i m anderson cooper. you may have heard the u.s. surgeon general issued a warning that social media carries what he called a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescence. it s something all of us who are parents are worried about. because of a law passed in the mid-1990s, social media companies are shielded from almost all responsibility for the content their users post, no matter how untrue or harmful it may be. but now with billions of people online, the question is, have things spiraled out of control? we spoke with three families who are taking on some of the biggest social media companies in an uphill legal battle in an effort to change the way the internet works. some of the topics in the next hour including eating disorders and suicide and can be disturbing to watch. good morning. are you getting on, mom? yeah, let s get on. reporter: a tour bus through washington in spring is typically full of kids. oh, my. reporter
human behind the humor. thanks for joining us for the whole story. i m anderson cooper. you may have heard the u.s. surgeon general issued a warning that social media carries what he called a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescence. it s something all of us who are parents are worried about. because of a law passed in the mid-1990s, social media companies are shielded from almost all responsibility for the content their users post, no matter how untrue or harmful it may be. but now with billions of people online, the question is, have things spiraled out of control? especially when it comes to kids. we spoke with three families who are taking on some of the biggest social media companies in an uphill legal battle in an effort to change the way the internet works. we want to mention some of the topics in the next hour including eating disorders and suicide and can be disturbing to watch. good morning. are you getting on, mo
california s age bill. young people have suffered greatly, emotionally and mentally. the bill itself is designed to make sure that the way a child interacts with these apps, it s designed with the highest privacy and safety settings available, so things like 24-hour scroll would be disabled, things like letting an adult dm a minor if the minor does not follow an adult back. turning off location. reporter: emmy is a college student and occasional lobbyist at the state capital, unafraid to tell her own cyberbullying story. i started searching up my classmates profiles and scrolled down and notice that every once in awhile on multiple kids profiles were pictures that kids had secretly taken of me. and so there were pictures calling me fat, calling me ugly, calling me stupid, saying that i was this, that and everything else. reporter: she says she was
disabled, things like letting an adult dm a minor if the minor does not follow an adult back. turning off location. reporter: emmy is a college student, unafraid to tell her own cyber bullying story. i started searching up my classmates profiles and scrolled down and notice that every once in awhile on multiple kids profiles were pictures that kids had secretly taken of me. and so there were pictures calling me fat, calling me ugly, calling me stupid, saying that i was this, that and everything else. reporter: she says she was cyber bullied three separate times. the last time as a freshman in high school. i want to make sure you have this reporter: emmy and these other young women are pushing for another bill that would forbid social media platforms for designing addictive algorithms or facilitating drug
jesse: make references on this network, they have to be references that people know about. dana: harold? harold: get american born with down syndrome and never let anything get in her way of doing what she s to do. when she struggled to find a job she decided to turn passion for baking into own business. she launched cookies. made $1.2 million and employed 15 people. and she sent us some cookies to try so collette, thank you and beth to you. greg: making me fat. dana: supply chain crisis wreaked havoc on christmas including for harold s gift. watch this. dana: there is a supply chain wish your gift, harold. they were supposed to have our faces on the golf ball. we know you love golf. they will be coming. dana: gorgeous. they arrived. there you go, harold. this is your gift.