Scrolling 2 Death

This week, Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner take listeners to Washington, D.C., following an emotional and powerful Social Media Victims Remembrance Day (SMVRD)—a day dedicated to honoring the children lost to social media harms and the families fighting to prevent more names from being added to the memorial each year. The episode explores why families, advocates, and lawmakers gathered on Capitol...

What really happens when a 13-year-old joins Snapchat? In this episode, we break down a disturbing new investigation from ParentsTogether Action and Heat Initiative that followed two avatar accounts posing as 7th graders on Snapchat for just one week — and what researchers found is deeply alarming. The report claims Snapchat recommended hundreds of unsafe videos to the teen accounts, including dru...

Apple wants parents to celebrate its latest parental control updates. But child safety advocates aren't buying the hype. In this episode, I brought in Titania Jordan of  Bark Technologies  and Chris McKenna of  Protect Young Eyes  to separate PR from reality. They discuss why Apple's changes arrived only after mounting lawsuits and legislative pressure, what the company still isn't doi...

Apple has built its brand on privacy, trust, and innovation. But when it comes to protecting children, has the company done enough? In this episode of  The Heat Is On , hosts Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner examine Apple's long and controversial history with child safety. While Apple recently announced new parental controls and family safety features at WWDC 2026, critics say the company cont...

When schools hand children Chromebooks, iPads, Google accounts, and Microsoft Teams access, what’s really happening behind the screen? In this eye-opening conversation, Titania Jordan joins Nicki Petrossi to reveal alarming new data from Bark Technologies’s monitoring of school-issued technology used by millions of students across the U.S. The findings are staggering: 12% of children encountered c...

Legendary trial attorney Mark Lanier joins Nicki and Sarah for an emotional, behind-the-scenes look at the landmark social media addiction trial that ended in a jury verdict against Meta and YouTube. For nearly two months, we sat inside the Los Angeles courtroom documenting every moment — filling 589 pages of notes as grieving parents, advocates, reporters, jurors, and teams of attorneys battled o...

When parents log into Canvas, they expect homework assignments and grades — not ransom notes. In this urgent episode, I spoke with attorney Andrew Liddell about the massive alleged breach involving Instructure and its learning management platform, Canvas, reportedly affecting thousands of schools and millions of students, teachers, and college faculty worldwide. Here's a full list of the 8,000...

When kids are harmed online, the first question people ask is:  “Where were the parents?” In this episode of  Scrolling 2 Death , we challenge that instinct—and expose why it is doing more harm than good. Scrolling 2 Death host Nicki Petrossi is joined by Glen Pounder, Executive Vice President and Chief Safeguarding Officer at Scouting America, to unpack one of the most persistent myths in child s...

In this eye-opening conversation, Nicki Petrossi sits down with neuroscientist Jared Cooney-Horvath to unpack the claims behind i-Ready—one of the most widely used EdTech tools in U.S. classrooms. What starts as a discussion of Nicki’s data privacy lawsuit quickly expands into a deeper investigation: does i-Ready actually help kids learn? Jared breaks down the startling lack of credible, peer-revi...

In this mini-episode of Scrolling 2 Death, Nicki brought in Lila Byock to break down a major victory: the Los Angeles Unified School District has unanimously passed a sweeping new technology policy that limits screen use for students. After months of relentless advocacy from parents and teachers, the district is eliminating devices for its youngest learners, restricting platforms like YouTube, and...

So…I’ve sued another EdTech company.  Here's a direct link to information on the lawsuit . This time, it’s Curriculum Associates — the multi-billion-dollar maker of i-Ready, used by more than 14 million children in grades K–8, including my own. In this episode, I break down why we’ve filed a lawsuit alleging that Curriculum Associates’ core business model depends on harvesting massive amounts...

On March 25, 2026, after eight days of deliberation, the jury reached a verdict in the first bellwether trial against Meta and YouTube. The verdict: The jury ruled in favor of Kaley on all counts. Scroll down to the bottom of this description for the full verdict. This week, we take you inside the final, nerve-wracking days in the hallway and courtroom — the jury questions about expert testimony,...

