Scrolling 2 Death

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 continues to ignore one of the most urgent child protection issues on its platform: the presence of known child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in iCloud.

Sarah shares her decade-long experience pushing Apple to address the problem, including behind-the-scenes conversations with the company, Apple's abandoned 2021 CSAM detection initiative, and the ongoing debate between privacy and child protection. The discussion also explores Apple's role in hosting AI nudify apps, concerns about App Store safety, and the direct-action campaigns that have brought survivors, advocates, and national media attention to Apple's doorstep.

Sign the petition asking Apple to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse material.

The hosts break down Apple's latest child safety announcements, what they could mean for families, and why advocates say parents should wait for independent testing before assuming the new protections will work as promised.

If one of the world's most powerful technology companies can't find a way to protect both privacy and children, what does that mean for the rest of the tech industry?

In this episode:
Apple's history of refusing to detect known CSAM in iCloud
Why child safety advocates supported Apple's abandoned 2021 detection plan
The scale of online child sexual abuse material and its impact on survivors
Apple's App Store, AI nudify apps, and deepfake child exploitation concerns
The direct-action campaigns pressuring Apple to change
A breakdown of Apple's newly announced parental controls and safety features
What parents should know before trusting Big Tech's safety promises

The Heat is On is a Scrolling 2 Death production in partnership with Heat Initiative.

Editing provided by Jacob Meade.

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 cyberbullying 
3.74% encountered instances of depression
7.46% encountered discussion or content related to suicidal ideation, imminent suicide or self-harm
39.83% of students encountered violent content
22% were exposed to drug-related content
10.77% encountered sexual content
11.64% encountered medically-concerning content
2.69% encountered hate speech
0.23% encountered body image content
1.79% encountered anxiety-related content

They discuss how students are using Google Docs like disappearing-message apps, why schools are struggling to keep up, and what parents can do right now to better protect their children.

This episode is a wake-up call for parents, educators, school administrators, and policymakers about the unintended consequences of putting addictive, poorly protected technology into children’s hands.

Get Bark for Schools (for free!)
Get the Bark Phone
Parents Templates and Resources at Tech-Safe Learning

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 over one central question: did these platforms knowingly build products that addict children, like Kaley?

In this deeply personal interview, Mark breaks down exactly how the case was won, why Snapchat and TikTok settled just before trial, and what the jury ultimately decided about Kaley, the young woman at the center of the case. He also reveals shocking moments the public never saw — defense witnesses backing out, chaos inside the courthouse, the strategy behind avoiding a billion-dollar “runaway verdict,” and the cross-examinations that changed everything.

The episode also revisits some of the most unforgettable lines from the trial, responding directly to claims made in court by executives and attorneys from Meta and YouTube.

But this conversation is bigger than one verdict. It’s about children, addiction, grief, corporate power, and the parents fighting back against trillion-dollar tech companies. Mark shares what he believes this case means for the future of Big Tech accountability, why he calls it a defining trial of the 21st century, and the message he hopes families around the world take away from Kaley's story.

The episode closes with a powerful discussion about parenting, love, and why human connection may be the strongest defense families have against platforms designed to exploit vulnerability.

If you followed this trial in real time — or if you’re just beginning to understand what these platforms are doing to children — this is an episode you won’t forget.

Here's a link to the actual verdict forms that the jury completed.

Video Editing expertly provided by Jacob Meade.

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+ schools which were affected.

Andy breaks down:
What Canvas is and why it’s used in so many schools
How enormous amounts of student data are collected and shared
What allegedly happened in the breach
Why hackers targeted this information
What exposed school data could mean for families long-term
Why schools are becoming “soft targets” for cyberattacks
What parents should do right now if their child’s school uses Canvas

The conversation also goes beyond this single breach and explores a larger question: Have schools quietly normalized mass surveillance of children through EdTech?

Andy explains why privacy isn’t just about secrecy — it’s about childhood itself.

“Privacy is the soil in which we grow.”

This episode is essential listening for parents, teachers, school administrators, and anyone concerned about the growing role of Big Tech in education.

Contact Andy's team at edtech.law to find out more about this lawsuit and others. Here's a direct link to their lawsuit against Instructure.

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 safety: that better parenting can prevent online harm.

Drawing from his 30-year career combating crimes against children—and his recent article “The Comfort of Blame – and the Limits of Even the Best Parenting”—Glen shares what he’s seen firsthand: families who did everything right… and still had children targeted, groomed, and exploited online.

This conversation goes beyond surface-level advice and into the uncomfortable truth:
Why parent blame is so appealing—and so dangerous
How exploitation actually happens, even in attentive households
The hidden cost of shame, silence, and misplaced responsibility
And why this is not a parenting failure—it’s a systems failure

In the wake of major legal battles involving Meta and YouTube, this episode asks a harder question:

Who really benefits when we keep blaming parents instead of holding platforms accountable?

Because while families are being told to “do more,” tech companies continue to design environments that make harm easier—and harder to detect.

If we want to actually protect kids, we have to move beyond blame… and start demanding better systems.

#MyFriendToo Resource for Youth