KSHB 41 anchor/reporter JuYeon Kim covers agricultural issues and the fentanyl crisis. Share your story idea with JuYeon.
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As thousands of students head back to school, federal law enforcement agencies warn children are being targeted via social media for drug distribution.
"Any way of communicating electronically these dealers are taking advantage of, because they know that's where the kids are," said Tony Mattivi, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. "There are emojis being used with drug meanings that even I can’t keep up with."
Mattivi says fentanyl is being distributed primarily over social media applications — usually Snapchat and Facebook Messenger.
While social media giants are starting to be cooperative, it will take all of them proactively getting on board to hold drug dealers accountable for their actions online.
"It’s very difficult for us to monitor. I mean, we can’t do a wire tap on a social media platform the way that we could on a cell phone," Mattivi said. "It’s hard to penalize a company the same way that you can penalize an individual, but we need something to get them to the table and to get them to help us get past this epidemic."
In addition to the inability to wire tap on social media platforms, encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Signal are completely immune to interception.
"Is there legislation to let us into that realm? Not that I’m aware of. Is there a need? Absolutely, we need to have those conversations," Mattivi said.
Libby Davis knows the dangers of social media better than anyone else.
She lost her 16-year-old son, Cooper, this way.
“We know that emojis are being used on social media apps to both buy and sell drugs," Davis said. "We believe that Cooper and his friends initially made their contact with this drug dealer prior to the day that Cooper died via Snapchat."
On the day Cooper died, he and his friends had bought two pills they thought were percocet.
His friends survived, but Cooper did not.
Toxicology reports later confirmed he had fentanyl in his system.
“Ourselves and many other families feel like not enough is being done by the social media companies to keep our kids safe," she said. "And that’s what this bill is written for."
The Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act is a bipartisan bill requiring social media companies to alert federal law enforcement when illicit drug dealing happens on their platforms.
It is currently being spearheaded through the Senate.
The Davis family did not get justice for Cooper’s death. His dealer was found not guilty.
But to honor his life, Davis and her husband started the Cooper Davis Memorial Foundation in hopes to educate others about the dangers of fentanyl and modes of distribution.
”We need to have something good come out of this, you know, we don’t want his death to be in vain," Davis said.
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