HARRISBURG — To help keep children safe from potential threats online, the week of Aug. 17-23 would be designated as Social Media Safety and Parental Awareness Week in Pennsylvania under a resolution introduced by Sen. Rosemary Brown (R-40).
“Children should be able to use technology to learn, connect and have fun without being targeted by predators or exposed to harmful content,” Brown said. “Social Media Safety and Parental Awareness Week gives families an opportunity to have important conversations, recognize the warning signs and learn how to better protect children in an increasingly digital world.”
First created last year, the week-long designation is the first of its kind in the country, encouraging parents, guardians and students to better understand potential threats in the digital world. These include growing dangers such as sextortion, cyberbullying, AI-generated child sexual abuse material, grooming and other forms of online exploitation.
In 2025, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline received 21.3 million reports of suspected child exploitation, up from 20.5 million the previous year.
The resolution builds on work by the legislature to address digital harms to children. In 2021, the General Assembly established the Task Force on Child Pornography, which led to significant reforms, including updates to statutory terminology to align with national standards. In 2024, the General Assembly passed Act 125 of 2024 to combat AI generated child sexual abuse materials (CSAM). In 2025, legislation classifying deepfakes as digital forgery was signed into law as Act 35 of 2025.
The Senate also recently approved Senate Bill 1050 to strengthen reporting requirements for AI-generated CSAM; Senate Bill 1090, which would establish commonsense safeguards for AI chatbots accessible by minors; and Senate Resolution 244, which establishes a new Task Force on Child Protection in the Digital Age to review Pennsylvania’s existing statutes, assess emerging technologies and identify gaps in protections for children online.