This is a petition in support of SammyClassicSonicFan (aka SammyTanookiGamer), whose account was taken away by his mother, Danielle Thomas, on December 22nd, 2013. SammyClassicSonicFan was a young man (fifteen years old) with high-functioning Autism who was working to spread the love and joy of the Nintendo and Sega video game franchises through a series of creative videos which was loved by many, reaching almost 10,000 subscribers at his peak.

This however all changed in December, just days before Christmas, Sammy's account was revoked by his mother who said it was due to the fact that "Sammy was not capable of browsing the Internet due to his Autism." (refer to the image link at the bottom of the text).

This is an outright violation of Sammy's rights, as he has been discriminated on due to his disability by his own mother. His rights to free speech were also violated, as Sammy is known to commentate through the videos that his mother forced him to take down. Neautralising Sammy's email account is also a way of not allowing him what's even considered a basic form of communication, another violation of Sammy's rights. It's also noted that COPPA allows users over the age of thirteen to register without parental consent, thus meaning Sammy's mother shouldn't have been allowed control over the account.

With this petition, we hope to get Sammy back to making YouTube videos, allow him to send and receive emails (and register for sites, as most sites require email verification) and bring awareness to parents of autistic children to the fact that autistic people are capable of surfing the net on their own.

You can help bring attention to this petition by sharing on social networking sites, posting our "Free Sammy" image or changing your avatar to said image on social networking sites, informing friends about the petition, create videos for the petition, simply just state "Free Sammy". Try to think outside the box!

Screencap of Danielle stating her reasons for deleting Sammy's accounts through a Facebook message: http://i.cubeupload.com/KcxGnH.jpg

FREE SAMMY!