BUFFALO, N.Y. — Christine McComas said her daughter Grace "had it all going on."

"Grace is the third of our four kids and she was literally born happy,” McComas said. “She was a bright life from birth.”

The teen was doing well in school, playing sports, involved in music and student government.

"She was not a kid that was at risk," McComas said. "She was not a kid I ever dreamed we could lose to suicide."

But she said at 14, Grace was the victim of a drug-assisted sexual assault followed by the most vicious cyber-bullying she's ever seen.

"’I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate you.’ Literally seven times. ‘I hope you see this and cry yourself to sleep and then wake up and kill yourself. You might as well. You're just a lousy piece of...’" McComas recited from memory some of the things said about her daughter online.

Grace McComas took her own life on Easter Sunday 2012. Within a year, Maryland passed Grace's Law, criminalizing cyber-bullying against a minor. But her mother said in the 12 years since, the internet has become an even more dangerous place. 

"The thing that really frustrates me is the Kids Online Safety Act," McComas said. "I absolutely know it will save lives."

Christine is a part of Parents for Safe Online Spaces, a group of 20 families who have all lost a child. They are working with national advocacy group Fairplay for Kids and others pushing the federal Kids Online Safety Act.

"So many of the harms that happen to children online and things that parents are so concerned about are preventable,” Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin said. “They are caused by deliberate design choices that these social media companies are making.”

He said KOSA is commonsense regulation. It would create a "duty of care," requiring companies prevent and mitigate harm to kids if the design of their platform, things like algorithms, is causing that harm.

"This is not a speech bill," Golin said. "It won't prevent any kid from saying anything to each other. It won't prevent them from finding any information online or from finding community."

The Senate passed the bill 93-1 last month but it is currently stalled in the House. Western New York Republican Congressman Nick Langworthy is skeptical it will reach a vote this year as lawmakers ensure the bill works as intended and is constitutional.

"We have to really thoroughly research legislation but 50 different versions of this isn't helpful either. A federal standard would be the way to go," Langworthy said.

However, McComas said the sooner the bill is passed, the more young lives will be saved.

"I feel like, for whatever reason, this is mine to do and I would like to get this law passed so I don't have to keep doing this, but I will keep doing this until something happens," she said.

Opposition has voiced concerns about First Amendment violations and barriers to kids in the LGBTQ+ community finding critical supports and resources. Advocates, however, said the bill has been carefully crafted and re-crafted to address those issues and argues much of the opposition is funded by Big Tech companies with ulterior motives.