US lawmakers grill Snap, TikTok, YouTube over child safety

San Francisco: Tech giants Snap, TikTok, and YouTube are being grilled by US senators over worries that their apps, like Facebook, are harmful to children.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, told the companies that everything they do is to add users, especially kids and keep them on apps for longer, reports CNET.
Blumenthal said he has heard from parents about the “rabbit hole” teenagers go down when they log onto Snap, TikTok and YouTube.
His office, which created accounts on TikTok and YouTube as part of their own research, also found that extreme dieting and eating disorder content is easy to find on these platforms.
“Like Big Tobacco, Big Tech has lured teens despite knowing its products can be harmful,” he said.
The hearing comes amid heightened scrutiny of social media giant Facebook, which is the subject of a series of stories based on leaked documents that suggest the company knows about the harm its platforms cause to the mental health of teenagers, as well as democracy and developing countries.