeply distressing comments from adults—including sexually suggestive direct messages.

More and more grieving parents across the country are demanding that Big Tech be held accountable for their failed security measures. Meanwhile, Big Tech is getting bigger, with many lawmakers giving them passes in exchange for campaign donations. A Reuters report shows that Meta’s new AI bots are permitted to hold ‘sensual’ chats with minors, and right now Republicans in Congress are trying to stop state laws that protect residents from dangerous uses of AI. 

Pennsylvania is currently one of more than 30 states suing social media platforms, claiming they built addictive features while knowing their risks to children. 

Tricia compares social media to other products the nation regulates as a matter of basic child safety. 

“Right now we require standards for toys, car seats, food, but the platforms and devices that our children spend hours a day on have literally no standards,” Tricia said. “Pennsylvania can change that. 

“Our children are being targeted by predators, exposed to harmful content, drug menus. They’re pushing self‑harm and eating disorders, and they’re being manipulated because the platforms have been designed to be addictive. They’re not accidents. They’re the result of a design choice that prioritizes profit.” 

While she once believed that close supervision and rules were enough, Tricia now sees how that’s just simply not true. 

“Even the most vigilant parent can’t keep up with that, and it changes so quickly,” Tricia said. “You can’t compete with an algorithm.”

Tricia wants Pennsylvania to join a growing list of states advancing “kids’ code” laws—safety‑by‑design rules that force platforms to build products around child protection rather than engagement metrics. 

“Levi’s death was preventable. One hundred percent preventable,” Tricia said. “Pennsylvania legislators can prevent the next one.” 

Education, Tricia said, is also part of the solution. 

“Until [devices] are safe by design, we have to teach our children how to use them as safely as possible, just like we do a car,” Tricia said. “We teach them, we model for them. They practice, they take a test. If they don’t follow the laws, their privileges are revoked. Same rules should apply.”

The lasting effects of inaction 

Tricia’s life is now divided into a “before” and “after” she never wanted.

“I was a mom,” Tricia said. “I stayed in my lane. Being Levi’s mom has taken a shift. It’s now education and advocacy. No one would ever have chosen that, but my love for him continues. 

“Inaction is action. Doing nothing is a choice. And I don’t think Pennsylvania can make that choice. We can’t wait for a federal solution and we surely can’t depend on the platforms and the tech companies to solve the very, very solvable problems. Our kids deserve platforms and devices that are designed for their well‑being.” 

Levi once planned to become the kind of skilled worker Pennsylvania needs. Instead, Tricia now fights for laws that might ensure someone else’s son lives long enough to do all the ordinary things Levi never got to do. 

“I know what too late looks like,” Tricia said. “But it’s not too late for the kids in our state.”