ParentsTogether Action

Campaigns

• Emergency! Don't let Donald Trump cut PBS Kids

  As a parent of two young kids, I'm so grateful for PBS Kids, which provides free shows and games my kids love--and helps them learn. But news reports say that for the third year in a row, Donald Trump's team is planning on slashing funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a primary funder of PBS. In his 2020 budget proposal, the federal government would cut funding to CPB by 90% in the first year alone. PBS Kids includes so many great shows, like Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Thomas and Friends, and Dinosaur Train. PBS Kids and other public media reach 68% of all kids age two to eight. These shows are especially important for low-income and underserved children who do not attend pre-school. PBS funding is a minuscule fraction of the federal budget. **We should be expanding our investments in early childhood education, not cutting proven supports for our littlest learners.** Donald Trump can't make these cuts unless Congress agrees. Let's make sure they hear from millions of parents and others who know the value of PBS and CPB. Please share this and help my organization, ParentsTogether Action, spread the word!!

  328,864 of 400,000 Signatures

  Created by Justin Ruben
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  Stop Child Marriage!

  A new report found that hundreds of thousands of children were married in the US over the past 20 years. These children are usually girls and usually marry adult men. Some are even forced to marry their own rapists. Children married to adults face high rates of abuse, as well as losing opportunities for education and careers. They are not protected by laws against statutory rape, and often cannot turn to local Child Protective Services Agencies or agencies meant to protect adult victims of abuse. Five states have banned this, but it’s perfectly legal in most. We need to stop letting these children slip through the cracks - Congress should make these marriages illegal.

  221 of 300 Signatures

  Created by Raz Pollex
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  Andy Jassy & Amazon: Stop Hosting Child Pornography

  CSAM is a global crisis that exists in every corner of the internet. Increasingly, these horrific images feature very young children --infants and toddlers -- and are growing more violent and extreme. The coronavirus pandemic has created an explosion of CSAM, with reports increasing 400% over the past few months. Last year tech companies made 17 million reports of CSAM. Of those 17 million, Amazon made 8. Other big companies made hundreds of thousands to millions of reports, but Amazon, with the third of the internet they control, only made 8 reports. By failing to find and report CSAM, Amazon is hurting kids and creating a safe space for child predators to buy, sell, store, and share these illegal images. Amazon's refusal to report CSAM is part of a growing trend of big tech companies pushing the full responsibility of keeping kids safe online onto parents -- many of whom are now in the impossible position of working, parenting, teaching, and policing technology all at the same time. Tech companies like Amazon are making billions off families, and they must share the responsibility to keep kids safe. By proactively searching for and reporting CSAM photos and videos, Amazon could save thousands of children from abuse and revictimization. Parents across the country are demanding Amazon do their part to keep kids safe online by finding and reporting CSAM.

  41,159 of 45,000 Signatures

  Created by Amanda Kloer
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  Petition: Stop Apple giving kids access to chat-with-strangers apps

  Personal stories underscore the danger posed to kids by such apps. After confiscating her 14-year-old daughter’s phone, one mom was shocked to find a flood of sexually explicit photos from older men delivered via stranger-chat app Yubo, many pressuring her to reciprocate. Reviews on the App Store detail how many of these apps are filled with people asking for sexually explicit images. At a minimum, Apple must: - Block anyone whose Apple ID shows they are underage from adult-only apps - Require that adult apps institute substantive age verification processes and close loopholes that allow them to ignore evidence that a user is underage. - Enforce Apple’s own guidelines and remove chat roulette apps from the App Store

  127 of 200 Signatures

  Created by Justin Ruben
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  Petition: Don't Let Child Pornography Thrive on Android!

  Apple recently announced an important new step in the fight against child sexual abuse: they’ll scan all new iPhones for CSAM and report it. This change means abuse can be discovered much sooner -- not days or weeks after when images are uploaded or shared -- and could save child victims and protect their privacy. These scans are done entirely by machines that exclusively look for a “digital fingerprint” of abusive material and flag it as potentially illegal -- a solution that balances the welfare and privacy of kids with that of iPhone users. Android phones, owned and operated by Google, don’t have the same device scanning in place. Users must upload photos to a service for abusive images to be detected -- allowing millions of images to be shared stealthily and victims to go undetected for longer. Google, stop failing kids and start scanning for CSAM on Android devices.

  431 of 500 Signatures

  Created by Justin Ruben
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  Stop forcing teachers to lie about racism.

  Since the Black Lives Matter protests erupted last summer, we’ve been in the midst of a national moment of reckoning around our painful history of racial exclusion. This has been driven in paet by brave young people asking tough questions and speaking out for justice. But in Republican-led states across the country, Legislatures have been responding by trying to ban teachers and students from even having the conversation. New laws, and bills under consideration in states like Idaho, Texas and Oklahoma would ban teachers from teaching about current events like Black Lives Matter, or even talking about systemic racism. Kids should be learning to think critically in school - and to understand the full history of our country, even the painful parts. And our politicians should be focused on helping students and teachers who are still struggling with fallout from COVID--rather than punishing teachers for speaking the truth.

  6,062 of 7,000 Signatures

  Created by Justin Ruben
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  Biden: Let immigrants reunite with their families

  There is a staggering 40% MORE migrants being detained now than during the Trump administration. Most of them -- over 80% -- are being held in dangerous private prisons. Since 2016, over 50 immigrants have died while being detained in government custody, most from medical neglect. Private prison companies like Core Civic and Geo Group are making MILLIONS off this crisis -- holding government contracts of over $85 billion and $121 billion. Many recent migrants are parents and young adults attempting to reunite with family members already here in the U.S. Immigrants should be reunited with their families -- NOT dying in detention. We demand that President Biden cuts government ties with ALL private companies, including immigration detention.

  255 of 300 Signatures

  Created by Sarah Manasrah
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  Congress: Make school buses electric!

  Did you know that tens of millions of kids breathe polluted air every day on their way to school? It’s true – and it’s because their school buses run highly-polluting diesel fuel. And we know air pollution can cause major health problems for children! Now, a new bill has been introduced in Congress that would replace these dirty diesel buses with clean electric buses. If passed, it would help protect kids from air pollution AND help fight climate change. The Clean School Bus Act would make major investments in replacing the nation’s fleet of diesel school buses with zero-emission electric buses. Even better, it would prioritize low-income school districts for funding.

  284 of 300 Signatures

  Created by Josh Nelson
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  Disney: Have PRIDE! Show kids and families an LGBTQ main character!

  Research consistently shows that media representation matters, especially for kids, who take their cues for how they are allowed to show up in the world from the movies and shows they watch. By prominently featuring an LGBTQ child or family in a major show or film, Disney would be sending a powerful message to queer kids and families that they belong, are normal, and are heroes in their own right. They would also be modeling for all kids and families that LGBTQ people are important, valuable, and worthy of respect.

  252 of 300 Signatures

  Created by Justin Ruben
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  Stop the disproportionate punishment of Black girls in schools

  Black girls are suspended from school SIX TIMES more often than white girls. It’s deeply unfair. Now, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley is fighting back with a new bill that seeks to end the disproportionate punishment of girls of color in schools. Rep. Pressley’s Ending PUSHOUT Act would provide extra funding to schools that ban unfair and discriminatory school discipline practices, and create a task force to study the problem. It’s a huge step toward ensuring that our schools are safe and fair learning environments for ALL kids. As Rep. Pressley said when she introduced the bill, “our schools should be spaces for learning and growth, but for far too many Black and brown girls, interactions with racist dress code policies and law enforcement in our schools define their experience.”

  264 of 300 Signatures

  Created by Josh Nelson