Casey Stefanski

Casey Stefanski is an American child safety advocate and the Executive Director of the Digital Childhood Alliance, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization founded in 2025. She is a mother of three and a retired collegiate athlete who has worked in child safety advocacy since 2012.^[1]

Prior to her current role, Stefanski spent over a decade at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), an organization focused on combating sexual exploitation. She held multiple positions, including Director of Development, Deputy Executive Director, and Senior Director of Global Partnerships and Events.^[1]

In April 2025, Stefanski became Executive Director of the newly founded Digital Childhood Alliance. The organization, formed as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit coalition, comprises more than 50 child advocacy organizations focused on making technology safer for children and empowering parents.^[2]

The Digital Childhood Alliance's primary legislative focus is the App Store Accountability Act (ASAA), which would require app stores to verify users' ages and obtain parental approval before minors can download apps or make purchases.^[3]

According to Stefanski, the ASAA aims to ensure compliance with COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and protect children from access to inappropriate content and applications.^[3]

In May 2025, Stefanski faced scrutiny over undisclosed tech company funding after refusing to answer direct questions about the organization's donors.

During testimony before the Louisiana State Senate Finance Committee on May 29, 2025, Louisiana Senator Jay Morris directly asked Stefanski, "Are you funded by tech companies?" Stefanski initially deflected and claimed she felt uncomfortable answering the question. When pressed for a direct yes-or-no answer, she eventually acknowledged that the Digital Childhood Alliance receives funding from tech companies but refused to identify which ones.^[4]

"Are you funded by tech companies?" Morris asked. Stefanski "squirmed, deflected and claimed she 'didn't feel comfortable' answering." When Morris pressed for a simple yes or no answer, Stefanski eventually admitted they receive tech company funding but flatly refused to name which companies.

When Senator Morris asked, "So, you're not going to tell us who's actually supporting it?" Stefanski declined to provide specifics beyond naming the father of the Digital Childhood Alliance's founder as the organization's largest individual donor.^[4]

In December 2025, investigative reporting revealed that Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) is a significant funder of the Digital Childhood Alliance—information that Stefanski had declined to disclose during her May 2025 legislative testimony.^[5]

According to reporting, Meta also acknowledged having "collaborated with Digital Childhood Alliance."^[5] Multiple sources, including Insurance Journal, documented that Meta is helping fund the organization.^[6]

Critics have raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest, arguing that Stefanski's organization is advocating for policies that directly benefit its largest funder, Meta, while claiming to represent independent child safety advocacy.^[5]

The concern centers on the App Store Accountability Act, which would require comprehensive age verification systems at app stores. Critics argue that such systems disproportionately burden Meta's smaller competitors while benefiting Meta, which already has extensive verification and data collection infrastructure.^[5]

The organization claiming to represent concerned parents is quietly funded by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The same company whose own internal research proved its platforms devastate teenage girls' mental health is now bankrolling campaigns that blame everyone except itself.

Critics contend that the ASAA "accomplishes nothing except creating expensive verification systems that Meta's competitors must build and pay for."^[5]

The Digital Childhood Alliance's organization as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit allows it to engage in unlimited political advocacy and lobbying while not being required to publicly disclose its donors.^[4] This legal structure explains why Stefanski was able to decline answering questions about her organization's funding sources during legislative testimony.

Stefanski has stated that parental controls and existing tools are insufficient to protect children online, arguing that technology companies currently treat 13-year-olds as adults on their platforms. She has advocated for raising the age of digital accountability to 16.^[7]

Regarding app stores specifically, Stefanski has characterized them as "digital gatekeepers of our children's lives" that "control what gets through, but until now, they've had zero accountability."^[8]