Suicide Prevention Month: Ten Years Without Morgan
By Kris Cahak
This summer marked 10 years since the day I lost my beautiful daughter, Morgan, forever 15, to suicide. Morgan was a brilliant, spirited teen, a straight-A student, a joyful choir singer, a passionate cross-country runner, and an aspiring marine biologist. Her warmth and charisma drew people in, and I like to say she truly lived life out loud.
Morgan’s story is not unique, and that’s why this issue is so urgent. I believe that had KOSA been in place, it could have made a real difference for Morgan.
After Morgan's death, I learned that social media largely contributed to her depression, anxiety, and thoughts of self-harm and suicide. Since then, I have met other survivor parents who have also lost children to suicide, all our stories connected to Big Tech’s exploitative algorithms that are designed to attract users to various social media channels and keep them there. Algorithms so precise, insidious, and cutting-edge that a developing teenage brain is no match for them.
So, it only makes sense that this Suicide Prevention Month, we turn our heartbreak into impact and urge our leaders in Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) without delay.
Morgan encountered these algorithms on platforms like Instagram and Tumblr. There, she was inundated with posts glorifying self-harm and suicide that eroded her self-belief, and took her down a digital rabbit hole drenched in darkness.
Ten years on, the pain of losing Morgan remains ever-present. I wish I could say that the public is more aware of online harms, that new protections have been put in place since Morgan’s passing. But there has been little progress, despite KOSA claiming a decisive 91-3 victory in the Senate in July 2024.
That’s why I continue to share Morgan’s story, with the hope of turning my grief into meaningful action. We need Congress to pass KOSA now. This legislation would assign a “duty of care” to platforms and enforce stricter default safety and privacy settings on social media for kids. And it will require recommendation algorithms to be off by default, so that kids won’t be bombarded with posts promoting suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders.
Morgan’s story is not unique, and that’s why this issue is so urgent. I believe that had KOSA been in place, it could have made a real difference for Morgan.
This Suicide Prevention Month, I urge you to write to your members of Congress and tell them to pass KOSA, protect our kids from online harms, and protect our country’s future.