This week on  The Heat is On…Big Tech on Trial , we reached a turning point. After weeks of testimony, we heard from the final witnesses — including Meta’s paid medical expert, internal researchers, and YouTube leadership. New details emerged about deleted watch history data, internal warnings about teen risk, and what company executives knew about under-13 enforcement. Then came closing arguments...

This week inside the courtroom, science took center stage — and the stakes were higher than ever. Dr. Kara Bagot, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who helped develop the NIH’s landmark ABCD brain study, spent five days on the stand. She testified that to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, Kaley developed social media addiction — and that YouTube acted as the “gateway,” beginning at just si...

What really happens inside one of the most powerful companies in the world? This week, we sit down with  Brian Boland , a former senior leader at Facebook (pre-Meta), who spent more than a decade helping build and scale Facebook and Instagram's advertising systems — and later testified in court about what he saw. Brian was in the courtroom for nearly five hours. In this candid conversation, he...

This week, we’re joined by Meta whistleblower Brian Boland, who appeared as a witness in this trial, and law student Christine Almadjian, who has spent hours inside the courtroom watching this case unfold. Christine is also a legislative consultant with END OSEAC. Thousands of families, school districts, and dozens of states have filed consolidated lawsuits against TikTok, YouTube, Meta, and Snap...

This week on  The Heat is On…Big Tech on Trial , the spotlight was on  Mark Zuckerberg  — but it didn’t stay there for long. Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner take you inside a dramatic week in court as Zuckerberg faced questioning about youth safety, platform design, and internal company practices — followed by testimony from a former insider whose statements directly conflicted with his. In this...

Week 3 marks a turning point inside the courtroom: opening statements begin, the first witnesses take the stand, and the stakes become unmistakably real. Hosts Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner (of Heat Initiative ) bring you inside the proceedings as plaintiffs and defense lay out competing narratives about what happened to Kaley—and what responsibility tech giants bear. Plaintiff attorney  Mark L...

This bonus episode of  The Heat is On… Big Tech on Trial  slows down to hold space for the weight of this moment. Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner are joined by Brandy and Toney Roberts, parents of 14-year-old Englyn Roberts, whose life was cut short after being exposed to harmful content on Instagram and other social media platforms. What unfolds is not just a conversation about Meta’s technology...

Week 2 inside the courtroom didn’t unfold the way anyone expected. Just as jury selection was set to continue, the judge announced a sudden pause—triggered by illness, followed by a denied request from Meta to delay the trial for 30 days. What does a delay really mean in a case like this? And who benefits when time is bought? In this episode of  The Heat is On…Big Tech on Trial , hosts Nicki Petro...

The courtroom doors are open—and the stakes couldn’t be higher. In this Week 1 recap of  The Heat is On…Big Tech on Trial , we take you inside the very beginning of what some are calling  the tobacco trials of our generation : the first case in the social media addiction litigation, where some of the most powerful companies in the world—Meta and YouTube—are facing off against a child. This week wa...

The Calm Before the Storm — What This Trial Means for Parents What happens when families finally take Big Tech to court—and win the right to be heard? In the premiere episode of  The Heat Is On… Big Tech on Trial , hosts Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner take parents inside what some are calling the trial of the century: consolidated lawsuits brought by thousands of families, school districts, and...

In this episode of  Scrolling 2 Death , I’m joined by  Emily Cherkin , known as  The Screentime Consultant —a leading voice pushing back against the digitization, commodification, and gamification of childhood. Emily is a best-selling author, professor, speaker, and  lead plaintiff in lawsuits challenging EdTech’s exploitation of children’s privacy . This week, she’s taking that fight straight to...

What happens when artificial intelligence stops acting like a tool—and starts acting like a  friend ? In this episode of  Scrolling 2 Death , I’m joined by  Sam Hiner , founder of  Young People's Alliance , a national youth-led organization organizing across 55 college campuses to take on Big Tech and protect the next generation. Sam began cold-calling lawmakers  as a high school student  duri...

What happens when a school-issued Chromebook starts talking to your child—without permission? In this episode of  Scrolling 2 Death , Nicki is joined by  Julie Frumin , a mental health professional, mom, and education safety advocate in Southern California, who shares her shocking experience navigating school-issued devices, hidden AI chatbots, and a system that told her she had only two choices: ...